I'll Take My Holiday Weekends Boring and Uneventful, Thank You

So how was your weekend?

We’ve had some unusually exciting summer holiday weekends around here in the past few years. It's an odd trend we have going. I just spoke to my husband and found out that this weekend, a holiday by virtue of the fact that I've taken the kids out of town, has also had its own excitement. This time, for once, I was the one to miss it all, and I am glad.

But, in case yours was a little lacking in drama, I’ll tell you about it. In fact, let me tell you about three of the events that have made some of our summer weekends so... exciting and memorable.

That’s right! Today, and today only, you get THREE stories for the price of one!

Exciting Holiday Weekend #1: July 2, 2005.

Wanting to do a little long overdue scrap-booking (this is the last time I attempted to squeeze some in—I’ve given up for now!), I’d arranged for my husband to watch the kids for the afternoon and headed up the highway to his new office suite to make use of the conference tables and luxurious quiet. As I punched in the security code and entered the building, making quite a racket as I banged my huge plastic tub of supplies through the double set of exterior doors, it suddenly occurred to me that it wasn’t likely that anyone else would be there working because it was a holiday weekend. I tried not to be creeped out by the thought, and continued down the hall to the door of my husband’s suite and my afternoon of peaceful creative pursuit.

I set my gear down, got the door unlocked, and quickly punched in the code to disable the alarm on the back of the door. I’d been too slow the last time, and didn’t want to repeat the ear-splitting sensation. I then turned around and saw, leaning carefully against the wall in front of me, the large glass insert that makes up the full center of the door to the suite, along with the wood border that frames it. In the distraction of finding the right key to open the door, I had somehow completely missed the fact that I could have simply stepped right THROUGH it!

This was odd, but actually not alarming. My husband had mentioned that workers were still coming in as they were available to fix some things in the entryway that weren’t done correctly, and I assumed that this was somehow just part of that work in progress. I wanted to be sure, though, so I stepped into the reception area to call him. He said that this wasn't expected. Oooo kay. As I was listening to him, I glanced down at the reception desk and vaguely realized that the it was unusually empty. A computer... that was it. Where was the computer?

I knew that they had just gotten new computers that week, and my husband immediately verified that yes, there should be one on that desk. Still on the phone, I popped my head into my husband’s office and looked. No computer there, either. Next down the hall, the associate’s desk also was missing a computer. I then noticed that the mouse had been dropped on the floor, facing toward the door, it’s cord strung out in a straight line behind it, as if the person who dropped it had been in very fast motion toward the exit.

My mind quickly apprehended the fact that there had been a burglary. Then, as if in slow motion mentally, it dawned on me that the scene—the door pieces so painstakingly laid aside, as if they were going to be carefully replaced, the cleanly removed computers in the first two offices, the mouse so hurriedly dropped outside of the third— suggested the possibility that I had interrupted the burglary with my noisy entrance into the building! Crime buster! Yeah, right. I wasn’t looking around one minute more. Forget bravery or clear thinking. I told my husband to call the police, and I was OUTTA THERE! Not just out of the building, out of the zip code.

The police discovered that a dentist's office upstairs was also missing its computers, but those in all of the other businesses were untouched. They never caught the guys. It became clear later that, whoever these people were, they were sophisticated professionals. The smooth, massive identity theft was not discovered until a few months later when something blatantly obvious was done: our business account was almost completely emptied. And that’s when lawyers began uncovering and untangling the mind-numbingly massive web of fraud, carried out via multiple ISP’s without a trace. The untangling and repair still continues today, three years later.

Nothing had happened to me physically that day, so I was surprised by the feeling of violation that came with the experience. Not knowing who had done it or why we were targeted above others also left me feeling much more unsettled than I ever would have expected. For the empathy I gained in that regard, it was a profitable weekend. I'm thankful for God's protection that day and the grace he has given us to walk through the rest of it without anxiety.

Even so, note to self:
Office buildings: Not a good place to hang out on a holiday weekend. Best to stay home where it’s safe, right?


Well, good gracious! For a post I never even had a thought to write just a couple of hours ago, this sure has gotten involved. I’ll come back soon and share with you another sampling of our special brand of holiday weekend excitement!