"This is a story, about a girl named Lucky...."

So - I did my workout, cleaned my house this morning. (I once knew a woman who said "anger is an energy" meaning that you can use it constructively or destructively. I guess worry is an energy too, but I will say there WAS a fair amount of anger mixed in).

I came in this morning at 8 - that was when the secretary said she'd be here to meet people and walk them through to look at what was missing or damaged.

So we went up to my office.

I opened the door.

The first thing I saw was my laptop sitting on my desk. I figured since it was there, no one had been in my office, but a quick check revealed that my statistical calculator, thumb drive, box of software disks, pre-paid phone calling card that I use for personal long distance calls, and my house key, were all still present.

The key - I have removed my address from it and it's now hidden in a less immediately-obvious place. (I still want to keep it in my office in case I lose my other house keys but I think it would take effort and a concentrated search for it to find it now).

I feel very lucky - like my secretary said, the door wasn't fully latched when she got there to inspect the room. But it looks like relatively few faculty offices were burglarized.

What this means is, two papers I was working on will not stall and die; I still have the capability to make and edit new figures for them. I do not have to get a locksmith out to my house nor do I have to worry about my screen-door lock, which doesn't look replaceable. I also don't have to re-dowmload material onto a new thumb drive. And - I had forgot I had a rough draft of an exam sitting on my desk, but it's still there (it was under other papers), so I don't have to rewrite that.

The bad news is that four electronic balances and the nice brand spankin' new hot plate/stirrer that we keep in the teaching lab are gone. Probably now in the employ of a meth cook, which makes me rather sick.

However, the campus police officer says he thinks he may have a suspect in mind; they have to do some interviews. They do think it was a student or students, which is kind of disgusting. If they catch them, I hope they (to use a word I rarely use on here) bust their asses clear to the next century. Because - they've stolen from the taxpayers of my state, they've stolen goodwill and a sense of safety from the faculty, and they've stolen from their fellow students - some of the labs we were planning on doing right away, we may not be able to do, until the equipment can be replaced.

I will admit that last night - when I first heard that it might be students - I had some minor fantasies of each of us faculty members being allowed to confront them - each of us in their own way. (Oh, no, this wasn't a violent fantasy: I pictured myself going into the interview room, sitting at the table across from them, shaking my head sadly and saying, with a look of agitated concern on my face, "Why did you do this thing? Why hurt all these people around you? I'm very disappointed in you. Do you know how sad this makes me? I'm deeply hurt by this; I thought you were a better person than that." And of course that wouldn't work at all on the criminal temperament, but it's exactly the kind of thing that my mom could bring me to tears with when I had committed some minor infraction as a kid).