I GOT LUCKY TONIGHT!

It’s not what you think (at least not yet).

But after what happened earlier tonight, I consider myself very fortunate.

I had just finished working out at Planet Fitness in Hagerstown. I had roughly 15 minutes to shower & change to make sure I make it to daycare in time to pick up Matthew. As I walked towards my locker I thought something looked different. And then I realized that my snazzy blue master lock was not where it was supposed to be.

the soon to be replaced lock

I immediately thought I must have been distracted before heading out and left it off. So I glance in my bag, but don’t see it. As I start to panic, I realize that my pants are missing. My heart sinks, and I begin to freak out. My keys, my wallet… Holy $#*!

How the hell am I going to get home from Hagerstown? Anne is in DC. With traffic – I could be sitting in Hagerstown for the next 3 hours. More importantly… I’m going to have to cancel all of my credit cards, personal and business, get a new license. Holy $#*!, has my car been stolen??? Just as my mind is spinning at a mile a minute, I look around at the other lockers and see my pants sitting 4 spots over, rolled up and stuffed into a small locker towards the ground.

As I pull them out I am amazed that my “wallet” is still in tact. See, my wallet is not really a wallet (see picture).

Riley managed to tear into my old leather wallet a while back and I have been rocking one of Anne’s hair bands (not Poison or Motley Crue) ever since. So Riley, without knowing, managed to save me a lot of pain and aggravation. Perhaps he was finally making up from other past experiences.

This survived Riley's destruction - sort of

Even crazier to me was the fact that I had just put together a business card sized mantra that I am using for the journey earlier in the day that sat on top of my credit cards. And the other side of the “wallet” has my goals listed. So the would be thief may have even quickly looked at my “wallet” not even realizing what was hiding behind the paper. 2 personal credit cards, 3 work credit cards, a little cash, insurance cards, a Costco card, and most importantly – my Ize’s frequent diner card. And my car keys were in the pocket of my jacket, which was hanging exactly where I had left it. Even more amazing was that inside my bag was my watch, which not only was an engagement gift from my in-laws, but it is also pretty expensive. Perhaps this was the worst thief of all time?

Over the course of the next few minutes I come to find out that 4 or 5 other lockers got hit – locks were cut off and lockers rifled though. Others were not so lucky. Wallets were missing, along with some coats and cash. One of the managers had come thru trying to gauge exactly how many lockers were broken into and exactly what was taken. At that time he told me that they found my lock sitting on top of my locker. He brought it back to me and I considered myself lucky to have escaped any drama. After double checking (again) that everything I brought into the gym was still there, I called Anne and asked if she could pick up Matthew and quickly told her what had happened.

By this time the locker room had just about everyone checking on their stuff. I figured all was well with me and I stripped down to my shorts ready to head into the shower as I could now lock my gear again. The manager sees me and asks if the lock is functioning ok. I hadn’t even thought of testing it, and had just placed it right back onto my locker. And now I DO have a problem. Not only are my belongings locked in a locker that I cant get the lock off of… I am walking around the locker room in my shorts, still covered in sweat with a towel and a bottle of body wash. Even better, I can’t find the manager.

I can’t walk out to the front desk to find him. At least not topless. For one, its not appropriate. Secondly, I don’t even like walking around without my shirt off in the locker room. Luckily a few minutes later I tracked down Manager Mike and asked him to find some bolt cutters. Needless to say there was a lot going on, and he wasn’t even sure they had bolt cutters on the premises. So here I am on a roller coaster ride of emotions… freaking out, relieved, frustrated. Thankfully, while he was looking, I kept pulling on the lock and did manage to get it removed.

After filling out an incident report I couldn’t get home fast enough. I do realize that “stuff” can always be replaced, but I’ll take the luck anytime. Perhaps the luck of my new mantra will continue paying dividends. We will just have to wait and see.