Well, it WAS a good day out. Until I got home and got my phone message.

I got started later than anticipated, and so went and got lunch first. While I was eating, my cell phone buzzed, but I couldn't get to it fast enough. I didn't recognize the "missed call" number and so thought nothing of it, and didn't bother trying to call back.

I guess in the end it was a blessing I didn't.

It was my departmental secretary trying to "rally the troops" - our building was broken into, seriously burglarized (all the departmental laptops, all the balances, petty cash, and the credit card we use for larger purchases, among other things were taken). They needed each faculty member to come in and assess their office and see if anything was taken. My door was slightly ajar (it doesn't always lock-shut) but my secretary said nothing looked disturbed. She didn't remember details though - my biggest worry is my older personal laptop was under some papers on my desk.

The computer itself isn't worth much but it had some very important figures for two papers I'm writing. I have copies of the files on another computer, but not the software needed to modify or update them. So if the computer's been stolen, I probably just lost two papers I was planning to submit this fall.

I can't find anything out for sure until tomorrow morning; the campus police warned people not to go up to the building after dark.

My secretary said there'd been considerable damage to a number of office doors. I wonder how long we'll have to look at it before it gets fixed.

Apparently a test was also stolen, and some computer files from a couple of the other offices. It seems that the one "weed out" class in the department - that was the one materials were stolen for.

They think it was students. They think they gained entry by someone surreptitiously unlocking a window in one of the classrooms - and then they got in last night. And also, it would have to be people who knew we were on break.

I am both sad and angry about this. If it was students, I hope they catch them and bust them so hard that they never get into another college anywhere. And I'm sad to think that the balances I used in my soils class are now probably in a meth lab somewhere. My poor little balances!

So anyway. I'll post on the day-out after this has all settled down. I'm praying my laptop's still there, but unless the universe really does operate like Schroedinger's cat, it's probably pointless to pray about it, because it's either there or it's not and there's nothing to be done at this point.

I suppose they'll need to fingerprint us all. My secretary said the cops did pull some good prints but of course there's no knowing if it was the perp or the faculty member whose office it was.

I really, really hope they catch these people and throw the book at them. I kind of rank this up with defacing libraries, or vandalizing churches: we are the people who are trying to make people's lives BETTER.

I guess the only thing I can do at this point is eat some kind of light dinner, take a hot bath, and go to bed. And hope I sleep okay, and that I don't imagine I hear people breaking into my house.