So I've kinda been putting off writing out this story because I have had to tell it so many times to friends, family, insurance adjusters...doesn't that just make it sound amazing from the start?

Last Thursday, Dad and I set off on our quest down the western coast. The drive was fast and easy. We stopped at Mike & Brooke's house in Carmel on Friday night and got to go gallery-perusing on Saturday morning. We left and drove down past Big Sur, onto San Simeon where we stopped for a bit to watch the elephant seals relax on the beach and then into Ventura for the night. We were into our room by about 10pm enjoying some delivery pizza and ready to call it a night.

Sunday morning, we woke up and got ready to go pick at the amazing Best Western breakfast and as we were walking over, I looked over at my car and noticed that the back didn't look quite as full of stuff as it did the night before...curious...

We walked over to find that everything was gone from the back.............I had had everything that I had taken with me and brought back from Europe plus a box of stuff that I had brought to WA that hadn't fit in my bags to Europe. All gone.

I walked around the car and found that some of my boots and underwear was strewn all over the parking lot (pretty sure what happened there is that I had a suitcase that had a broken zipper so that pocket opened and it all came spilling out). Then this kid comes over and tells me that there is a duffle bag near his hotel room door so I go to look and find that it is in fact mine. But also find that it is the bag that only has a couple clothing items in it - but it does have the Twilight series - thank goodness I didn't lose that! (note: sarcasm) We also found my hair dryer in a garbage can and found that another car in the parking lot had gotten broken into and had a briefcase with important paperwork strewn all over the place.

I was totally in shock. Everything...gone... On the positive side, I was thanking God that I had remembered to bring my computer (don't even want to think about if they had taken that...), my camera, phone, GPS, passport and other identification into the hotel room with me. None of us were hurt. The bag that he left had most of the personal information that was in my car so the majority of what was stolen was just clothes.

We filed a report with the police, filed the claim with insurance...all that fun stuff...and made our way the rest of the drive to San Diego.  I was very happy to see my apartment, San Diego, my friends and guess what? didn't have to make two trips to carry my stuff up!

That night I had to sit down and make a detailed list of everything that was stolen. That was a bit hard when I would realize something that was in there - usually something irreplaceable - and it would hit me that everything was gone. I was trying to focus on the positive of getting a new wardrobe - it was funny actually cause I was remembering talking to Jane the night before while we were watching the TV Show "What Not To Wear" and dreaming about someone giving us $5000 for a new wardrobe - ha.  After listing everything out, I found that my total value had more than tripled from what I estimated with the police that morning. Yikes. Oh and a note to all renters - get renter's insurance. It is worth it.

Then the planning for shopping began and let me tell you, it is a daunting task to replace an entire wardrobe. I am trying to remember all those things that I said I wanted if I only had money available to buy new clothes, figure out what style I want to have - the same or try something different, where do I find all these clothes, how much cold-weather clothing should I replace, blah blah blah. A lot. So naturally I spent the first shopping day buying no clothing items whatsoever. But I did get an upgrade on my iPhone to make me feel better - that can be the replacement for my UGG boots. :)

So the beat rolls on. I'm settling back into my apartment and enjoying living with my best friend, Michelle. I move all my stuff from storage tomorrow so hopefully by the time I start school next Thursday I can have an organized living space and some clothes to wear to my first day of school.