These Things Happen...Although More Often When I'm Around Him....

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event that caused intense fear, helplessness, or horror. PTSD can result from personally experienced traumas (e.g., rape, war, natural disasters, abuse, serious accidents, and captivity) or from the witnessing or learning of a violent or tragic event.  While it is common to experience a brief state of anxiety or depression after such occurrences, people with PTSD continually re-experience the traumatic event; avoid individuals, thoughts, or situations associated with the event; and have symptoms of excessive emotions. People with this disorder have these symptoms for longer than one month and cannot function as well as they did before the traumatic event. PTSD symptoms usually appear within three months of the traumatic experience; however, they sometimes occur months or even years later.*

Today was mostly a good day.  I dropped off Phoenix with Jamie and Jonas and went to work for three hours.  Went to get him and stayed and talked with them for about an hour and a half, then went home, made some lunch and napped.  Woke up, ate some dinner and then went to play trivia at a bar in downtown (Old Town) Louisville with "Dane" (we took 2nd and were pretty proud of it, we were the only team with only two people, everyone else had 4 or more).  Hung out at his place for like and hour and I left, only to find the truck door ajar, and when I opened it, my purse was gone and the glovebox was open.  I ran back and banged on his door and we called the police.  They showed up and I filed a report and talked to them for a few minutes.  I lost my very favorite purple purse (although now I have a reason to get a new one, I guess), my wallet and everything in it (including a credit card, debit card, drivers license, all my EMT cert cards, my Social Security Card, my car and health insurance cards, all my membership cards and $33 cash), plus everything in my purse which includes my pocket knife, my check book, my only pair of glasses (which cost like $300+ alone), my camera ($200ish), two glasses cases, my USB drive with a bunch of pictures and documents on it, a bunch of cards advertising this blog that I just made today, all my lipglosses, a pocket measuring tape, and the little notebook I carry around to write everything down in that had all my student loan passwords, names and phone numbers of people, lists, my small-business ideas, just about everything you can imagine.

Yeah, I'm pissed.  But, I know that these things happen, and as what my mom sarcastically calls an agnostic (she's being sarcastic because I was raised Lutheran and pretty much refuse to go to church with her and my dad), I have to believe that these things happen for a reason.  Everything that was in my purse is replaceable, and yes, it will be a pain in the ass to have to do all the work to replace everything, but I have my phone and my car keys and there was no damage to the truck, so I have to be thankful for the small things.  I'm honestly not that upset, altogether.  They didn't take my CDs, and as far as I know there was nothing else in the truck of any value!  The Lafayette police were extremely courteous and helpful, and I'm grateful for that.  I've already canceled my credit and debit cards, without any transactions having taken place and I'll be getting in touch with the bank tomorrow.  I wish they'd have just taken the damn cash and left all my stuff, but whatever.  Luckily, also, I'm an extremely organized person, and I knew exactly, to the smallest detail, what was in my wallet and my purse, so I know exactly what was taken so it can all be replaced.  I've already gone in and changed passwords and other access information, so I can only hope that it doesn't lead to identity theft.  I'm not sure what else I can do to prevent that, since my SS card was in there.

I'm off work tomorrow, which is also lucky, so that I can spend most of my day getting my shit back together again.  

But I'm totally exhausted and it's late.  I have a lot of reflections I want to make on spending more time with Dane, but I'm sure my brain will continue to process the information and so I will write about that tomorrow.  As for today, I'm at home, I'm healthy and safe, my dog is safe, and my losses were not astronomical and there are things I can do to fix the current situation I find myself in.  So it's off to bed with a couple Advil PM (I have no interest in lying here awake and thinking about what happened), and much to write about tomorrow.

"NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness | Mental Illnesses." NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness - Mental Health Support, Education and Advocacy. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. <http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=54&ContentID=68642>.*