I never leave my wallet behind. Okay, so that statement isn't really true anymore. Correction: I never used to leave my wallet behind. Hopefully never will again ...
I blame Heather. Co-worker Heather, not old friend Heather. I had no idea the new Sookie Stackhouse book was out. I love her series. It's the series that got me back into reading about vampires (sorry Stephanie, but Twilight is lost for me). I am going to be severely broken-hearted if Charlaine Harris doesn't end the series I want her to (read: the way it SHOULD end). So, Heather has the book sitting on her desk when I get into work, and I just about lose my sh@t. (Who knew that would make a link? Not me.) Ahem ... getting distracted.
So, she tells me to buy it at Costco, 'cause it's only 16 dollars there. It's twice that at Chapters. I jumped all over that - and on payday, too!
We go to Superstore Wholesale first to get our month's supply of groceries - and a few novelty items, like my Dinosours. Yes, I bought two bags. Yes, they're as good as I remember them. So, 250 dollars later, and almost everything on the grocery list covered, we head to Costco. 15 minutes until closing, we head into the store to get 2 things - just TWO things! - coffee for mum, and Sookie for me. We also end up getting chicken, red velvet cupcakes, real bacon bits, sliced ham, and a renewal of our Costco membership. Those few things cost as much as a cart full of stuff from Superstore Wholesale, but that's beside the point (sort of).
Excited about reading the 12th book in the Sookie series, I quickly put the groceries in the side door, put my book on the front seat, rush the cart to the rack, and head back to the van. I got about twenty pages read before we got home, and giggled more than a couple times.
We pull up to the bank so I can get my mum some money out of my bank. I reach for my wallet, and my heart stops. It's not there. Not in my purse, not in the console, not on the floor. Not in the box of groceries, not in the pocket of my door, not shoved under my seat. It's. Not. There.
I remember quickly where it is: in the child seat in the cart, back in Red Deer, in the Costco parking lot.
I said "fuck" a lot.
I keep everything in my wallet. Bank cards, ID (government, and high school IDs going back to 2002), pre-paid credit card, gift cards, gift certificate to the Bamboo Hut, Alberta Health Care, blood donor card, family pictures, Grad ticket from 2007, Youthwrite quote card, novelty card from Disneyland, etc. The only thing I didn't have in it was cold, hard cash. I keep everything in my debit. What I did have in it, up until yesterday, was a bank card with my online account number and password written on the back, and my SIN card. 'Cause I'm smart like that.
All of that, sitting in a cart in the Costco parking lot overnight.
We drove right back into town as soon as we realized it was gone, called my brother, and a woman we know that works at Costco. She didn't get our message until the store had already closed, and we ended up getting there before my brother, anyway.
I had a brief moment of euphoric relief when we first pulled into the parking lot, 'cause I thought I saw my wallet sticking out from under the flap of the first cart in the rack. I literally jumped out of the car and ran over, only to cuss in disappointment. I'd literally been chasing shadows. We searched all the carts, looked in the garbage cans, banged on the doors ... nothing. Went over to the gas bar, and got the attendant to radio security in the store, who might have looked in the lost and found bin, and told us nothing had been turned in. The attendant gave us instructions on how to get in touch with the "administration" in the morning, and that was all she could do. She was nice, and helpful, but it didn't mean a whole lot right then. I had to go home empty-handed.
I spent the night with lead in my heart, envisioning having to replace everything in my wallet, most of which couldn't be replaced, and dealing with the hassle of replacing my SIN card - 'cause they won't issue you a new SIN, that would be too difficult (read: too logical).
I didn't get much sleep that night, and woke up at 3:30 with a massive, stress-induced Charlie-horse in my left leg. Not a fun way to wake up.
After we got the papers done we headed back into Costco. I called the "administration", and told them about my missing wallet. They took down my information, said they'd look for it and call me back. We arrived about half an hour before they were supposed to open. I looked again in the garbage cans - having kicked myself all night for not having a harder look in them, 'cause my wallet is heavy, and probably would have fallen to the bottom. Cussed some more when I saw that the garbage cans had been emptied.
Did I mention the rain? Yeah. It had rained all night, so on top of everything else, we had to do papers in the rain, and my shoe had a hole in the bottom, so my socks were getting wet. The umbrellas we brought were more broken than usable, and I was just about at the end of my rope. I could only hope that no one had noticed my wallet, and it was inside with the rest of the carts that had been pushed in.
My mum told me repeatedly that she was sure we'd find it. I am a realist, borderline pessimist. I don't have much faith in humans as a race. I was convinced that one of the shoppers had seen it the night before, and had taken it, despite the lack of cash inside it. My mum told me, "It's not like it was the Walmart parking lot. You have to pay to shop at Costco, so generally the people who shop there 'have money' - they wouldn't need to steal your wallet. I'm sure the woman unloading her cart behind us saw it, and took it in." I didn't disagree with her - that's not to say that everyone who shops at Walmart is a lower-class citizen, but there are some pretty colorful people there, and I've seen more than one homeless person rooting through the garbage cans at Walmart. I don't want to think about what would have happened to my wallet if I'd left it in the Superstore Wholesale parking lot, with the casino right next door!
Anyway, I was feeling pretty blue around 9:15am, Saturday morning. At the very least, I was going to be late for work, and I was sure my wallet was gone. I saw a strap hanging out of one of the carts that were piled beside the main doors, and decided to go check it out - better than sitting in the car for another 15 minutes until the store opened. I didn't have very high hopes, especially when I passed the cart I'd been looking at, and there was nothing there. Still, I decided to look through the whole line.
My wallet was left outside for twelve hours, in the pouring rain, abandoned in a parking lot, and I swear it smiled when it saw me. It was in the same cart I'd left it in, in the second row of carts, about six carts away from the wall of the building. I almost couldn't believe it when I saw it. Then I snatched it out, squealed, and headed back for the car with an outstretched arm and a wide grin. My mum stared at me as I got closer to the van, and she rolled down the window to say, "Did you find your wallet?!"
She, who spent much of those twelve hours trying to convince me we'd find it, looked absolutely flabbergasted. I bounced around outside the van for a minute or so.
So many things could have happened - it could have been tossed into a garbage can, it could have been stolen for the $3.50 in change that was inside it, or someone could have used my ID and SIN card to steal my identity ('cause the $7000 debt is something worth stealing). I could have been royally screwed.
As we were driving back to Sylvan, and I was hugging my sopping wet wallet, I said to my mum, "Thank you, Karma! This is why I'm a good person!"
So, to summarize: My excitement about the new Sookie book - which was completely Heather's fault - led me to leaving my poor wallet alone and afraid, in the soaking rain, for twelve devastating hours, only to be happily reunited with me the next day. My grad ticket and Bamboo Hut gift certificate suffered the most damage, but they both dried nicely. My SIN card is carefully tucked away in a place that's NOT my wallet, and I don't have to cancel any cards or change any passwords.
All in all, life is good.
Except that I missed Supernatural Friday night. Perhaps Heather will let me blame that one on her, too ...
