Where were you?

Just like most people are doing today, I remember very vividly where I was and what I was doing when I found out that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. However, my story goes far beyond just sitting in class, eating breakfast, driving, etc. At the time I found out, that plane was so not in my radar of things to worry about, I had bigger fish to fry at that moment.

It was the beginning of my second semester of college. I was living in Hall 20, which at that time at SFA was the only co-ed dorm...1st and 2nd floor were guys and 3rd and 4th floor were girls. I lived on the third floor with my potluck roommate, Natasha. She was very nice and very involved on campus. She was in the band, was a member of the band sorority, and was a criminal justice major. Things were going along quite well until Labor Day. I went home for the weekend with Brittany. On our way back to Nac, I don't know why, but I was looking through my wallet and found that my Discover card was missing. I panicked, but not much, because I thought that maybe it had fallen out in my room or in my truck. When I got back, I looked all over and couldn't find it. I asked my roomie if she had seen, and of course she hadn't. So, I still didn't freak out too much at this point. This all occurred on Monday. Finally, that Wednesday, the 10th, I decided to call Discover to tell them I had lost it. Well, the guy proceeds to tell me that just that morning someone tried to charge $1800 to Stephen F. Austin State University. Thankfully for my credit limit, it did not go through. This person then tried $500 and it went through. I immediately told him that I had not done this and he got things in order to cancel that transaction, cancel my card, and send me a new one. Thinking everything was done, I went to bad still a little baffled as to how my credit card could have been stolen.

I woke up Thursday to get ready for Chemistry class at 9:25. I turned on my computer to check my school email through Outlook, and noticed an email from the registrar's office. When I opened it, it was from the registrar saying that everything was fine with my account and she didn't know why I had emailed concerned about it. This caught my attention because I knew everything was in order, and I had never emailed about it. So, I got to digging around and found an email in the sent folder to the registrar. When I opened it, I started reading it and it said stuff about how my grandmother had died just before school started so I wasn't able to pay on time and how I needed help getting into the classes I was dropped from. This is where it gets interesting...I hope you're still with me! My roommate's grandmother had died right before school started. And in the cc: spot was her email address.

I am pretty much freaking out at this point. I think she may have even still been asleep while all of this was transpiring. Somehow I was able to get dressed, print out the email, and haul butt all the way across campus to my aunt's office, which conveniently is in the chemistry building. All this while, I am completely oblivious to anything else going on in the world.

I blow into my aunt's office completely out of breath. The first thing she says to me in the a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. It was right after 9:00, so it had just happened and no one knew what was going on. I really don't remember what my exact response was, but I'm pretty sure it was something like this, "Oh really? Look at this email! My roommate stole my credit card!" Her previous statement flew out the window. Luckily, she knew the lady who had emailed me from the registrar's office. She told me to go to class and afterward, we would go talk to this lady. I think that was the longest class of my life! Finally, class ended, and Doreen and I went to visit this lady. I don't recall much of our conversation with her, except that she told us to immediately go to UPD to report what happened.

I wish I could remember the officer's name who helped with my case, because she was so nice and helpful. She told me that I should get my stuff out of the room, and see if I could get a different room. And then she asked if I wanted to file charges. Ha! Heck yes! So, we got everything sorted, and I went to my hort class where we got to walk around the arboretum all afternoon. Once everything calmed down, I laid on Josh's (the guy I was kinda sorta dating at the time) bed and watched CNN the rest of the afternoon. This was also the introduction of that wonderful little scroll bar at the bottom of news channels. Talk about info overload!

So, if you've made it this far, I guess you are wondering how my criminal justice major roommate stole my credit card. Well, I don't know for certain, but I am fairly sure this is when she did it. The Thursday before Labor Day, I went out to Jitterbugs (of course!), but didn't take my wallet, just my ID and some cash in my pocket. Therefore, my credit card was in my wallet, which was in my backpack, zipped up, under my bed. I figure that she got it after I left to go out. And what kills me is that I point blank asked her if she had seen it, and she said, "No."

But the story is not over, folks! It gets a little bit better as a get further in. So, her parents call my parents and ask them to talk to me about not filing charges. What I have failed to mention is that Natasha is black. They tried to say that the only reason I was filing charges was because she is black and I am white. Really? I don't think so. If I had done that to your daughter, you would be filing charges too! That is what has irked me the most about all this. And that she was a criminal justice major! I think that is the best part!

This post was supposed to be about where I was 9/11, so I will stop for now, but will have to continue at another time, because it gets really good! I never knew drama like this could happen to me!