I Have What Everyone Wants

I have what everyone wants. I know because it’s been stolen twice. Last night, someone cut it out of my car. I unsuspectingly sat down and turned on the engine. It made a sound like a motorcycle starting up.

Flickering: never a good sign.

Alarmed, I turned it off and called car specialist #1: my grandpa. My catalytic converter was stolen. I called Triple A. They came. They pitied me. They told me that my car was a crime scene on wheels.
I spent the morning calling car repair shops and got several quotes (all high ones). So I took my mom’s car to a coffee shop, since mine had been rudely burgled. Brian sent me coffee funds over zelle, wanting to cheer me up.

It worked.

I sat down and cranked out a bunch of work, still using my grouchiness as fuel. One of the main things that I’m working on is planning my practicum site for next year, because the site I want is very competitive. I want to be at UCLA, doing autism assessment.

Autism testing is where my passion really lies, because someone close to me got an autism diagnosis at the right time, became eligible for services, and their symptoms improved a lot. I’d like to help diagnose children one day so that they can have similar improvements. I have a stiff competitor from my program, whom we will call A. He also loves Autism testing. I’m not sure why A is into Autism testing apart from the appeal of helping a marginalized population, but what I can say is that he’s a nice guy and as he jokingly said, the competition is on.

So I emailed my supervisor from my former site to ask for a letter of rec. Apart from that, I worked on reports.

At 3 pm, I had my first AA meeting over zoom. I am not an alcoholic. But, for my drug and alcohol class, we are required to sit in on an AA/NA and a smart recovery meeting, in order to better understand our prospective patients. Everyone was very welcoming. One of the members even private-messaged me her phone number and said that she would love to answer any questions or be “of service”. Being “of service” (getting chairs for others, handing out papers, etc.) seemed like a common theme– someone said that it helped him stay sober. I liked this value. As they talked, I took notes on the format of the meeting. I even learned something new: AA recommends that you don’t date during your first year of sobriety.
That night, I went to bed happy with what I’d accomplished.

Only to be woken up by, you guessed it… Someone trying to break into my car and steal the converter for a third time. I couldn’t believe it was happening again. I heard loud honking (my car protesting the break-in) and then the injured motorcycle sound, which told the new thief that someone got there first. As frustrated as I was by the situation, I could also kind of see the humor in it. Take that, thief 2.0!