Last night, I was in class for the third to last time for what I hope will be a very long time. We turned in our papers and were set free at 7:40 PM, nearly two hours before our regular 9:30 PM release. I was excited to be out so early so that I could rush home, get dinner, watch Idol Gives Back (Carrie Underwood...you are ridiculously hot...just so you know, you know...when you randomly stumble upon my website...yeah.), and sleep at a reasonable time. What could be better, right?

I walked back to my car in USC's Parking Structure "D" and while I was walking up to my car, I saw a girl was circling my car and her Red 2003 Ford Explorer parked next to mine. I was a little confused, a little prepared to get pepper sprayed for no reason, but continued to walk over to my car. I opened my trunk, put in my bag, and walked over to the driver's side of my car to open the door and head home. Normal, wonderfully early night, right?

As I moved to open the door, I was greeted with the sounds of crunching, broken safety class beneath my orthopedic-like Reebok Classics. Someone had broken into the car next to mine, leaving shards of broken glass where her passenger window had once been and a glass party on the ground between our cars. The girl, who I later found out was named Susana, was visiting USC for an information session because she was considering transferring to the School of Social Work at USC from Cal State Los Angeles. And of course, on a day where she was excited at the possibility of perhaps transferring schools, her car gets broken into, and her briefcase gets stolen in the very parking lot of the school that was vying to take $33,000 a year from her and put her in debt for years to come. Fan-effing-tastic.

I wanted to go home. Honestly, I'm pretty burned out from two years of work and grad school. I look forward to the weekends for the sleep as much as I do the faces that appear on the weekends. But what are you supposed to do? Do you just jump in your car and say, "Oh man, that sucks...well, hope it works out!!", wave, and leave a girl who doesn't even go to your school stranded in a parking structure with a busted window while she waits for the campus police (USC's Department of Public Safety) to show up?

So I waited with her. We walked around her car and found that DPS had left a business card with a note that said "Found damage to your vehicle @ 1800 hours, please call if you want to file a report." I don't think the 1800 hours was accurate because I parked at 6:30 PM and I don't think I'm that oblivious that I wouldn't notice a mountain of broken glass beneath my feet after parking my car. But then again, I was on the phone. I wouldn't put it past me.

What do you do with a total stranger while you wait for DPS to show up (35 minutes) and you are standing next to a violated car? You small talk, a lot. I found out that she lives not far from where I used to work, has a boyfriend, and that she interns at a school right now for her passion, social work. She found out that I was in grad school, asked about my job, and of course, asked me a ton of questions about USC and well, DPS. It was a lot of joking around, trying to keep her mind on anything but her car. When we did talk about the car, we tried to be optimistic and light-hearted about it - "At least they didn't take this...." or "Why didn't they want my CDs?"

Waited for an hour with her and helped her get in contact with DPS and provide them with a report. There was a blatant handprint on the side of her car from who we would assume to have been the person who broke her window, but DPS is currently not allowed to take fingerprints at crime scenes (per LAPD). Our DPS officer described this problem as a "stupid, power thing," and lamented how the LAPD was requesting Susana to drive her car downtown with a busted window if she wanted them to take prints. She fervently declined. Another car break-in at USC, another person goes free. Story of our parking structures.

Then it was time for me to leave. Caught up with some old friends, picked up Tito's Tacos, and watched Idol Gives Back. Got three votes in the night before (two for Jordin, one for Chris) before I passed out at 12:45 AM. I thought it was a great special and hope that it's something that continues every year in some capacity. I cannot think of a better stage to try and raise awareness of an otherwise invisible problem for us here in the United States than the Idol stage - the biggest stage on television today.