Well, here's reality for you. Fresh from a late plane (3 a.m.), I enter my office at Quest and - cue horror - find we've been robbed.

The interesting thing is the door held, the lock held, but the whole door frame came off, ripped right out of the wall. And for comic relief, those looney tunes hoodlums closed the door after they looted and trashed the place, so no one casually passing by could see anything amiss.

So here's the drill, call the church people, call the priest, call the police, then sit and wait and wait and wait and wait some more.

Police go to the wrong door, there's the almost expected comedy of errors and finally we are all in the same room. Wood splinters and dust are the new decor, and there's a big, gaping hole on my desk where my baby, my pride and joy, sat.

You have to understand, in my 15 years at Quest we have never had a new computer, let alone two. All this thanks to Sen. Farley, a small grant, (small to him, large to us) just for office equipment: a lovely laptop, a delightful desk machine, a four-in-one printer, fax, scanner and one other function I can never remember.

The two computers are gone, and the four-in-one (a large lumbering object) was dropped on the floor. Files, of course, are gone with the Schwinn, all our hard-won beautiful efficiency wiped out in one moment on a dark night in our fair city.

I have yet to see the good side of this picture. I've tried - I really have - but we can't replace anything until we get an insurance check. As usual, we are operating by the skin of our teeth, all our money going into programs, feeding kids, giving away diapers, doing AIDS/HIV testing, etc.

We run so many programs on such a small amount of money that sometimes I feel like "The Little Engine That Could." Right now, though, I feel like the little engine stuck on the tracks, toot toot, no gas, alas, the time has past, we sit aghast.

HELP.

We fiddle with the main outside door and find that it can be opened with a quick swipe of a credit card. This offers absolutely no satisfaction, just makes us sink a little deeper into our funky hole.

We find out two other groups in our building have been robbed this year. Does this make us feel like companions in despair? Not on your nellie. Just goes to show that when the time is ripe, disaster will strike and down will fall Quest, computers and all.

I need to shake off this depression and anger and move forward. Here's what we'll do tomorrow: I will get a fresh police report with numbers I can actually read, I will sweep the office floor, I will call and explain my situation to my funders and ask them to be patient, I will file a change of address card (in case you didn't know, the church is closing).

And, the very best thing, I will play a game with the children on the lawn in the sunshine. We will each put our hands on the hips of the person in front of us, a chain, if you will, and make a long, moving choo-choo train.

And we shall travel up the block yelling, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

QUEST is a community-based organization that provides a safe environment, free meals, counseling, art and recreation programs that keep Hamilton Hill children in school, out of trouble and on track for better lives. For more information on QUEST, visit www.questkids.net.