$#@*!!!
Submitted by Andrew Farago on July 1, 2009 - 03:14
Man, what a week. Work's running me ragged, Shaenon and I are thinking about making the most major purchase of our entire lives, and I got mugged yesterday, so I'm pretty much made of 100% stress right now.
I wasn't going to mention the mugging to anyone, but I'm stressed out, and I figure this will get it out of my system. Short version is that I had to go back to work last night to fax some paperwork for the aforementioned major purchase, so I took the BART downtown around 8pm. A couple of guys came up to me and asked if I had any drugs on me, then walked away when I ignored them, and I got off at my stop and walked to work. I punched in the security code at my office building, and just after I stepped inside, the two guys from the BART train followed me into the building, cornered me, ransacked my backpack, grabbed my iPod out of my pocket, then ran off. I just now realized that they also grabbed my digital camera, which was still loaded up with all sorts of pictures that I'd never gotten around to downloading.
On the plus side, they didn't beat me up, and they didn't take my wallet. On the downside, I'm full of stress, anger, insecurity, and I'm out $400 worth of electronics that I'd rather be spending money to replace--I'd just bought the camera a couple of months ago, and the iPod was a birthday present from Shaenon that probably had another three years in it before reaching total obsolescence.
The injustice of the whole thing is what I just can't cope with on a fundamental level. The idea that any two guys--or any one big guy, really--can just violate your world like that... It's a schoolyard level of unfairness. Why did they do that? Because they could. What are the chances they'll find these guys? Probably next to none.
The thoughts that this is putting in my head are really bothering me, too. I'm mad at myself for not fighting these guys, but realistically, I know that two against one, especially since they might have been armed, wouldn't have been in my favor in an empty building. But it still bothers me that I didn't do anything beyond trying to hang onto the stuff they were taking from me. I'm mad at the government and the economy and George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger and everyone who made the bad decisions that screwed up our economy to the point that I don't feel I can walk the street safely alone at 8pm. I'm troubled that at least on some level, I want these guys dead. I'm sure that I'd be perfectly happy just getting my stuff back and having the peace of mind that would come with having these guys locked up, but the reality is that a couple of creeps are out there sleeping soundly and enjoying my stuff while I'm looking forward to another week or two of restlessness and paranoia.
Oh, yeah, and there's a new installment of my comic up, which you can see here. I think those guys stole some drawing pens out of my bag, too, come to think of it. The hits just keep on coming.
Recent Comments