Lost in the Lava

I woke up with labored breaths. My heart was racing. I had just lost my car to a volcano.

It started out great: I had gone down to San Luis Obispo to look for a birthday present for a 3 year old girl. I don't know who the girl was, but I was invited to her party and I was going to go to the toy store to look for a cute present. I bought a cup of coffee and took off my shoes and walked all around town in the sunshine. Of course the town wasn't actually SLO, but still.

The toy store had moved and SLO had gotten an Ikea! How'd that happen!? I saw Jon along the way, he was picking out a weird spiral wicker shelving unit with some girl at a furniture store. He was very torn over whether it was the right piece of furniture for him. I moved on.

I was browsing through presents and moving from store to store when I saw my sister's friend Kevin M. He wanted to take me to the upcoming dance. I said ok, but Jenny showed up and really didn't want me to go with him; I think she liked him. I told Kevin that I'd like to go with him but if Jenny didn't want me to then it probably wouldn't work. He seemed understanding. Jenny informed me that Scott Taylor had also expressed interest in taking me to the dance. I said I'd think about it.

I started to walk back to my car through a strip mall. The sun was going down and I thought I should call it a day. The parking lot at the mall ended and a dirt lot started; my car was at the very end of the dirt lot. As I walked the dirt lot, some of the ground started turning to lava. It wasn't flowing off the hills like real lava, it was like coming up from the ground and was in spotty areas all over the parking lot. I ran for the coffee shop at the end of the lot in my bare feet and saw my car in the last spot on the way. I was safe in the coffee shop so just sat down for a breather. When I looked out at my car, it was halfway underground sunk into lava. I freaked out and ran outside but it was clearly too late.

As I got closer I saw my sister in the front seat of the car and I yelled to her to get out. She did and I asked her if anything important was still in the car that I should run for, but she said she didn't have the baby today so not to worry. I tried to think if I had anything else important in the glove compartment or anything, but it was too late and the whole car went under. My sister had lent me her black flip flops for a second, so I gave them back and we walked with my mom back to the coffee shop.

It was an odd "oh well" feeling, because there really was nothing I could do about losing my car to volcano lava. I watched as men came out and shoveled gravel onto the lava spots in the parking lot to drive their cars out; mine was the only car lost. Apparently everyone else knew what to do in case of lava. Dang.

But, it was a good thing that Shaquille O'neal told me later that the brand new Porsche that I wanted was only $34,000. Shaq's got my back.