Lost: Peace of Mind

Perhaps I should read my own blog more often (ie: last entry), having seemingly found that place of peace and joy. I guess I tend to reside there more often than not these days, and definitely more often than I used to, but yesterday I definitely was NOT in that place. I was pissed.

It all started with an extremely hectic week. Lifeguarding and leading water fitness at three different Y's, taking me from home at 9 am and bring me back at 10 pm. A solid day of meetings and errands on my day off no less. And yet another class to cover and commitments set to fill my entire Saturday. Not to mention deadlines, clients and now a job interview looming in the near future.

As if all that weren't enough, as I frantically raced out the door Saturday morning to get to the Y in time to teach the class, I realized that my "Y bag" was not in my car. My "Y bag" is a bag full of all the stuff I need to do my various jobs at various locations. You know, clean dry underwear, a snack, swim goggles and cap (just in case I get the overwhelming urge to swim for a change), swim suit, CD's shoes, shirt and shorts, a towel, and toiletries. Realizing the bag wasn't in the car, I ran to the house to find it. But it was nowhere to be found. So I hollered out to Tom to find out what he did with it, because of course it was his fault :) But he had no idea. He was convinced that I had taken it in the house the night before.

So, we began to recount what we had done the day before. I had taught a class Friday morning. When I got home I had taken my towel and suit out of the bag and hung it out to dry. We established that it was when I went out to get them, late the night before, was when Tom had thought I brought the bag in. Shortly after I brought my towel and suit into the house, Tom came into the house and handed me my CD's, apparently they had fallen out of the bag and were laying in the driveway. It soon became apparent to me that my bag had been stolen. I think Tom thought I was nuts when I ordered him to start looking in near by trash cans, but I figured if someone grabbed it they would want to ditch whatever was not of value to them and leave with what was. The problem with that reasoning was that there was NOTHING of value to anyone except me in that bag. I had my ID, my suit and towel, my cds, and my shirts and shorts were in the wash. All the thief got away with were my toiletries, dry underwear and swim cap and goggles. I later confirmed that they had been taken when I realized the broken boom box that was also sitting in the back seat was missing as well.

Under the gun, I grabbed what extra toiletries I had and stuffed them with my suit, towel and cds into a paper grocery bag and went about my day. But I was pissed. As I thought about it, there were two real opportunities for this to have happened - while we were at a garage sale the day before when I had neglected to lock the car despite my thinking "you should lock the door, someone will think that bag is a purse" or while the car sat no more that 15 feet away from my back door in my driveway. Then I began to think about all that was in that bag. First there was the bag, the perfect size and shape to carry all my stuff. Then the toiletry bag a pretty quilted thing with everything I could need including: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, a fancy razor for which I had refills at home, a brush, facial cleanser and moisturizer, pain killers and antihistamine. I then realized as I was getting dressed after the class that my deodorant was also in the bag. I was pissed!

And what continued to fuel this fire of anger was the fact that I knew that it was all probably sitting in a trash can somewhere because it was worthless to whomever took it. But I had to spend time, energy and money to replace it all. I just couldn't get over it.

Later Saturday afternoon when I returned home, I decided to walk the alley and see if I could find any of the bag or its contents. As I walked, I was convinced that I was being silly. I was sure that it must have been taken while we were at the garage sale. But I kept walking. I walked the entire alley for two blocks to the south of us. Spoke with a couple of neighbors then wandered my way back home. I found nothing. Just in case, I decided to cover my bases and go the 1/2 block to the north checking the apartment building dumpsters along the way. I was on my way to the last dumpster on the block when I looked between the apartment building and the house and there it was. Three doors from my house, my bag with its contents hurriedly dumped out and gone through, laying there in the dirt between the two buildings. I can't tell you how happy I was.

I am almost embarrassed to admit that something so simple and really so minor could have such an effect, both negatively and positively, on my day. Never mind the feeling of violation, that some desperate, brazen jerk had the gaul to walk into my yard and steal my things from my car. I mean really do I need to lock my car everywhere? But the fact that they did really makes me wonder what has happened to this world and the way people think. What they really stole was my peace of mind.

There is one kind of humorous moral to this story. Of course there is no sign of the boom box, but it was broken. I had it in the car because I was going to see if I could get it to work again. I guess sometimes what goes around does come around. Mr. or Ms. Thief, I hope you enjoy your broken boom box. You really deserve what you got.