A Doozey of a Week

I've had a heck of a week, friends.

The project I've been working on is wrapping up (thank God) but there have been many, many loose ends to take care of. I've been a ball of stress and my poor husband has been on the receiving end of my stress more than a few times this week. He's a good sport and I love him for trying to make me laugh when my stress is through the roof (even though I don't always feel like laughing in the moment). Midweek, he told me that he didn't see me taking very good care of myself in the midst of all this craziness. He knows I love the outdoors and he knows I am refreshed after spending time outside, so he suggested I try to let go of some responsibility for an hour or so and go for a hike or a walk or a bike ride.

The weather here has been awesome this week (though there are still a few patches of snow left from last weekend's storm) and I decided he was right. I made a plan to meet my friend, Leslie, on Thursday morning at a nearby trailhead after we dropped our kiddos off at school. 

We had a GREAT walk and kept within our time parameters, and I was very thankful for the exercise and conversation. We got back to our cars and she looked over and said, "Hey, Mer, what's wrong with your van window?"

OH. MY. GOSH.

MY WINDOW WAS SHATTERED.

I immediately ran over and realized that my purse was gone. 

And the freaking out began.

I called the police (though it was slightly comical that I could SEE the police station from the trailhead). While I waited for an officer to arrive, I looked around to see if someone had perhaps grabbed my purse and ditched it after fishing out my wallet. Remember my cute, red Vera Bradley bag? Yeah, that's the one that was stolen and if it had been tossed, it would have been easy to spot on the piles of snow. 

No purse. 

I quickly did a mental inventory of what was in my purse. 

My wallet--driver's license, credit card, debit cards, NO cash

My coupons

Some gift cards (Starbucks and the teahouse--boo hoo!)

My house keys

Wait! My house keys??? Now I was really freaking out. I looked in the van for my garage opener, and thank goodness it wasn't taken. Nor was my camera that was in between my seats. If you happen to know the project I'm working on, you know how amazing it was that my camera wasn't in my purse!

I called John and he got to work canceling all my bank cards.

Now...just so you know...I didn't leave my purse in plain sight. I can't even believe I brought it with me, but for some reason I did. I tried to hide it behind the passenger seat, and I thought I did a decent job. Evidently not. Also, this was a BRAZEN act that happened in broad daylight at a busy trailhead in a heavy traffic area. It's not remote in the least. CRAZY.

The policeman got there, fingerprinted everything, then wrote up his report. I told him I was skittish about going home because my keys had been in my purse. He followed me home, searched the house with me, and then sat me down and talked me through the steps I needed to take next.

About this time I realized that my iPod was also in my purse. The iPod that John bought for me and that I'd only had for 45 days. It slowly sunk in that it was GONE. I nearly cried. Okay, I did cry. Because it made me sad AND mad.

John arrived shortly after the officer left and sent me to Home Depot to buy a new deadbolt and door locks, which it turns out is actually quite challenging to do without your wallet and ID. 

It was about this time that I glanced in the mirror and realized that I needed to put some lipstick on. A nanosecond later, I realized that every single tube of lipstick I own (except the gaudy hot pink one) was in my purse. GONE. Arghhhhh...

While John vacuumed all the glass out of my van and changed the locks, I spent a great deal of time on the phone with my insurance company and the glass company. Thankfully, I found a guy who was able to put in a new window yesterday afternoon.

The bottom line, friends, is that I learned an expensive lesson about leaving my purse in the car.

$100 - glass deductible for new van window.

$  50 - new door locks. Peace of mind, however, is priceless.

$  21 - new CO driver's license. I was in and out of the DMV in five minutes today--a small miracle.

$  15 - new lipsticks at Ulta! I even had a coupon at home.

I still need to buy a new wallet, but I'm gonna have to wait awhile to replace my iPod and purse. My kids were awesome though. Each of them offered me their iPod. How sweet is that?

Anyway, it's been a week I'm happy to see end. I'm wiped out emotionally and physically. I'm still very angry too. I didn't really need the hassle or the expense of all this. Especially this week. But what can you do?

I sure hope you guys have all had a better and less stressful week. If you leave your purse in your car--regardless of whether it's locked or not--please think twice. Trust me, it's not worth the headache.