In recent news...

Monday night, at the corner of Charles Allen and 10th Street, a red Honda Civic was broken into while the owner was exercising in Piedmont Park.

If car theft were at the top of the crime list in Atlanta, that is something of what the first sentence of the AJC would have looked like early this morning, hitting driveways and news stands around town. Vehicle thefts in 2004 numbered at 1,338 for the city of Atlanta, and looking at the monthly reports, auto thefts have risen three percent from last year to this year.

Last night my name was added to the 'innocent victims of car theft' list of Atlanta. My name was also added to the 'you only have to make one mistake for it to be a lasting mistake' list as well.
The day was going pretty well: I got to sleep in and wait for Carly to come home from school. Later that afternoon, the two of us went to the Atlanta Bread Company parking lot to use their internet (our phone line and modem wasn't working). Then, I dropped Carly off at home and went to play my weekly game of frisbee in Piedmont Park. I was parked on a main street with houses, cars, dog-walkers, and joggers, and during daylight hours; where I park all the time. However, this was the one and only time my laptop has been in my car. I really forgot it was even in the back of my car because it's either at home, at a cafe, or in an office. It's knowledge of my car is only 'in transit.'
Though I had a wonderful time playing with all of my friends, when I returned to my car, my window was busted out. The part that serves to remind that my laptop is never in my car, is that as my friends James and Carrie waited with me, I looked over the things in my car and reported it as a vandalism case only.
You can see where this is going. When I got home is when I realized I had no laptop. Shortly after is when everything caved in, leaving me feeling pretty sick all night. I bought a nice stack of CDs to copy all of my photos too, especially those from my trip--but had not put them on there just yet. So here I am feeling pretty stupid and now without many photos. I could just kick myself. I sat down on my bed and cried for a while last night while photos I had taken kept flashing in my mind.
I didn't want to sit like that, so I went searching. I sat on this verse for a little while:
"I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?" Psalm 56:4
From there, I was at least able to go to sleep telling myself I can't take photos with me after I die anyway. And my memories can never be stolen by another man. Sure that sounds cheesy, and it doesn't stop random sad feelings from appearing, but it worked for the time being, and it is true.
So that's today's headlines. Sorry to take up so much of your reading time with my depressing story. My last point is a plea to ask a favor of all of you. If anyone has any photos that I've sent you or any photos of events we've attended together, I'd really appreciate it if you could email them to me at echupp@gmail.com.

Love you all and cherish our moments together. There's no way to fully capture joy on film. Hey, maybe when we're in heaven, one of the bonuses is a picture perfect mind.