31. Famous last words (unedited)

They weren't last words, and they aren't famous, but I said a couple of things that have come back to haunt me. Let's start with last night:

Instead I have a lot of thoughts to express during the next few nights, although it cost me about $140 in rum and coins. At least I hope that's all it cost me.

Turns out that it did cost me more. I'm 99.44 percent sure that my digital camera was swiped as well as my coins and rum. I can't find it, and it was likely sitting in its little black case on my kitchen counter amongst a ton of stuff. It likely stuck out as being a digital camera, and it was small, so it was easily swiped.

It was an older camera, the kind with the smaller view screen on the back. It was probably three or four years old. It was a Christmas gift from Monica on Christmas 2007, however, so it burns me as much as the $100+ in coins. I hadn't used it tons over the past 18 months, but it was the first digital camera I had ever owned. She bought it used, because she couldn't afford to buy me a brand new digital camera, but she bought if from her then-boyfriend's family, and it was in excellent shape. I didn't care that it was a year outdated or used, it was my first digital camera, and it was a highly thoughtful gift. That's what made it special, even if I wasn't taking tons of pictures every week.

The sad part is that not only did it have sentimental value to me, it is of no value to the jackass who took it. (I still think it was just one person, but obviously I can't know for sure.) It's old, so it has no value to anyone. And it has one of those goofy battery packs that needs a special charger. So to recharge the battery, the moron will have to buy a new charger for it, and of course you can't buy one at Target like you could buy AA batteries. Chances are that outdated camera is going to end up in a trash can. I guess it's better that the moron took that instead of the credit card sitting in a stack of cards on my counter, but it still stings.

Trust me, this plan is brilliant, just don't break into my apartment, there's likely to be $300 in cash in my dresser drawer.

I wrote that last summer, after being frustrated by ATM machines. I sat in line for several minutes behind a car where four people had to get cash out of the machine. In the meantime people who arrived after me were already out of the neighboring line. I was the only car in either line when I left, and I was pissed, as a couple of cars that arrived after me were already gone before I ever pulled up to the machine.

That's when I vowed to start taking out $300 at a time from savings and keeping it in my apartment. Each time I needed cash I would take $40 or $100 and then go online in the next day or so and transfer cash from checking to savings, so when it was all over, I had $300 in savings to withdraw. I've done that successfully several times no, with no regrets.

And true to my word, I've kept that cash in the top dresser drawer. I keep it in a bank envelope and take what I need when I need it. A week ago I took a larger than normal amount and emptied the envelope, in part because I knew I was going shopping for several things and decided I'd pay cash rather than have five separate debit card charges to deduct in my checkbook. (Because I'm old fashioned and still keep a checkbook ledger.)

As it turns out, the idiot never checked that drawer, and even had he done so, he wouldn't have found $20 bills, just $68 in small miscellaneous bills, (I counted before I moved them to a far less obvious location,) and two Minnesota Twins tickets. So even if I had been unlucky when it came to that drawer, I would have been spared a $300 loss.

Obviously the thief didn't read my blog before hitting up my apartment, not that he could have linked the blog to me anyway.

Despite the depressing realization this morning that the camera was gone, too, I still consider myself very lucky, given the situation. Details to follow in the next day or two.