When I get nice things, even more so things that I actually want or really like, I tend to get attached. Pretty fast, actually. And I hold on tight. Like the necklace that my husband gifted to me for our 4th wedding anniversary that I loved and wore all the time. the chain broke, and I lost the pendant. I was sooooo upset about it. I cried for at least a week. With my iPhone, I hardly let it out of my sight for the first 1 or 2 months. It took even more time than that, however, to convince myself that smartphones were common enough that it wasn't as big a deal as I was making it out to be and that every person I saw wasn't wanting to steal it. I finally came to that conclusion about a week ago.
While Misha and I were at the cafe in Paris, I had it sitting on the table. (We sat outside, with the chairs up against the cafe windows and the tables sat against the chairs, easy enough to move to use.) While I've traveled a bit while being in Europe, it didn't truly prepare me in the ways of pickpocketing that are prevalent in Paris.
Venice has people all over that (illegally) try to sell stuff to tourists, and it has that in common with Paris. (They are actually quite annoying...and very persistent!) As we were waiting for our dinner, some kids came up doing that very thing, and I shooed them off with a few "Non, merci"s. Then a second group of kids came up, and one of them invaded "my bubble" of space and actually set one of the maps he was trying to sell on my table. I picked up my things sitting in front of me and moved them and shooed them away in the same fashion.
Twenty minutes later, I reached for my phone....but it wasn't there. The kid had set his map on top of my phone and picked it up with his map when he walked away. The sneaky, slick, little snot.
While there were police nearby, there was unfortunately nothing they could do. With not having noticed it right away, the kid could have made it to anywhere by then.
It's been....different...without my phone. I feel more disconnected, and am realizing just how much I depended on it. It's actually a bit pathetic...I've taken to carrying my laptop around the house. It's not as convenient as my phone, and doesn't have all of the apps and information on it that my phone does, but for now it suffices.
Thankfully, I had removed all my pictures off of the phone prior to the trip (minus the ones of the boys "graduating" their summer reading program, but those were uploaded onto Facebook prior to "the heist," as were the first photos of Misha and myself in front of the Eiffel Tower), and I was able to check in at the Eiffel Tower before it happened. I do keep having moments in my day-to-day routine that suddenly make me want to do a /headdesk with the thought that "that was on my phone, too..." Also a bonus, even though I didn't have my phone, Misha and I were able to finally contact The Instigator and get him to get a hold of the cell service carrier to get the phone shut off.
Now I just have to make it until it can be replaced....
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