A Series of Unfortunate Events

It's been awhile readers..it's been awhile.

A lot has happened in just one month. Of which some were great things and others not so much. Historic moments of my life nevertheless.

Gee..where do I start now. It's a rather odd time to start blogging. 3.48am. I feel like Mark Zuckerberg. But less upset and not out to create a billion dollar website - Facebook. Through scattered thoughts and observing the nine mandarin oranges on my table, I wonder to myself if there will be any left in the morning. I'm thinking : my night fuel lies behind those porous skins and i'm probably going to be peeling all night long if I aim to bring this post to a completion.
Quite a long shot. I probably need 15 oranges for that! HAH.

Maybe listing down my possible blog topics would be useful.
Let's see...YF Camp, Christmas, New Year's Eve, YouthAsia, Baptism, GroupOn, Google Office, Robbery, Website reviews, Deals, Farewells...etc. Ok i'm making myself bored.

Since no one is awake to help me make the call, I shall go for Robbery.
Why? Because too many people are asking me about it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events. All non-fiction, unfortunately.

21 January 2011. 8pm. I never thought my mind could be so clouded from listening to a whiteboard-full of ideas from KN throughout the day. My Excel sheet wasn't helping much either.

I was ready to leave the office. It's been a long day and the only reason why I stuck around after dark was because my mom dropped the car off at my workplace for me to enjoy the freedom of leaving whenever I wanted to. Little did I realize that I would regret my thoughts two hours later.

In case you didn't catch it,
Unfortunate event #1 : Car was passed to me by mom. Very unusual and the first break of flow in my day.

As I packed my "stuff" and said my goodbye to half the office, I was interrupted by CW and PH on the way out. That's unfortunate event #2. My attention was drawn away from the initial idea of going home. I attended to matters that seemed pressing at that moment of time. Looking back, it could have waited.

From where I stood dealing with the so-called 'pressing' matter, also in sight were JS and JC. Two individuals that I would hate to turn down if they were to ask me out for dinner. sigh. Precisely what happened. Dinner! A word my stomach could understand at that moment. Yes, not brain, stomach. I was hungry. I had no plans anyway. No harm in hanging out at Restoran Gasing for a little sweet and sour pork with rice right? Could I have been more wrong... Never will I trust my stomach to think for me again. Unfortunate event #3 : The spontaneous dinner.

Just like a prisoner who gets to request for a last meal before getting executed, I had my last meal before losing my identity. 9.45pm. My good day ended early. I parked nearby. As I got into the driver's seat, I slipped my laptop under the pillow seat on the passenger side. Keeping check of safety. Distracted by JN and AS who so timely walked past, I chucked my sack-of-a-bag on the passenger's side while waving my other hand to wish them goodbye. Biggest.mistake.ever. Unfortunate event #4 : Distracted by the goodbye I wish I never wished.

I was quick to turn the engine on and leave my parking spot as the driver behind me decided to leave at the same time. To ease his extra effort needed to turn out into the tight lane, I turned out as soon as I could. Plus, it's not like he wasn't anticipating me to anyway. He knew I was going to do it. Besides, I did offer him a friendly smile before I got into the car. A language I try to spread as I refuse to adopt the unfriendliness of some Malaysians. But that's another story. Point is, I totally forgot about the bag on the passenger seat. Screw common courtesy! I should just be a typical Malaysian next time. Unfortunate event #5 : The odds of two driver's leaving their respective parallel parking spots at the same time.

Hitting the road, Restoran Gasing still in sight, I noticed two men on a motorcycle cutting my path as I attempted to cross over to the opposite side. One looked back at me but I couldn't make out any features. All I thought at the moment was : Annoying guy, why are you cutting me when there's so much space on the road! As i'm the type who avoid honking at other people for
their idiocy, I refrained from unclasping my grip on the wheel and moving it into a palm which I could have laid perfectly on the centre of the steering to apply sudden pressure. But patience is a virtue, as they say. Well..what a shitty virtue. As I look back and retrace my steps, it was obvious that the motorcyclist were eyeing my handbag. Not so much cutting my way on the road. I should have known better. But then again, who ever over thinks a motorcyclist cutting your lane? It's Malaysia, that's just what they do.

