So after the break in, I had to start getting my life back in order. You don’t realize how much stuff is in one thing until you lose it. I lost my driver’s license, credit cards, check book, office key with my paycheck stubs in my purse and my journal, talk about feeling violated! I mean someone being in your apartment is violation enough but the thought of someone getting a hold of my journal, my inner most personal thoughts! Something you don’t let anyone read at all! And now it’s somewhere out there floating around for people to read. Talk about feeling extremely violated and vulnerable and naked. Can I please get my journal back? Everything else is replaceable, just give me my journal back!

I was driving around with no license for a few days. Well I had an expired driver’s license but what good does that do me? I went to the DMV to get a temporary license after a few days only because my coworkers told me to. Then there was the hassle of opening a bank account so that I could have access to my money. Mind you I had no debit or credit cards. I only had my passport and ssn card as proof of ID. I take it down to the bank and they tell me that I can’t open an account without a second form of ID. What other form of ID do you need? They said I needed a credit card from another bank. I’m like, I don’t have anything! Everything was stolen! So no new bank account. I had to wait several days for one of my replacement credit cards to come in the mail so that I could go back down and try to open an account again. Oye!

In the middle of all this, I’m scrambling to contact my credit card companies that got charged by the person who stole my stuff. I have to get the store, store number, amount, time, and location or as much information that I can get to provide to the officer to try and track down this person. Everyday during the week, throughout the day, my lunch hour, I was on the phone with credit card companies getting all this information. Exhausting! I haven’t even thought about the security of my own home. So much stuff to think of, I just want to fall apart. I don’t know how I’ve kept up with all this stuff.

I finally get my new credit cards in the mail. I head down to the bank, got my new account. Next I have to go through all my bills and change the draft accounts, the automatic transactions and all that stuff. You know what I mean. It takes me two hours to go through each and every single one. I think I got all of them. You don’t realize how much activity goes through your bank accounts because everything is so automated these days. Oh yeah so I still have to go back to the bank to change my ID  because I opened it with my passport and not my driver’s license. Round and round I go.

Week two. It’s finally dying down a bit. I can’t believe all that happened in one week! It felt like a lifetime! I still have to ask my building manager if they will change my windows to the newer modern ones. I have to get a camera system and maybe security in my apartment. People are asking me if I’m moving and I say no. I’m not in any position to move right now. Yes I’m still paranoid that I would come home and my front window is broken and my place is ransacked. I still wake up in the middle of the night and check if my front door is unlocked. But it’s only been two weeks. All that will go away once I get the security system in place and the anxiety wears down. I don’t leave the windows open anymore. Even though it gets stuffy in the apartment on some days. I just open them when I’m home. I always lock the door behind me even when I’m doing laundry or taking Mochi out in the courtyard.

This really has been a big eye opener as to how I live my life. I used to be so nonchalant about everything, leaving doors unlocked and windows opened all the time and now that has changed. I live on the first floor. I’m an easy target. I’m the first apartment you see when you come through the entry gate. No more random deliveries to my apartment.

It’s still a big blessing that no one was hurt. It was a good thing Mochi didn’t bark and wake me up to someone in my apartment. Maybe this was a warning to say that I’m too easy going with my living situation. It could have been worse! A lot worse! My world was turned upside down for a bit, but it’s getting back to normal and it’s making me change the way I live.