Still Naive, But Significantly Less Enthusiastic

Well, Hayley and Dan are back at home. They left yesterday on a red-eye home to good ol' Wisconsin. I was very sad to see them go, but relieved that they got on the plane without a hassle.

And why is that, you might ask?

Because, I feared the entire weekend that Hayley would not be allowed to board the plane. This is because of stupid jerky people who care more about themselves than respecting other people's things.

What am I talking about?

Well, after a nice walk at what I thought was a nice beach, the four of us (that's Mike, Hayley, Dan, and me) returned to the car to find two of my windows busted out, a car full of glass, and two purses including wallets and all identification (that's Hayley's and mine) gone.

Yes, yes, I know that's why you don't leave your purse where it can be seen. I have no excuses for this. I thought it was a safe road. It was the middle of the day. There were other cars around. OK, those suspiciously read like excuses.

If I could take back one moment in my recent life, it would in a flash be the poor decision to not put Hayley's and my purses in the trunk.

Speaking of the trunk, it was packed full of nice things, and yet left unscathed. No one popped the trunk popper. I guess that is a silver lining.

This has been a terrible weekend for my poor dear sister and her poor (not-as-dear-as-Hayley-but-close) boyfriend. This was supposed to be their vacation. Now they have a bad taste in their mouths that is associated with my home, a place I considered to be happy until my sister and I were violated, until my boyfriend had to put tape over the windows where glass used to exist and vacuum the inside of the car out repeatedly to get all of the broken glass out of the car.

There is what I consider to be a bittersweet outcome to all of this, proof positive that there are kind-hearted and good people in this county that is Humboldt.

My car was broken into Friday early evening, but still past business hours. While at the sheriff's office Monday morning, waiting for a rushed case report only after what seemed like hours and hours of haggling over the weekend and making phone calls and then going in and pleading our case as to why we needed the report done on a "rush" basis (so my sister could board her flight home and go back to her life and her job and responsibilities - with no photo ID and the ever-increasing airport security you can imagine the anxiety she was feeling about this; we all were).

Well this is where things get complicated. No, the story is not complicated yet. Just wait.

So, we are at the sheriff's office. I decide to walk out to the car to get something from it. We are already delayed in leaving town because of how long it's taking to find an on-duty deputy to complete a portion of the report. Mike and I walk out to the car; Hayley and Dan are still waiting inside. My boss at the festival office happens to drive by at the moment I'm walking on the sidewalk to the car, sees me (the sherriff's office is on a busy business highway), sort of pulls over/double parks and yells out the window, "Hey! I've been trying to get a hold of you all weekend! Call the ladies at HAF (that's my other job) - did you lose your purse? Someone there found your stuff!"

So, shaking I pull the Yellow Pages from the rental car and fumble to look up my work. Unable to work the book I am about to toss it to Mike to look for me, and then I remember I've been telling people the number on the phone for about two weeks and actually have it memorized. I call my other job and it turns out my coworker there was out walking her dog at 6:30 Saturday morning (which she never does and her dog woke her up early so she decided to make the most of it), when she saw a credit card in the gutter. She read the name on the card, and it was mine. She looked around and spotted three more cards, a debit card of mine, a debit card of Hayley's, and Hayley's driver's license. The thing we needed the most to ensure she could board her plane.

This is weird because the ID and cards were found 20 miles south of where the incident occurred and nowhere near either of my employers. I hadn't yet called them with another number at which to reach me because it didn't seem like a weekend priority (my cell phone was in my purse and was stolen), and I had no way of imagining someone that knows me in this town - because I can still count those people on my two hands - would find my stuff. I guess I should have thought again.

So after receiving verbal confirmation about six times from my coworker (I just couldn't believe what she was telling me), I went inside to tell Hayley and Dan, and then to let the woman working at the sheriff's office know that we didn't need the narrative portion of the police report and that someone had found her license. The woman looked like I was speaking to her in Blibber Blabber or something. I am not sure she believed or could comprehend what I was telling her. I still can't really piece it together in my head; it's just so random how events came together and how we were still in town and able to receive the ID in a timely manner.

Anyway. The rest of our stuff unfortunately is still missing. A lot of sentimental value and some expensive things too. One of the items both of us are extremely upset about is our respective datebooks, as those sort of help us run our busy lives. Starting from scratch and memory is a really tough thing. Hayley lost her MP3 player which was a special gift two years ago. My favorite (slightly expensive) watch was in my bag. There is significant damage done to my car that will be costly and time-consuming to repair, and until the repair is done the car is not secure or safe (it's also unsightly, to say the least).

This entire experience is one I think I could have lived without. And if I could change it even one little bit, if I had to somehow go through this and learn this lesson personally, I would spare my sister. She and Dan were supposedly on vacation. When something like this happens, you no longer feel very vacation-y. I wish I could at least have spared her this painful experience.

And if you ever think your actions don't affect anybody, or that it won't matter that much, I would say rethink that one as fast and as completely as possible. I am learning more and more how closely connected humankind is. How everything you do affects someone in some way. How small the world is, and how often and much we cross each others' paths. Mike at one point before it had all sunk in mentioned that maybe this was someone who was in such a bad way he/she needed the money and things more than we did. I appreciate his point. But I hope I am never that desperate, and if I am, I hope I remember to put myself in someone else's place anyway and not to disregard someone else's belongings in order to take care of myself. I hope this person that did this to Hayley and me feels at least a tinge of remorse for his or her stupid selfish jerky actions.

Probably not. But I can still hope. I guess that's where the naivety factors in.