And, oh, what a day!

It sometimes appears that the whole world is living under Murphy's law. Well, today was one quite adventurous day with a story that needs to be retold.

It all started when I tried to turn on my laptop at 5 p.m. and it made the most annoying, high-pitched, shrill sound ever! And so loud, and it wouldn't stop!! I decided to take the computer in for a check-up at the store where I got it from. The store was conveniently located on one of the major streets in Sofia where parking on the side of the road is forbidden. However, there was a line of cars that had turned on their emergency blinkers and had all stopped for "just five minutes." Under the influence of the "sheep" syndrome, I also queued up at the end of that line and turned on my blinkers as well. I went in the computer shop and was just telling the repairman there what was wrong when one saleswoman told me that there was a "spider" (horrible towing truck) otu on the street! And the spider had caught its prey: MY CAR!! I left all my stuff at the shop and ran towards the spider which was just lifting my car in the air. I saw a policeman, poked him on the back, and started asking him frantically how much I had to pay to get my car back. He looked at me and asked me, "Is this your car?" Duh! "Yes, this is my car."
"May I see some ID please." (He looked through all my documents) "I can see you are a young driver... This is the first time your car is being towed away, right?"
"Yes, yes, sure. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking right when I parked here... I thought I would only be a minute, but then it took longer, so, sorry, pleeeease let me have my car back!"
"OK, normally we'd simply tow the car away, but in your case, because you're young, we'll let you have your car back. You'll need to pay a fine, though. 30 leva."
It's a good thing I had taken my salary from the AmCham today and had 150lv at my disposal. "I'll pay.. only... my money is in the car..."
"In the car? But the car's put up on the towing truck..."
"I know..." + Puppy eyes on my side.
"Look, normally we'd take the money first and then bring the car down from the truck, but because you're young, we'll make an exception and get your car down before you've paid the fine."
"Thank you so much!"
So they took the car down, I took my money and gave the nice policeman 30lv, after which they let me drive away. I parked in a nearby small street (legally this time) and went back to the computer shop only to find out that the horrible sound was because my microphone's volume was turned up too loud and was interfering with the sound waves from my speakers. At least the computer was ok; it would have been better if it hadn't cost me all that trouble, but whatever, I coped with it and headed to my next destination: Misha's house. We wanted to go to my place and watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" before we saw the grand premiere of the sequel tomorrow. On our way to my house, we drove down a very steep boulevard. I was just telling Misha the towing truck story, and got distracted in thinking what exactly had happened, when I realized I pressed the brakes one moment too late (i.e. I gently (gently, because I was driving really slowly down that slope) nudged the car in front of me). Of course, it had to be a cab... Cab drivers are always trouble here. So the cab guy turned off his engine (first sign of trouble) then went out of the car and started making nervous circles around the back of the vehicle. He looked at it on all sides, tapped it, then looked at me with a cold look and asked me to go out of my car and see what damage I had done. Gulp. I went out, and he showed me some small cracks near the back tires. Personally, I don't think such a light hit could cause such cracks, but I guess if his car was crappy (which it apparently was), this was possible. He asked me whether I wanted him to call the police or settle this on the spot, and I preferred to end this on the spot... I'd had enough police people for the day... He told me the damage was for 70 lv, and I gave it too him without even thinking of acting dumb and telling him I only had, let's say, 50 lv. He seemed happy after making that easy bargain, and I was happy I wasn't going to be in any more trouble. I know he probably tricked me because he saw I was worried about the outcome of the situation, but I wasn't in the mood to argue with cab drivers.

In a grand total of 45 mins, I lost 66.6% of my salary :'( At least I learned a lesson. Several lessons, actually, including 1. Sometimes being a young girl with teary eyes may come in handy; 2. Thinking and driving don't go together.

That was the most memorable afternoon of this week. I hope it will never repeat again :)