The dumbest thing I've ever done... to this point.

About three weeks ago...
Mike, a friend from church, asked if I would take a computer for him. He had been working on it for another friend in the ward, Blanca, and we live close to them. So it made sense that we take it and save him an hour-long trip to deliver it. I was busy trying to keep my boys from terrorizing the church so I just gave him my car keys and he put the computer in our trunk. I promptly forgot about the whole thing.

About two weeks ago...
I was cleaning out the trunk of our car. Whenever I clean the house, I take all the things we are getting rid of and put it in the trunk so we can deliver it to someone who would like to have it. We don't have DI (a thrift store that I love) here, so I don't have a quick and easy drop off point. I have to find someone who wants my stuff... or throw it away.

Scott was getting a little tired of having things fall out of our trunk whenever he opened it and was begging me to find homes for the stuff. I decided since I hadn't found homes yet, I would just start throwing stuff away. There were some toys (which had already been through at least two families) that I chucked. The bags of clothes I kept, because I knew on Sunday my friend would take them for me. Then I came across our old computer. These were my thoughts: "Huh, I thought we already got rid of this. I guess it must have only made it this far. No worry, I'll just throw it out." At about this point my landlord came out and offered to take it to the dump for me. "Great!" I thought, Scott is going to be so proud of me for finally getting rid of all of this stuff."

About five days ago...
My friend Blanca called me and asked if she could come pick up her computer. I told her I didn't know where it was. I hadn't seen it in the car and wasn't sure what happened to it. I called Mike and asked him where he had put it and what it looked like. He started to describe it (I don't know why I needed a description) and things started clicking in my mind. It took a full hour for me to figure out that I had sent my friend's computer to the dump.

I think I went through all the phases people go through when they lose a loved one. It finally ended with a gnawing stomach ache and a gut wrenching phone call, followed by more stomach pains. As it turns out, this computer had many many family pictures on it. It still hurts me to think about it.

My friend Ruth, who I vented and cried to about this whole episode, helped me to see some good in this. She said, "two good qualities that you have just worked against each other." So I guess its good that I tried to help Balnca and Mike... and I guess its good that I tried to keep my car clean... I just have to make sure that the combination doesn't get me into trouble next time.

And that... is the dumbest thing I have ever done... to this point in my life.