Really? Really, Car? Really?

So here's a ridiculous story:

Background: One of the guys in my cohort is out of town and the other guy in my group and I are helping to take care of his cats and dog while he and his fiance are away. Went there last night, no big deal...played with the dog, cuddled the kitten. Perfect.

This morning: Ended up staying up All Freakin' Night working on a paper for today that I FINALLY finished at 7:30 am. Ugh. Lay down for a bit and then headed back over to let the puppy out and check on things. Everything is fine except my car window on the driver side seems to not be up all the way. No big deal right? It's electric and I'm resourceful so I play with it as I pull up to the apartment. Doesn't seem to be going up...huh, I think to myself....well, of course I can figure this out, I like to fix things. So I make the horrible horrible decision to roll the window down.

My car door eats the window and makes some really bad 'breaking of something probably really important' sounds. So now my window won't roll up and I can't just park the car with a rolled down window for the rest of the day while I am in class - I live in a nice part of town, but its still a city and while I don't have crazy expensive things the last thing I need is someone to have easy access to steal the radio or even the car itself.

SO...I figure not a big deal, probably just came off the track - not that expensive. I know this because apparently I am also a mechanic. This positive outlook lasts about as long as it takes for the really young and adorable mechanic to take my door apart - which is actually pretty cool looking, by the way. I had already told him my diagnosis and he kind of laughs and make some joke about how I thought it was a simple fix. Yeah, freakin' HILAR-ious.

Turns out...all of that awful crunching and breaking heard earlier? Yup that was the regulator deciding to shatter into a half dozen pieces. This is not hyperbole, I counted those sad little pieces that fell to the ground as the door came apart - a handful of broken white pieces of plastic that means I can't roll down my window and have to get a replacement part - a $200 piece of plastic. Perfect.

So they drill a bolt through my door to keep the window up - which works - and now, $75 later - I am trying to find a cheap regulator to fix my window (which I am told is not likely, but I am research girl - I will find it even if I have to check ebay).

*Sigh* Yeah, so good times this morning. Thank God! I got my paper (due this afternoon) done this morning before I left. Now just two more papers to go before I am taking a day off - I get to watch a Beatles tribute band with a friend of mine this weekend which should be a good time.

Any ideas of where to search for parts other than the junkyard and e-bay would be awesome.