(no subject)

[brigdh]

My bag was stolen today.

I did not think, at first, that it had actually been stolen, mainly because I could not imagine anyone bothering to sneak into a supposedly-secure classroom building, wander around the upper floors until discovering a lab full of noisy people, and dig through a pile of coats and purses to steal only my battered, ancient, plastic bag with a broken zipper, but apparently this is what someone would do.

I still didn't mind much once it became obvious someone else hadn't picked up my bag by accident or kicked it behind a chair, because I'd had less than ten dollars in cash in my wallet, only one credit card which was easy enough to cancel, and I'd needed to buy a new bag anyway.

It wasn't until I started having to fill out a report with the security guards that I realized just how much stuff I've lost. A lot of it is little things; annoying to replace but not worth much: hats and gloves, an umbrella, articles and notes for classes, notebooks of half-written stories and ideas, the expensive lip balm I bought just this morning in an attempt to break the habit of biting my chapped lips until they bleed. But other things are harder to get by without: my passport (along with every single other piece of ID I own, but the passport's what will be hardest to replace), the keys to my apartment. And things that I can't replace, because I couldn't afford to buy them the first time, things that were gifts: my digital camera, my ipod. Clearly I should just not own an ipod, because my first one broke in barely a year, and I didn't even have this one for that long.

And people kept telling me how sorry they were, and what could I do but shrug and smile and say, "it wasn't your fault"? Because it's not like anything I lost was vital, or irreplaceable; none of it's really anything but spoiled middle-class toys. But I am upset. I want my things back, and I want to say how not fair it is that only my stuff was stolen, though I know how utterly inappropriate the concept of 'fair' is to the whole thing, and it's not like I want anyone else to have been stolen from too.

I was terribly calm and amused all through the rest of classes today, but now I say to you, o livejournal people: God! I am so upset and pissed off! I shouldn't cry over an ipod, but I really, really want to.

Comments

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I've had my stuff stolen before and you're right: it is terribly unfair. I admit I wished a heck of a lot of bad karma on the person who stole my things, even at the expense of fucking up my own karma. :(

♥

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

♥

Ah, well. I'm sure they deserved the bad karma! And you were due some good karma for getting stolen from.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* It was YOUR STUFF and someone TOOK it from you. You have every right to be upset and pissed off! *More hugs*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Yeah, I know. I just hate to be emotional in front of people I don't know well. But I will complain to you all!

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey, I'm sorry.

I don't see why you shouldn't feel like crying over an ipod, either. It's your stuff, and you worked to have it, and it isn't fair. I feel particularly horrible about the ipod, because I know how important your music is to you, and those notebooks.

In fact, my curses on the person who took those notebooks. May hir significant other find them, decide they're involved with an OMG Pervert! and leave hir cold, with maximum angst and heartbreak to the thief.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh my ipod! I feel like I lost a baby; I don't know how I'm supposed to function now. How do all you other people manage to walk places or travel or shop without music to listen to?

*laughs* That is an excellent curse, and one I join in on wishing on the thief. Though nearly everything in them also existed on my computer, so most of what was lost irrevocably was characters sketches and random thoughts rather than complete stories, which would have broken my heart.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Aw, you have absolutely every right to be upset, even if it is just things. They were your things and no one had the right to take them. I am sorry that that happened to you.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. It's just frustrating. But thank you.

[chiasmus.livejournal.com]

*hug* I had my bag snatched a couple years back. I'm still bitter about it, and in no hurry to ever go back to Barcelona.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

God, isn't it terrible?

*hugs*

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry! It's terrible to have your things stolen. Maybe if you were the Buddha you wouldn't mind, but we all do get attached to things, and there's no point in adding guilt for owning and caring about an iPod to your upset over losing it. It's a toy, but it's also how you listen to music, and music is important.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you're very right. And music is important! I miss it.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

I think you have a right to be upset and pissed off, since something bad happened to you. I'm sorry this happened to you. ::hugs::

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

Thank you. *hugs*

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

I have nothing helpful to add, I'm afraid, except to say that you indeed have a right to feel what you're feeling, and if I were in that position, I'd feel the same thing.

Hugs and love.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Hugs and love are very much appreciated.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Hee. But everyone wearing hats now is wearing the cold-weather kind that pulls down to your ears! If I knock those off, I'll have to knock off their whole heads. *grins* Actually...

[chthonicsiren.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's your iPod that makes you want to cry--maybe it's the sense of violation that comes with someone else going through and handling your stuff. Anyhow, I am sorry that such a shitty thing happened to you. People suck ass.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

But it really pretty much is the ipod; I have a sad addiction to music and can't function without it, and thus form weirdly symbiotic bonds with the tools I use to listen to it.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Aren't ipods around $200.00? Hell yeah I would be pissed if anyone stole mine! Are there any online voodoo dolls? Not that I believe they work so much as it might be something nice to take it out on.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Mine was a 30gig video ipod, so it was even more than that. I don't have that kind of money; it was a present for graduating from college with honors and magna cum laude. So it's doubly annoying: not only do I now not have any ipod, but this one had special meaning and all.

I should totally find an online voodoo doll.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's even worse. Someone at my high school stole my Christmas present leather jacket. It wasn't even in my locker, I stored it (with permission) in the teacher's! I remember the kick in the gut that was, and I was so mad about it, but the school didn't do anything at all. I sympathize with you very much, and I hope the bastard out there gets what they deserve.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sucks. Poor you! I can't believe your school didn't do anything.

