Come to me, all who are in need of my wallet

It has certainly been a while and for that I apologize. Today is my first day of being back in our house and not teaching so I am going to take advantage of it. Bubble bath, here we come!

Now, while we have loads to talk about - the simultaneously cute/monstrous kids from my class the past 3 weeks, Julie and Brad's loverly wedding (!!), a shout out to Thomas for spending a fun weekend with us -- I'm afraid I need to hone in on one simple occurrence from yesterday. Many of you already know what's coming.


Scott and I went on a beautiful hike up near Escondido in the Elfin Forest. Not even joking. When you say it people often think you are saying the "Elephant Forest" which apparently causes some google search confusion. No, it's really called the Elfin Forest.

Anyway, we went with Cory and Christine and had a wonderful time (it's really quite beautiful there) first taking a scenic waltz down the sewer line path only to turn our map over and over and head back to the starting point to begin again. We hiked up the "Way Up" path (at least they're clear) and the scenery was certainly worth it. However, little did we know what was waiting for us at the bottom of the hill.

We finished our hike and headed toward the cars. As soon as I saw Scott's truck I knew. Someone had broken into his passenger side window and taken my purse from the floor. The funny thing is (yes, really quite hilarious) that as we were locking up the truck and I was tucking the purse under the edge of the seat, I thought to myself, "Hm...should I hide this even more? Maybe throw a jacket over it or something? Nahhhh" - Like I said, I'm just tickled pink to think of this internal exchange now.

Fortunately I had my phone, camera, and KEYS with me (although originally we thought the keys were with Stu, our thief). I called and canceled all cards, we lost some things, but it's just not worth it to cry over. The sheriff that came to take pictures and file a report was a cross between funny in a dry way and mildly PMS-y. He said he had hoped there would have been some blood in the car (at which point I think a few of us looked slightly mortified - my own ridiculous imagination throwing in a bloody hand on the seat too) explaining that then he could get some DNA from the "scene". Suddenly all of my NCIS, CSI, Criminal Intent, and Fringe training nearly leaped out of me. I was ready to start examining the truck for blood drops, stray Stu hairs, hang nails, or eyelashes. Surely the sheriff's glance through with the flashlight had not done my injustice justice!

Most things I had lost he just kind of teased me about. i.e. when he inquired as to "other valuble items in the purse" my answer of, "My favorite chapstick" somehow was not credible in his eyes.

I do get a kick out of the fact that there's a funny picture of Scott in there. I hope that makes Stu feel guilty when he puts together the fact that I have two ID's, one with my maiden name and one with my fancy shiny NEW name, + the picture of Scott would probably help him figure out that I am a newly wed. Somehow that should evoke more pity in my mind. Or just guilt.
Why Stu, why??

Now, once we were driving home and we began letting some people know what had happened, I realized that this is the second, almost third time that this has happened to me. Jana told me that she's never buying me a nice purse since she would basically be buying it for the thief. Good point. In college, I had my passenger window broken into one night when my car was parked on the street. I think only minor things were stolen, but the whole window thing was just rude.

That same year, Robin and I had ALL of our things stolen out of my car that was parked in my garage. We had gone in to say goodbye to a roommate - we had been at the library studying and were going to head back just after saying adios so we had left our backpacks (mine containing my laptop as well) in my car. The car was in the garage but the door was open so the leaving roommate could carry boxes out. We were there for less than 30 minutes before someone came right in, opened my car, and stole both our bags. Curses.

So apparently I have some magnetic force surrounding my things that just say, COME TAKE ME!! The ranger that helped us out told me that he had checked the parking lot when he saw the truck and there were like 4 or 5 other cars there at the time, two of which had either a purse or phone on the seat. I told him I am just that lucky that Stu would choose our car.

You will be happy to know however, that Scott and I are doing ok. It's just stuff and it could have been so much worse. It's frustrating but we're safe, it was only a purse, not the car or someone breaking into our house. We are pretty thankful.

However, before I sign off for the day, I would like to send a brief message out to Stu:

Stu. I am rather dissappointed in you and I am sure your mother would be as well. That was just RUDE. You know, that purse may not have been Gucci, it may in fact have been $12 from Ross, but I really liked it - it went so well with everything and was the perfect size. I also now have to replace a brand new library card because of what you've done. I want you to read this and think about what you did wrong...and then give me back my stuff. That would be the right thing to do.

I think you will all agree now that you have heard my plight, that I am indeed deserving of a nice warm bubble bath . And maybe some hearty dosage of chocolate downed with some Project Runway. Wonderful, I'll get right on that.

Talk to you more soon!