almost got mugged!

note: this is the first post my new editor in residence is editing before it goes live... so all proper capitalization and grammar and spelling are thanks to him :)

So there I am, walking Cris to Atocha to catch the train, we are strolling happily through the rainforest portion when two girls stop me and tell me: "Hey, your cell phone just got stolen." Startled, I check my pockets, where I keep Angela's work phone, which she kindly lets me have for emergencies. It's there. I calm down, thinking they were completely off, and say "no it didn't." They insist that a guy just opened my bag and stole something. I check my little backpack, where i was keeping my camera lenses, a book, some water, my glasses. It is open! I quickly checked the contents against my mental inventory. It's all there. I ask for more info, they point at a guy who is happily strolling by as if nothing happened, and they said he did it. He looks at me as he passes by, and says something like "don't worry, I didn't take anything," and keeps on walking, as if nothing happened, calm as a clam (...don't ask where the clam idea came from, I have no clue :P) (ed note: I can verify that most clams are pretty relaxed.)

Cris, through all this, just sees me calmly chatting with some girls and doesn't understand something went wrong. As the girls point to the guy, I make to go after him, but they stop me, saying no, to let him go. I check myself, wondering how to react, slightly in shock, kicking myself for thinking all the while I was always aware of my bag and I would notice if anyone tried to go for it... I keep walking, leaving the girls behind, and we pass by some cops. Atocha has been full of cops since the bombing a couple years ago. I finally explain to Cris what just happened. I wonder if I should tell the cops, seeing how nothing was stolen, and the guy had walked off. He says "of course," so I approach them, feeling silly, but also thinking it's a good thing to do. Fortunately they take it all seriously, probably more than I did. They ask for a description and follow me towards where I saw the guy going to, and assured me they would check on it. We walked away. I was a little reassured, but a bit of my world shaken. It's like I lost a bit of my cool. Being shown you're vulnerable sucks.

The good part: nothing was stolen. Just my pride. So I get to learn with minimal loss. ;)

In other news, now that I've purged that bit, today was a cool day at the park. All 4 musketeers went to the Retiro, and we spent all day walking about, taking pics (the card is full!) and chilling about [ed note: if this is not a phrase yet, it should be]. Yesterday, Friday, was Ariel's first day off from school for spring break, so I got to babysit. After a late start (he was told by Angela before she left for work to let me sleep) we took the bike to the park and walked about a bunch. Funny thing was that his bike hadn't been used in a couple of years, so the tires were pretty low. Not having a pump, I figured he didn't weigh enough to bend the rims, plus the training wheels helped... I ended up lugging the damn bike most of the time since he couldn't ride it properly! All in all, it was fun, though. I even got to take him to lunch. Training to be a full babysitter I guess... lol. The funniest bit: as he was getting bored waiting for me to get up, rather than actually trying to wake me, he wrote a note that read:"Baleria, despierta!" and put it on me. I found it much later and told him it didn't work because he mispelled my name ;)

I'm trying to remember what I did Wednesday and Thursday... I think I had lunch with Angela Wednesday, then walked about looking for more places to see. I went into the Fine Arts School, which had some Renaissance art, and tried to go for the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales, but it was mobbed, so I walked on. I have more pics for all these days, but I have to download, organize, and clean them up... so I'm gonna post this for now and work on the pics later.

Hmmm... let's say i'm all caught up again, and off i go out to do more stuff :)

Toodles!