Otherwise known as Post-Election Stress Disorder, or possibly Early-Onset Alzheimer’s, but let’s pretend it’s the former, okay?

First of all, can I just say I was so proud to have thought up the Post-Election Stress Disorder thing, but when I typed it into Google I quickly realized I’m not unique at all? Moving on, then.

On Tuesday, I took my camera with me to the polling place. I took two pictures of the girls and then my camera’s batteries died, so I put it in the pocket of my sweater. Later on that morning, Katie got cold, so I gave her my sweater. It took me 5 hours to realize the camera was missing and after tearing apart the main level of our house looking for it, we high-tailed it back to the church. There it was, on the floor next to the couch where Katie sat while I voted. Either nobody had seen it or nobody cared. We were saved. I don’t have a fancy schmancy high-end camera, but what I do have isn’t exactly cheap either. We wouldn’t have been able to replace it anytime soon had it been taken. Whew!

Today was $10 off Thursday at several stores in town. I prepared two lists with deals and coupons and such. I hit one of the stores early afternoon with plans to hit the other one early evening while most of the girls were in choir. So imagine my surprise when Millie and I walked into Dierbergs tonight and I noticed I didn’t have my wallet. Fortunately, we noticed this before we’d loaded up the cart, but still – we were at the Dierbergs on the opposite side of town from where we live. I went into a very controlled, mild panic.

We drove to the seminary where Craig was working the bookstore. I called Shop-n-Save and they told me nobody had turned it in. My only recourse then, was to wait until I got home to see if it was here. If it wasn’t, then it was time to turn up the lever a little bit on the panic button. Have you ever tried to keep your panic level down in 45 minutes of crawling traffic? That’s enough to send one over the edge all by itself. Now add the thought that one has had her wallet stolen and you see where this is going.

We got home and saw it wasn’t here. It was a quick realization as I had actually picked up the dining room/living room/kitchen before we left. Click-click (hear that panic lever notching up a bit?). Millie had her shoes off for two minutes before I was hauling her back out again. I figured it was worth going back to Shop-n-Save to see for myself, even though on the phone they told me they didn’t have it.

So glad I did. The lady behind the counter must have recognized the state of almost-despair I was in. It didn’t take her long to figure out why I was there. All I had to do was pantomime “little zippy purse with a pink wallet inside” and she pulled it out of the drawer. It was still intact with my driver’s license, debit card, and (sadly, more importantly to me) my Shop-n-Save gift card which still had $65 dollars on it, the $15 of S-n-S money I earned today as part of today’s deals, and my Walgreens gift card which still has $30 on it. I was worried about having to cancel cards and renew the license and such, but I figured that was $110 worth of grocery money totally gone.

But it was there and I’m in the process of returning to my normal state of coloring. That’s two close calls in a three-day span. I need to watch it. And I need to give thanks for God’s protecting of my stupidity. Thanks, God. I’ll try to be a little more responsible next time (read: tomorrow).