Well my holiday season kicked off early when I got home and discovered our Christmas decorations have been stolen. Ho ho ho. We kept a box of our stuff in an outside storage space, and it's been taken apart and gone through (they also took a sleeping bag...good move, since it's turned chilly again). They basically took only the really sentimental stuff that really hurts to lose. Stuff like my grandmother's 12 days of Christmas bells, which I only got last year after she died and was hoping to keep as a family heirloom. And our Celtic nativity from Ireland, which John's mom has been sending us piece by piece each year we've been married. Just last year we completed the set.
We also lost all our cards (our tradition is to buy them at the after Xmas sales), all our Xmas music & movies, our stockings, lights, the stocking hanger which was like the first thing I bought in LA, and several little things my folks have sent over the years (tapes of the music from my childhood Christmases, a DVD of their fireplace - you know, like the yule log). Mostly it's not worth anything. It's just stuff that we liked but didn't have room to store in this goddam tiny apartment.
Mostly I am OK. I actually kept it pretty cool until I realized Granny's bells were gone. That hurt. I have some beautiful photos of them (and the nativity) from last year, though. But yeah, it's gonna be awfully bare around here this year. And I don't have the heart to replace any of it. If you usually get a card from me, it's probably not going to happen this year.
The longer this night wears on the worse I feel about it. It's a lot of irreplaceable stuff. It's just gone. I mean, we'll try calling some pawn shops on Friday, but that's just so we can feel like we tried. It's pretty disheartening.
All in all, my original reaction: "Oh well, it's just stuff" still holds true. I really wasn't that attached to it and even knew that it was risky to leave it where it could be taken. But still, I don't think it's right to say I'm somehow to blame. Our culture loves to blame victims, especially because then you can feel like you're somehow safer because you'd never do something so stupid. Ha. You don't have to do anything stupid. Someone else just has to be mean.
Like my ma said, even if you leave something sitting right out it doesn't give anybody the right to steal it. People just shouldn't steal. It's mean and stupid. And to steal Christmas decorations is just wrong. It's so dumb.
Well, I hope whoever winds up with the stuff is happy. I think I'll let myself cry a little and then suck it up. It's just stuff, after all. It's just stuff.
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6 comments:
Crap, that really stinks! I am sorry...
Oh, I'm sorry to hear this. What odd things to take! We have boxes of such things, and it's hard to imagine they would mean anything outside the family context.
Delurking: Having recently broken a vintage family mixing bowl that held decades of fond memories for me...I can't imagine my sadness combined with outrage at someone having stolen such an heirloom. I am so sorry this happened to you.
I am so sorry. That is really, really awful.
When we lived on N. Oakland our outdoor storage space was rummaged through so many times...all we ever kept in it was empty moving boxes, and after those got trashed we just stopped keeping anything at all back there. I'm sorry that situation hasn't improved.
Offer it up to the poor souls in Purgatory. They don't get any Christmas decorations.
Perhaps you are victim of the war on Christmas everyone is so worried about.
This sort of thing is very hard. It happened to my mother -- break in while she was at god child's wedding: they took her wedding things. She didn't need them, but it hurt her to the core.
Over this Thanksgiving, someone broke in on us, kicking in the front door. I strongly suspect a street meth addict we've actually come to know a little. Completely trashed the door, stole some socks (would have given them if I'd been here) -- and for some reason took some very old family books! Not sale-able. This too hurts. But mostly, it is going to cost a lot to get a new front door (still waiting) and it feels creepy.
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