[weirdquark]

Oh, man, that sucks. I'm sorry.

It's kind of telling that the thing that made me go, oh no! the most was the loss of the notebook with the half-written stories. I mean, replacing keys and ID will be a pain, but stories never come out the same way when writing them from scratch. (Which is sometimes a good thing, but still.)

Are there non-breakable things you can hurl across the room until you feel better?

::hugs::

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

My notebooks seem to be getting the most sympathy! I appreciate it; non-writers would never get that loss. But thankfully most of the actual story material in the notebooks were also on my computer. The stuff I lost was more theoretical ideas about characters and situations and plot bunnies, that kind of stuff.

[iilii.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Aw, that really sucks. I had a box with my passport stolen a few years ago, and I basically had to get a new one. The new one, though, says "This is a replacement for a lost passport," and I think that's the reason I was stopped and had my bag searched at every airport security point after that. :/ Of all of the stuff in that box, it was my passport and my writing portfolio that I missed the most. It completely sucks to lose what you've written, but it makes you start with a clean slate. You're starting from scratch, but it forces you to improve, too.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that sucks. I hope the new one I get doesn't have that; I have to use my passport for ID so often that it would be terrible to be constantly getting stopped.

Yeah, though. It's terrible to lose art you've created.

[threewalls]

I feel for you and your stolen notebooks.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[oyceter]

GAH! I use my monster icon on your behalf!

That is awful; I would be incredibly pissed off and upset and want to cry as well if it had only been the iPod, or the passport, or the camera, or the notebooks. But all of them!

I had my backpack stolen once, and the only thing I really lost were half a semester's worth of econ notes. And that alone was enough to get me mad and want to kick something.

*hugs*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! I appreciate the monster icon.

I know. It's so annyoing to lose everything, because half of it I need to get back the other half: I can't get credit cards until I get new IDs, I can't buy a new bag until I get credit cards, etc. Oh, it's frustrating. But thank you! Hugs are nice.

[rackhamrose.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't cry over an ipod

Why not?

It may be a thing, and a little thing at that, but it's yours; someone violated your boundaries to get at it. It means something to you. When people fuck with the things that have meaning for you, you're entitled to be upset.

(Besides, crying isn't something that obeys "shoulds". If it helps, I offer cyber hugs.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

That's true. Thank you.

And cyber hugs are always welcome.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey. Your music. Your words. Hugs just don't cover it, but they're yours anyway. ::hugs::

That thief is in for a hell of a time when it all comes due.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. It does feel comforting to know that other people get the loss.

*hugs*

[veleda-k.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say something more than "I'm sorry," but I don't know what.

Ipods are freaking expensive. Having something like that stolen is terrible from a pragmatic standpoint alone, and then there's the (completely valid) emotional reaction. No wonder you feel like crying. And your notebook too. I'm glad to hear that you had most of your actual stories on computer, but it's still terrible to have your work taken from you like that.

Do you have the same music that was on your ipod on you computer, or is all that gone too?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

'I'm sorry' is completely adequate. Thank you.

Nearly all of my music is also on my computer or on CDs (...I cannot actually fit all of my music on my computer's harddrive; it's very sad), because I keep hardcopies of my music so that I can upload it for other people. Which I suppose has turned out to greatly benefit me as well. One of those neat karma things. So that's good, though I am still upset to have lost all my organization and playlists and tags and especially the portability of it; I can't listen to my laptop while I walk somewhere.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh I have so had that day. Cry. And hit things. It helps.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ah, well. I only had to cry a little, in the end, though I'm still glad I didn't do it in front of anyone. I think some of the other people in the class were more upset than I was.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Aww, those bastards! That would make me want to cry too. Because, yeah okay, nothing exactly life shakingly vauable, but all those things were your essential stuff. And ipods are really not that cheap to replace.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Thank you for the sympathy.

[solo.livejournal.com]

I would be furious. Especially about the ipod. I'd curse them to the deepest pits of hell.

I guess you don't have insurance? It's just that, sometimes, even home contents insurance covers one or two valuables you take outside the home, but people often forget that...

Also, I hope you reported it to the cops. Sometimes they do get lucky.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was very not pleased.

I'm fairly certain not, but since it was a gift I'd better call the person who bought it and see if they got insurance, just in case.

[goddessgrrrrl.livejournal.com]

That would piss me off beyond words.

I cried when I lost my cute neo-flapper hat on the T (wasn't even stolen, just lost by silly me). I can't imagine how I'd feel about an Ipod, especially if it were stolen- It would be enough to make me want to choke a bitch. I wish bad karma on the dips*** who did that.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's almost more annoying to lose things, though, because then I feel like it's my fault. At least being stolen from seems more like just one of those things that happens, and doesn't have anything to do with a mistake I made.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

When I was in college, I got into the habit of leaving my backpack in the friendly art area and go to the library to check my email. Cause I was young then and email was new and shiny cause I'm old. ANYWAY. Someone stole my purple LL Bean backpack. Took everything out of it and piled it neatly on the table and took my backpack. And it sucked donkey cock, even though I didn't have to replace my books or any of my shit, aside from the backpack.

I am so sorry about this. And your iPod! Hells! You have every right to be upset and pissed off.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sucks. Though I guess it's nice they took your stuff out; every college I've been at has a huge problem with people stealing textbooks to sell for drug money. But it's always terribly annoying to be stolen from, no matter what it is.

Thank you. I appreciate all the kind thoughts.