As mentioned, I never gave the fleeting moment a chance to linger in my mind and ruin my good day. Positive thinking! It certainly lasted awhile. I passed five green lights on the way from Restoran Gasing to Section 16. Probably my highest record of green lights in a row. It's always fun to reach a traffic light and not have to stop for a red or yellow one. But FIVE GREEN LIGHTS IN A ROW! Simply a driver's ecstasy. Also too good to be true. Unfortunate event #6 : Not having to stop for 5 traffic lights of which I could have 5 extra chances to realize my bag was on the passenger seat before I reached Section 16 - one of the most rampant places when it comes to car robbery. This fact was unknown to me at that time.

10pm. The 6th traffic light was in front of me. This time, I missed the green light by two cars. I glanced out my right window to look at the traffic build-up and started to recall a police car breaking several traffic rules by taking an illegal turn because he just couldn't wait. By this time, any thoughts of my handbag have been abandoned. No recurring thoughts or signals registered in my head. And then it happened. I heard a deafening shatter of glass only too close to bear. My instinct was to turn away to avoid any glass from hitting my face. My passenger seat window was broken and a dark hand took its place. I looked back to gather what just happened and realized that the hand was already out of the window. I screamed. "OH! F*CK!". Yes, I swore. But there are bigger things to deal with here. I saw my brown bag for the last time. In a blur of course. I screamed my final "NOOOOO..." as I reached my hand out in attempt to grab my belongings back. Only to retract it with a fist full of air. A wave of remorse swept over me. I felt a slight out-of-body experience. You may simply call it shock. The violation was simply violating. All emotional attachment to my belongings have been torn to shreds in an instant and I didn't know how to place the pieces back together. The image of my phone popped into my head. Then my camera. Then my purse, IC, license, cash, laptop adaptor, mouse, toiletries and I can only wish how I could just forget everything else. The precision of memorizing objects are amplified when emotional attachment is involved. I refuse to discuss anymore of it in the detail but I can leave you with a reaction that finally arose from it all. Anger.

I was angry. Just plain angry. The type that gives a literal heartache in your chest and makes one think of revenge. And what's worse is that I was still stuck behind a red light. The colour that was so fitting at that time. Red and furious. And then came the analysis. The move-on phase is what I would like to call it. I was thinking of steps. What should I do next? No one was home. Quickly I thought of the police station. Suddenly my mind was thinking straight again. Fast too. The pathetic green light lit up and I was on the move again. No time to sit around and ponder while a whole line of traffic waited behind.

About 500 meters from Section 16 heading to Taman Tun, I threw a prayer out to God to thank him for keeping me safe. I didn't come out of the incident without a scratch due to minor glass cuts on my hand but that was excusable. In my prayer I also asked God to help me part from my material "stuff" and leave me with only thoughts of eternal treasures in Heaven that I can look forward to. At about 10.15pm, I chose to forgive the two dark-skinned robbers and was smiling by the time I reached the police station. I figured, the robbers might have been high on drugs, desperate. Or I might have just given up a part of me to feed a child somewhere out there. The optimistic possibilities were endless when I gave it much thought.

I made a report without much hope that anything good would come out of it besides the A4 sheet that could be used to bypass some payments for replacing documents. One call was enough to get my parents at the station within 10 minutes. However, what followed wasn't really what I expected later on. Through the doors came an angry mother scolding me for parking my broken-windowed car outside the police station. My respond didn't seem to matter as I wasn't given any time to react before another lecture came flying my way for leaving my handbag at the passenger seat in the beginning. I had too much to explain even if I tried so I gave up in silence. Why bother. Even if I did react I would have just said "Yeah thanks mom. Im fine in case you wanted to know...". But for the record, there was a clear sign in front of the station that says "Dilarang meletak kereta di dalam kecuali kenderaan polis". It was somewhere along those lines. I take responsibility over the mistake I made for allowing the bag to be placed on the passenger seat and I have spent a cold RM400 just to replace many things. Although the mistake did lead to many consequences and points directly to me, the fault still isn't mine to bear. I didn't commit the crime. I need not repeat who did.

I still suffer from flashbacks and feel paranoid over my surroundings. No motorcyclist passes by my car window without being noticed. Everything gets questioned.

Sunday, two days later I was baptized at Life Chapel - an outward symbol of an inward change. I was ready to give up my old self and take on a new identity. One with Christ's name stamped on it. I have shared this with some but I guess God really does have an odd sense of humor. He couldn't wait to strip away my old identity for a new one and just HAD to take my IC away! The Monday after my baptism, I made a new IC. I now call it the "Baptized Version". How timely. :)