What Doesn't Kill You...

...makes you stronger.

My favorite saying and quite appropriate. Yesterday morning, upon waking I noticed that our back gate was open just a crack. "Now what the hell?" i thought to myself, as our gate is NEVER open. In fact, we take great care to make sure it's closed. But, being the unsuspecting and (formerly) naive individual that I was at the time, I thought nothing of it. Putting on my slippers, I scuffled out to the gate, closed it and came in to get ready to go to the dentist (of all places. Actually, i was extremely excited since he was going to have to re-fill an old filling that fell out. In fact, I so much wanted to see the dentist that I made a point of removing the filling myself through quite a laborious effort just so I could experience the joys of getting it done again. Right.) So we walk out to the car and I look on the ground and see a bit of shiny metal splintered atop the pavement. Thinking that someone has come to shatter my OTHER rear view mirror with a baseball bat, thus finishing the job that had been started a month ago, I sigh heavily and shake my head. But then, my eyes rise to see the door handle...or what was left of the door handle. In a fit of confusion I think "My God, some enormous, violent animal has taken a bite out of my door handle. But what's this? It has sucked the lock out of the door as well?" Then I realize: no beast has come to munch on my car parts, some lovely citizen of Christchurch has found it necessary to break into my car and steal my CD player. The very same CD player that only worked 4% of the time depending on the direction that the wind was blowing. We then go on to notice that every other lock, although still in tact, has been tampered with to the point that we cannot turn the key either way. Then we both realize why the gate had been opened that morning...because these people had come into our lawn to snoop about for things to steal. Good thing our hundreds (more like thousands) of dollars worth of bikes were locked up.

Remember folks, I was getting in the car to go to the dentist. And it keeps getting better.

So I head to the dentist, get my stupid tooth taken care of, meet Craig back at the bike shop and then we cruise off to find replacements for my missing car parts (he is a darling and called to find a place that had the car parts I needed). Spend some cash on that and then head off later to Craig's personal workshop to build a wheel. It's nice to know that the car is still running well enough to get us from all these point A's to point B's. After an hour at the workshop we hop into the car to cruise off home and lo and behold, it won't start. The battery is dead as a doorknob with no explanation. Sweet. Ok, let's open up the hood, because I know SOOO much about cars that it just makes sense, right? Yeah. Sure. Things look fine, I mean, being someone with such an extensive knowledge of cars...

But then Craig finds someone with a set of jumper cables and a big white van who comes over and checks things out for me. And what is it that he finds? Well, the little buggers who stole my crap CD player decided to unplug the wires from the alternator (or whatever the hell it is) so the battery can't recharge. Just for fun...just to hack me off. And if to get one more little dig in I notice that they ended up stealing my own jumper cables from the back of my car. 15 bucks for the set. I certainly hope it was worth it.

I think the most vauable thing they stole was the aquacise CD that was in the CD player.

So it makes me wonder, why? Why would people go to such trouble to make mess of a shitty car just for, 20, maybe 30 bucks worth of stuff? Apparently the big crime in NZ is all centered around people trying to find money for drugs. I never really thought of it because, well being naive, I never considered the whole drug problem so in depth. If people wanted to do drugs, so be it. Let them ruin their own lives, as long as they don't bother me I don't care. But now, assuming that this was the reason for the break in, they have bothered me...and I really do care. Not because I really loved my CD player, not because those jumper cables meant a lot to me, and I can even let the CD go. I care because I feel violated and it has made me paranoid. People came into our (very) fenced-in yard. People were walking around on our property while we slept. Now every time I go outside I expect my car to be GONE. Everytime I open the garage door I pray the bikes are still there. Christ, I come home and wonder, "did we leave the curtains on the door like that or has someone been here?" I walk holding my purse tighter to my chest than ever before. I've hidden all of my expensive electronics and personal documents INSIDE my own house. What the HELL? This must be what the drug-users feel like when they are trying to hide their drugs from each other. Ugh. I don't much like this whole city thing. Don't much like it at all. People don't respect each other...people don't care about each other's property. It's really really sad.

But I suppose that is the way life is. Right? Funny that before I came here they told me "oh wow, NZ has such low crime rates, blahdy blah blah." Well, funnier still that I've fallen the victim of these low crime rates. And it's difficult to accept, especially when one is trying so hard to get ahead and people pull you back. It'd be one thing if I had all the money in the world, but if that had been the case I would have been driving a much nicer car and, well, let's face it...it'd probably be gone.

What else can I say? "Whatever." I didn't lose my cool (came close)...not nearly as much as I think I would have a few months ago. Because everytime something bad happens, we can't crumble and get upset and just completely fall to pieces. Nothing would get done if that happened. And as the saying goes...what doesn't kill you, WILL make you stronger. This incident isn't going to committ me to death. And in ten years time it'll probably be funny. I must admit that I am extremely grateful for having such a wonderful person in my life to help me out during these shit times.

I analyzed the whole situation and I realized that, yes things were kind of shitty for me due to this incident, but were they really that bad? I mean, while these morons were creeping around our backyard, breaking into my car for a faulty CD player, lurking through the darkness of the night like roaches or rats or any other unpleasant beastie, I was lying peacefully in bed. Warm, cozy, cared for. And I know that despite the misfortune that they had placed upon me, I am still so very lucky...so much luckier than people like that will ever be. I just hope that whatever they needed to break into my car for...whether it be money for drugs or money for their families (I wish that were the case) or just a cheap thrill that they found their needs fulfilled.

-NMK