WHY NOT?

Everyone and everything claims these same things, that they and their product is THE BEST, numero uno, better than ever! New and Improved! Money back if you are not fully impressed.

Well I am not fully impressed, not in the least bit.

So tired of the highly self-proclaimed #1 Energy Drink and Best Diet ever! and Numero Uno Burritos!,
I want to create a company.

Whether it is wine, coffee, a book, or whatever, it will claim to be just average. I am modest and honest and truthfully, I know that you have and will have better, but hey, just try it, why not?
So who want to invest in my new average company idea called Why Not? anyone? anyone?

As I walk to work each morning, I greet

While I sat in the back of a police car...

Whilst I sat in the back of a police car last night with my bare feet numb from the cold, I thought to myself with much more anger than written words can express, "this is what hell must feel like". Trapped, dark, no sound other than my scared heart hitting up against my jacket. He sits in the front seat, "what is your drivers license number?"
I don't know. I have no idea and even if I did, I was so scared that I would never have recalled.
I tell him, "look at me, I am wearing pajamas and no shoes, please officer, I am not with her, I just live here."
"What is your last name? And your first name??
He pulls up my record and I hope that he does not see the one speeding ticket I got last year for going 50 in a 45 zone.
I don't want to go to jail, not like this, not for THIS reason.
I try to practice the breathing practices we do in yoga but nothing helps the numbness and anger I feel the whole time I am sitting back there while i see them talk and "figure out the situation"
there is not much to figure out. serious. I will explain.

About 1:30 am I am asleep.
I hear the biggest crashing sound that I have ever heard in my life. The kind of crash that makes your realize instantly that you are not dreaming and you shoot out of bed and have to see what happened, if anyone is hurt, if the world has finally come to its end.
I run out, no shoes, no jacket, just crazy little Armenian in pajamas running outside.
It's bad.
There is a girl, very belligerently drunk.
There is a Scion perpendicular to the street, damaged beyond recognition, airbags out, car leaking.
She is scared and rambling and I ask her if she is ok.
She is, but that is not how she responds, "Please don't call the police, I'm drunk. My boyfriend is going to kill me. Do you have a phone so I can call him?"
Ok, so I run in to grab my phone and a jacket, knowing this will turn into a long night.
I come back out and the whole neighborhood is standing around watching.
I try to settle her down while the others move the car out of the middle of the street and into a driveway. She is so drunk she falls and cannot repeat the same phone number two times.
"I live right down the street and I have to go tell my boyfriend" she says as she starts stumbling towards her apartment. I grab her purse and her shoes and follow behind, trying to calm her down.
At this celestial moment of me holding her shoes and purse, the police surround us, start asking us questions, ask me if I was driving the car.
I look bewildered, me? Me? you talkin to me? No, I wasn't driving the car!
Unfortunately, that is the same answer that she gives the police so he grabs me and like I have so often seen in terrible police movies, he opens the door the the back of the police car guides my head and says, "get in".
Again, "ME?" REally? ME???

So now we are back to them talking and "figuring out the situation". There is not much to figure. She is drunk. She hit the car and started walking home. Now please let me out.
The younger cop opens the door and says he wants to ask some questions.
Now a little angry, I say, "look officer. This is simply a misunderstanding. I live here and I heard the crash and I came outside. Look at me, I am in my pajamas and have no shoes."

Wait for it....wait for it....

ooooo, so you just live here and came outside and was helping her with HER things??

um, yes, i believe that is what I was alluding to.

They are sorry. Well one of them is. Why didn't you tell us? he asks me.
Well I am just an idiot. Why didn't I tell them that the girl in the pajamas and no shoes who is saying, I live here and came out when i heard a crash, why didn't i tell them that I was not guilty?

The other cop, a lot less sympathetic, looks at me still questioningly and says,"Well, I just don't trust anyone."
I feel bad for him.
I feel bad for the mistrust that he has for people, for all of the horrible things that he deals with on a daily basis, seeing always the vileness of man.

For being a wanderer, I am also a wonderer. I wonder about his life, about the life that this drunk girl will go on to lead, even about the many wrongly accused people in jail who must have so much anger towards the world.

I tell the police that it will make me think twice before I help people out. It shouldn't be like that, but what if next time they take me to jail? No good deed goes unpunished. But then again, how can you be in such a situation and not do everything in your power to help?

I walk back home and see all the neighbors around the house talking. One comes up and says that another reliable neighbor said that they saw me jump out of the driver's seat of the car and run into my house. That I was responsible for the accident. What is wrong with people? How is that story in any way plausible? I was outside the whole time.

This world is a crazy place.
One day at a time.
I wander and I wonder and maybe I should keep more to myself, but then who would have carried her shoes?