Sunday, February 01, 2009

The Lost Car Debate

To mark my return to blogging after a 2-month hiatus, I thought I'd write a post that isn't really about me. For a few weeks now, I've been meaning to get back to writing, but I just haven't been very motivated. However, someone did something today that gave me the nudge I needed. She didn't so much inspire me, it's more like she provoked me.

My friend Sarah lost her car. Then she blamed me for it. Then she just started being ridiculous. Here's how it went down:

(Sarah, I know you're smirking right now. Stop it.)

I had left Sarah a voice mail earlier in the day, so a few hours later, she called me back. We were chatting about nothing in particular as she was driving to Wal-Mart. During the course of our phone call, she arrived at Wal-Mart, parked her car, and gone into the store. After a few minutes, she decided she needed to focus on her shopping, so we ended the call. A while later, I heard my phone ring. Sarah was calling again. She was calling to let me know that she was in the parking lot and could not find her car. She couldn't remember where she'd parked and had been pushing her loaded shopping cart around the parking lot for 15 minutes hoping she'd come across it.

At that point, I tried to be helpful. I suggested pushing the panic button on her key while she walked around, that way if she got close, she'd hear it. I also suggested perhaps she be a little more methodical in her search instead of walking around randomly, lest she skip a row or something. As she searched, her frustration grew and it had to have somewhere to go, I guess. So then she decided that all this was my fault. She claimed that the reason she couldn't remember where she parked was that she was on the phone with me when she did it. She said I distracted her and that was why she coudn't recall where she parked. Now, I can see how that might have been a factor, but it still wasn't my fault. She is the one who chose to call me back while she was driving to Wal-Mart. If she didn't have the mental fortitude to take note of where she was parking while talking on the phone, then perhaps she shouldn't have called when she did. It's not like she was driving along about to park when I called and distracted her. She distracted herself. Thus, it wasn't my fault.

Of course, she was never going to see it that way, so we moved on. Instead of blaming me for her losing her car, she decided that someone had stolen it. Awesome. I can just imagine that conversation with the police:

"So your car was stolen? Which parking spot was it in before it was stolen?"

Yeah, Sarah, where was it?

Exactly.

So after a while of walking around yelling at me while looking for her car, she finally found it. At which point she exclaimed, "Ah! Someone moved my car while I was in the store!"

Do you see how ridiculous my friend is? And then she had the nerve to blame me again for her losing the car. Instead of just admitting that she had a dumbass attack, she continued to try to make me the one responsible when all I did was answer my phone. And that is why I am telling the entire world (or just everyone who reads my blog, but ... close enough) about how my friend Sarah managed to lose her car.

Sarah, the jury is out.