Routine is Good

Do you ever find yourself thinking that your life is routine and boring? Do you ever wish for more excitement?

May I tell you to get down on your knees and pray that said excitement never arrives?!

Tuesday morning my father woke me up at 4am. Apparently, someone had broken into our home. The kids were fine and not much was disturbed. They had used a votive candle downstairs and turned of the power in my father's side; the breakers that control his power are hidden inside an old, unused apartment downstairs. Then the burglar crept upstairs, managing not to disturb the two dogs nor myself, rifled through my purse (not taking the whole purse), took my wallet, coin purse and digital camera and left.

It was all very odd.

There were no wet footprints which meant that either s/he (I'm trying not to presume the sex) waited, dried her/his shoes or it had happened earlier.

S/He must have been looking around the downstairs area of the house (essentially unused - the kids store their bikes there) and the extra apartment to have known that there was a breaker box there. I'm also curious how s/he knew that the downstairs breaker would control power up here. Was s/he just lucky?

Additionally creepy is the fact that I was sleeping just 10-15 feet away from where this person entered our home (I sleep on the front room floor).

The good news is that so little was touched and that, most importantly, we were all safe. My dad installed locks on the downstairs apartment door and on our door at the top of the stairs; previously, these doors had not been locked over the last 28 years.

The only real residual affect (other than having money issues as we wait for debit and credit cards and new checks to arrive) is that my children are a bit leery. Eliza and I had a conversation last night as she was scared someone would break in again.

I just have to laugh - probably to keep from being freaked out - because the situation was so odd - the breakers thrown, only the wallet taken, the dogs not barking, blah, blah, blah.

The thing that freaked me out the most was after we had reported the break-in, a police officer called me back to say that he would be arriving in about 15-20 min. He called from the local hospital. I had a moment's pause when I saw the hospital on caller ID and thought the worst (bad things always coming in threes and all that). When the officer was here, I told him he really should call from a cell phone or some other phone than the hospitals; it's not good to further traumatize people who are already on edge.