Thursday, December 15, 2011

Blah

Yesterday morning I went out with a friend. My BFF, actually. A typical Wednesday would have Nik and P out of the house by 8:30, me dropping off Ambrose at school by 9, cleaning up at home until 10:30 or so and then rushing off to see Renata for a couple of hours before picking Ambrose up.

Yesterday Nik was sick and headed to the doctor. I left around 9, with him prepping to leave. I dropped of A, ran out to see my BFF for brunch because that's how her schedule was working, and then talked to Nik on the phone while we were headed back to her house so I could grab my car. As I was speaking to Nik, who'd just returned home from the doctor, he asked me, "honey, where did you move the PS3?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"The PS3... and the Wii... oh, your jewelry box is on the floor... and the back door, um..."

"Yeah, please call the cops, I'll be home soon, OMG."

So yeah, we were robbed.

Not too much was taken, really. The Playstation 3 and controller, some games, the Wii with Mario Kart and a Gamecube memory card in it. Oh, and the jewelry... they got my engagement ring, my pretty little dark opal $200 ring we bought together almost 7 years ago, right after Christmas. I loved that ring... and my class ring, but even though it was personalized it was still less meaningful. They left my other jewelry but crushed one of my gold bangles (which was a gift from BFF for high school graduation).

So we're out some stuff. Since our two biggest Christmas gifts are video games and the new controllers to play them, well, looks like we need to buy two more big gifts. In fact, I already replaced the Wii.

But the engagement ring is irreplaceable. And the save games, as dumb as this sounds, are equally irreplaceable. We're not TV people, we're gamers, and that tiny little memory card contained the saves of all our favorite gamecube games, collectibles and classics we'd played together during long nights previous to children.

Oh, and Paxton's 17 hour save game that we were working on together.

Yeah, I got to explain to my 6 year old that someone went into our house, took our stuff, and now he can't watch Netflix or play his favorite games. When I think about the fact that I won't be able to hand off my engagement ring to any of my children.... and they probably only got like $30 for it too :-(

*****

So, for the most part, what we're missing is stuff. Material stuff. And we get that, really we do. We also get that it could have been a lot worse than it was. It could have been multiple people doing a complete job on the house, or someone armed and dangerous and willing to harm. They could have seen my husband's $2K laptop or the checkbook. They could have really trashed the place. It looks like it's highly possible Nik actually walked in on the guy and didn't notice form our split foyer, meaning the guy just ran out the back before Nik went downstairs, and yet there was no confrontation. Heck, the back door doesn't always latch properly which is how they got in, and you know what? They didn't have to break the glass. My door is just fine in this winter(ish) weather.

And we have the money. We bought another Wii and we'll buy another PS3 and hey, maybe I can ask Nik for a nice new ring come February when we celebrate 10 years together. Another opal would be glorious :)

And we can just replay the games and we can clean up the drawers, and hey, they didn't take the Christmas gifts! Sure they took some of the PS3 games, but they were all either games we were done playing, or a game where the disk was sitting out, or a game that really ticked Nik off because he couldn't get his little guy to climb this flipping tower.

So... we'll be good...

....

But dude...

Someone was IN my house.

Someone picked my house after watching it, perhaps for days or longer. Someone jumped my fence. Someone looked in my windows, tried my door and opened it. Someone unhooked my game systems and chose video games off my shelf. Someone went through our Christmas presents in my sewing room, where the kids aren't even allowed. Someone went through Nik's office. Someone walked up my stairs, and they probably left their shoes on (jerk). Someone went into my bedroom. Someone opened our drawers. Someone looked through Nik's stash of Christmas presents. Someone looked through my freaking *underwear* some of it now unfolded. Someone found my "personal lubricant" and left it out. Someone went through the drawer right under my pillow, the one with my personal items including childhood toys. Someone looked through the jewelry box I've had since I was 3 or 4 and tossed it aside. Someone grabbed my real jewelry box and took it downstairs. Someone took my engagement ring, my class ring, and broke my bangle, likely squished in his hand.

And then that someone just... left. Out the back door. Like it wasn't a big deal. Like they were shopping.

And they walked a couple blocks over and tried to do it to another house, but their alarm went off.

The cops think it's just some sloppy teen, a single person who lives in the neighborhood and is doing this on foot. I guess we'll see if more houses are hit...

*****

So I had a panic attack yesterday, or rather all over yesterday just slowly off and on. I would go from laughing uncontrollably to near tears to feeling just paralyzed. Again, I know it's not as bad as it could be, not nearly so. But suddenly the cost to replace would pop into my head, and the thought of not ever seeing my engagement ring again, and the thought of someone just walking into my house and grabbing my stuff and maybe making money off of that... I would just feel ill.

And for the most part it's been passing.

Okay, yeah, I started to tear up a few times today. When they were rude to me at the first Gamestop I went to and refused to even see if someone had sold a PS3 with my serial number, something they can easily check from there, as it will be days before the police report hits them... yeah. The girl behind the counter never looked up and just flatly said, "that suck..." I tried to joke about it, since I joke about everything (just how I am), but when I started to say, "It's just that my son's Christmas gift is for the PS3," I couldn't even finish my sentence and had to leave. And they still didn't even look up.

While in the mall playground I couldn't log into my email and I freaked, knowing I was logged in to at least one or two things on the PS3 and Wii with my normal screen name and password, tore Ambrose away from the slide, and sped home as fast as I could. It was just a fluke but I changed all my passwords anyway. For a second the violation from our home really hit me and the thought of this person, whoever he/she is, having access to my email? I mean, yeah, there's account info and passwords and such, sure, but what kept going through my head was all of our adoption journeys and how much we haven't printed out or saved anyplace else. The email letting us know we'd passed court in Ethiopia, the description of A's adoption situation, a short email from our agency about how he was doing in respite, etc. Those things, too, are irreplaceable, and just so *personal*, and there are days when the boys are driving me nuts and I just have to bring up one of those emails and my skips a few beats all over again.

******

So yeah, I think I'm pretty much through with processing this. Facebook/In person/ Blog mental dump = over. Yay!

I guess we'll be spending some serious money in the next week or so. New PS3, alarm system, and of course a whole new drawer of underwear. I mean, ew, someone was scrounging around in there, even washing them doesn't seem safe to me right now! Who knows where those hands have been?!?!

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