An unplanned socialization

After Kelz and Sasd had been living with me for a few days, I got a call from Perd. Since I last saw him, he went back to New Mexico, got married to this woman he was dating and moved her back to San Diego. She was 19 years old. I'll call her Bird.

Perd and Bird wanted to go to the Adams Ave. Street Fair, which was taking place that weekend. As I mentioned before, it was about a half-block away from my house. We didn't have to arrange for any special parking. They could just park behind my house.

Perd and Bird lived in Ocean Beach. He didn't have a job, but was still playing with his band. Bird was the one who was working.

They came over and we walked over to Adams Ave. Kelz and Bird seemed to get along pretty well since they were close to each other's ages. We mostly walked around, stopped here and there to look at stuff and check out live music. At one point, Perd spotted a couple of bandmates in the beer garden. He and I went in. However, Kelz, Sasd and Bird weren't allowed in because they were under 21. While Perd was talking to his friends, Kelz and Bird kept GLARING at us through the chain-link fence.

Perd and Bird decided to go home. Kelz, Sasd and I walked around some more. At some point, we got separated. I ran back and forth along the festival, but couldn't find them. I decided to go back to the house and wait for them. When I got there, I found that Kelz had already been there. She had broken the window on the back door in order to let herself in. (I did not give her a key. I didn't trust her THAT much.) But when I went inside, Kelz and Sasd weren't there! I'd already searched all over the festival for them and I didn't want to do that again. AND I didn't want to leave the cottage so vulnerable. I put up a piece of cardboard in the window to hopefully prevent anyone else from trying to break in.

When Kelz and Sasd finally returned about an hour later. "Why did you leave without telling me where you were going?" "Bird and I were mad at you and Perd for stranding us outside the beer garden." "We didn't go in there to drink and we weren't in there very long." "THAT DOESN'T MATTER! You should have been out there with us!"

"And then, why did you break the window on the back door?" "I didn't have a key!" "I KNOW THAT! I mean, why didn't you tell me you needed to come back home? I would have let you in!" "I didn't want to have anything to do with you after that. YOU MAKE ME SICK!"

There was nothing left to fight about. But things calmed down later before we went to bed.

I never did get that window fixed. I just had to hope nobody would ever notice or try to break in. I was wrong. Many weeks later (after Kelz and Sasd had left), I came home and found that the lock on the door was turned slightly askew. I then found that the door was unlocked. I went inside. All my stuff was still there: the TV, the keyboard, the furniture. But after a few minutes, I found that something was missing. I had half a roll of quarters on the shelf that was no longer there. At first, I thought someone had moved up the piece of cardboard, reached inside and opened the door. However, I recalled how the lock was askew. Someone used a hairpin or something to break in.

This was bewildering! Couldn't the person who broke in see that there was a piece of cardboard in the window that could have easily been moved out of the way? (Maybe they were afraid they were going to cut themselves.) Whoever it was put in a lot more effort than was needed. And they only got five dollars. I was thankful that was all they took and never saw a need to return.

After I moved out of the apartment, I got the statement with my deposit refund. It cost $25 to fix the window. If I'd known it was going to cost that little, I could have just gotten it done myself.