Commence Part 2:

And welcome, to the day I have declared to be the second worst day of my life ever, for sheer "oh my god, my life has just become a nightmare" quality!

After ASL class last night, Heather told me she'd found a girl's wallet, with money and cards intact. We were both leery at the idea of turning it over to the police, so I suggested (since Heather only is on campus Tuesday through Thursday) that I look up this girl at work and contact her to pick it up at my office.

After class, we went to Borders to look for books on ASL, and took a bloody long time about it, until closing. In a panic about leaving ASAP after I bought my book, I put my wallet in my coat pocket instead of back in my backpack.

Naturally, I don't realize until I've been home for an hour or so, sometime around midnight to one a.m. while I'm packing to go home for the weekend, that... the wallet is gone. Not in the house. Not in the street outside. I panic and call Heather, only to find out that she's (a) left her car in Sacramento at her date's place, and (b) she and the date are in his car, going to a party out in the freaking boonies, and not likely to return until tomorrow afternoon. Now, it was probably just as likely to be in her car as in the Borders store or parking lot, but presumably this was also just as unsafe, since her car has been broken into before. So I wigged and called Mom to tell her I couldn't take a train without money or ID at 1 a.m., then spent the rest of the night kinda hysterical.

Misscourtness was a freaking saint to deal with me and virtually hold my hand through all of the phone calls I had to make the next morning. I called Borders, and they didn't have it. I called the police, who refused to make out a report for a missing wallet. (Then why did I used to see those all the time when I worked at the paper, huh?) I called credit agencies and found out that to get anything done with them, I'd have to send a certified letter with a ton of information and some money, so I scrapped that one for the time being. And I had to get my bank account closed. I wanted to hold off on doing that until I knew if Heather had it or not in her car, but the bank advised me that a six-hour delay wasn't good if a thief had the wallet. I hoped I wouldn't end up wishing I hadn't later.

I tried going home during lunch (since I couldn't go buy lunch the way I'd been planning to before), partly to see if Heather would come home during then. Nope, and she wasn't answering her phone. I did find out that the repair guys are coming back yet again tomorrow to fix the closet doors again, but at least I won't be home to deal with it. Heather did, however, call around 1:20 to say she'd found the wallet and left it at home for me. PHEW!!! No new ID-making! Yaaaay!

I told some of my coworkers what was going on (along with my boss, who was all, "Whatever you have to do, okay"), and one of them said, "Oh, I lost my wallet in August 2001, and I'm still paying for it. Someone's still racking up stuff in my name!" I thanked the gods that wasn't me as yet.

The other crappy thing that happened today was at a meeting we had. I probably shouldn't go into details here, but the mailing list folks will find out more. (If you're not on the mailing list and curious, feel free to e-mail me.) I will just say that a very embarrassing and humiliating situation sprung up that made me realize that yes, my job may actually be on the chopping block, and not everyone supports what I do. Well, not that the last bit wasn't news, but I didn't know what I work on was so violently hated. I felt sick.

After work, I got my wallet, which I then kissed multiple times and told it that it would never be parted from me again, and headed to the bank. After much waiting, I found out that only my card had been closed, not my accounts OR the checks, so I can at least still write rent and bill checks later. Phew. After that, I took my reclaimed cash and went to the co-op for some much needed alcohol.

On the way out, I ran into this woman who was trying to sell handmade cards in the parking lot. ("Uh, lady, there's better ways to sell your art than that", I should have said.) I told her I couldn't exactly pay up right now and she was okay with that, said we'd talk later. Heh.

I went home, opened up a bottle, popped two 5-HTP pills, took a shower, and am feeling much groovier now. Plus the girl missing her wallet wrote me back an e-mail and we arranged to meet up on Monday. We're both saved!

Incidentally, I got an e-mail from Jess today (I hadn't even told her about today yet!), saying that my life was so crazy that it had to go into a novel, and if I don't write it, she will! I have to say that (a) I've thought that too, I just don't know how to make it into a plot, and (b) I rather like the idea of an Alice B. Toklas thing....

I can't wait to see what she makes of THIS day.

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