Current mood:

tired

The definition of 'bad day'.
After a surprisingly fun few days, it seems a shame that my last one in Indianapolis was such a disaster. Due to a late night drinking/card-game-playing/chatting session in one of the hotel suite rooms, I didn't get to sleep until about 4:30-5am, and then my alarm rang out at 7:30am. I checked out of my room but moved my suitcase and rucksack (back pack for the American readers) into the suite so that I could collect it later.

Somewhere between leaving it in the suite in the morning and returning to collect it in the afternoon, my rucksack disappeared from that room. The best guess is that someone saw it when the door was open for housekeeping to come in, they snuck in, grabbed the bag nearest the door and took off with it. (Nothing else from the room appears to be missing.) Unfortunately for them (and for me), it had nothing of any material worth in there, just things with a lot of sentimental value. My 10+ rolls of film from 7 months of travelling, my other 3 full memory cards for my digital camera, my notebook, my paper journal with all the messages and contact details from everyone I've met travelling. The likelihood of me getting it back is slim to nil, but the hotel staff are supposedly on lookout and the lost and found desk has been alerted.

To make a bad day worse, my pink suitcase did not make it all the way to Pittsburgh. It is, I believe, sitting in Cincinnati airport. God only knows why. When my friend Chuck and his girlfriend Annette came to pick me up, I had only my beloved Spike doll and my handbag as luggage.

Ugh!

At least I am now in great company again with lots of home comforts all around. I think tomorrow will largely be spent relaxing, and then Annette and Chuck are going to show me around some of Pittsburgh when they get home from work. Annette's a vegetarian too so she knows a lot of good places to eat with good variety -- it makes a wonderful change!

I won't lie and say I wasn't upset when I discovered my rucksack was missing (and then discovered my suitcase was missing too -- isn't that the worst kind of kick-you-when-you're-down irony?!), but there are worse things that can happen. Good things: I still have all my appendages, my family are safe and healthy, I chose to carry my Spike doll and put my perfume in my rucksack rather than my SLR camera.


Although I think I'm probably still in a futile optimistic state of denial, keep your fingers crossed that I get all my stuff back in one piece!