I've made some important mistakes in my life. We all have. I'd been thinking about this task for a while, I couldn't find one of my mistakes that wouldn't be:

Incredibly damaging to loved ones

or Financially Ruinous

So, I moved on to the next mistake I made recently: I left something very valuable in the front seat of my car. In the morning, the window was smashed and the valuable item was stolen. This item was my mp3 player. The brand is unimportant, but let's just say it was white, shiny, and ubiquitous. It was also the highest capacity one you can get.



A little preamble: I'm the kind of guy that carried around a walkman with six mixtapes in high school, and a CD player with a book of 12 cds in college. In the same way that I bring three paperback books whenever I travel, I can't be kept away from music or media for very long. After two seperate cd wallets were lost/stolen in college, I finally recieved a handme-down mp3 player from my uncle. I've rarely been more than a few feet from it since. I have it on the bus, I listen while I ride my bike, and I pipe it through my car stereo. I listen to it at work, and at home. I guess what I'm saying is, I like my music, and I like my mp3 player.

Which is what made it exceptionally stupid to leave it in my car about a year ago. In retrospect, I should have expected it. Broken glass filled my car, and the little player was gone for good. I saved for a few months, and around my birthday, I got another one. That's the one I have to this day. I've been obsessive about making sure it's not in the car, to the point of frequently waking up in the middle of the night to check if it's on my desk. I haven't left it in the car since.



Which brings me to my Mistake. Last night, intentionally, I left the player in my car. I parked in the same spot, where the passengar side window is facing the dark of the park, affording plenty of cover to the would be thief.

Adding another element of chance the scenario was this: I chose to buy another player, and not fix my car window oh so many months ago. The window is currently filled with black duct tape.

It has been pierced twice before, once when someone tried to steal my car and succeeded only in damaging the ignition, and once more by me, when I locked my keys in the car. Long story.

I left my car, and spend a long jittery evening listening to the radio (ugh) and surfing the net.

Here's where it got wierd.

About 2am, when I was preparing to get in bed, I heard a loud, long noise. Like the worlds biggest rescycling bin being taken to the curb. There had been a car accident right in front of my house.

Once a boy scout, always a boy scout. I threw my clothes on and flew down the stairs. I was on the phone with 911 when I reached the bottom.

The car had been speeding, and had just tipped a parked car and had flipped and skidded on it's roof, spilling open beer cans. The driver had fled the scene into the park. All this just a few yards from my parked car, and my easily stolen goods.



The cops where there all night, and the tow trucks as well. Between the noise, the adrenaline, and the gnawing fear of losing my source of music, sleep was fitful. At 4am, I woke for the fifth time, and looked out the window at my car. Did the tape window look torn? I couldn't tell. It was difficult to go back to sleep. When I finally woke up in the morning, I raced to the car.

It was there. Unmolested. Untouched. It would be an understatment to say that I was relieved.

Only afterwards did I begin to feel hollow. Why was this object so important to me? When the car flipped, was I more concerned about human life or my property? How is it that I can sleep every night despite so much danger to people in the world, but when a small object that I own is in danger, it keeps me awake?

In short, I made my mistake again, and it made me feel like a jerk. I suppose re-doing my more serious mistakes would have had the same consequences...