Willo O'Brien

loving getting to know a new friend who’s been reminding me what it looks like to be an inspiring, beautiful & wise woman.

also finding myself feeling fiercely protective of her. my heart breaks to think that anyone has ever hurt such a sweet, giving soul.

photo credit

Unfortunately, I was robbed at gunpoint last night. Unfortunately is an understatement, to say the least. But, it goes without saying that it was absolutely terrifying, and an experience I would not wish on anyone. Here’s what happened:

Around 1 am I was dropping my friend off. We were in the Mission, on 21st & Harrison (map). We sat in the car chatting for a bit, and all of a sudden we hear a tap tap on my window. I look over and there’s a gun right in my face. tap tap tap. My God… the thoughts that went through my head at that moment. So scary. :(

We then realize there’s someone on the other side of the car, too… if not two other guys (we think there were 3 total) and they start trying to open the car doors. My car doors automatically lock when I drive, so they couldn’t get in. Quite honestly, looking back, I totally froze. I of course didn’t want to let them in! I didn’t know what to do.

My friend eventually opened his door and they started reaching in, grabbing everything they could. My purse was sitting in the middle of us, and my iPhone was plugged in to my dock. They grabbed them both. And, while frozen, pretty much the only thing I did was unhook the iPhone as he was trying to yank it out, so they’d get the F* out of my car.  They’re yelling, saying “Give us everything, give us your wallet, give us your money, everything you have in here.” My friend gives him his wallet. They have my bag, my scarf, my iPhone… we’re scared and trying to comply. Still not satisfied, one perp decides he better check the glovebox, and opens that & proceeds to dump everything out. Grabs a dollar he finds in there, finally decides it’s enough & there’s nothing else. They take off.

Completely shaken we sit there in shock for a minute. Finally my friend comments that we should probably drive away. Agreed. How was it that we were still just sitting there? What just happened? ALL MY STUFF IS GONE.

SUCKS.

So my friend gets on the phone to file a report, and first calls SF Police, who essentially instruct him to call 911, which by doing so then actually ended up disconnecting him TWICE! Awesome, 911. Thanks for the help! So he ends up calling back to the general SF Police number who gave him quite a bit of run around (truly, seemed like the person he was on the phone with was clueless and not helping at all). To which he basically had to *insist* Hey, you’re a policeman, who I’m on the phone with, and we were just robbed by GUNPOINT, and you need to make a phone call & get someone out here. SERIOUSLY.

So we re-park and go into his house and wait for them to show. His laptop was on the table, and me not having my iPhone, I of course already feel a little disconnected. So I was like “I know this might sound funny, but can I use your computer to tweet about what just happened?” He totally understood.

So cops show up, and we filed our report… but sadly it’s a fairly generic description:  3 black males, mid to early 20s, dressed in black jackets and black beanies. *sigh*

Once we made our report, on the steps of his house, we went back inside. He had just bought the 3GS, so he went upstairs and got me his old phone to borrow for a bit. My friend was so amazingly sweet & comforting through the whole thing, I was really grateful for that.

And for those of you who don’t understand Twitter, THIS is why it’s awesome (this used to be a link to all the amazing, comforting, worried, caring replies I got to my tweet, but unfortunately tweet search doesn’t go back that far now). After dealing with credit cards and activating my loaner iPhone this morning, I finally got to the office & had all these wonderful supportive concerned replies, and it’s really helped. Thank you all so much. <3

So anyway… we hug it out, and I drive home. By myself, to an empty house, feeling very shook up, but grateful that we were both safe.

Waking up this morning I had to start putting the pieces together of what happened, what was lost, and what I needed to do to get it all put back together.

Stuff is stuff, but still… that was my stuff, and I liked it. In addition to the iPhone, here’s a list of what was in my bag (a black leather purse w/ with my white & silver scarf tied around it), for my own documentation more than anything:

• Wallet with maybe $40-$60 cash (birthday money from my Momma), all my credit & debit cards, ID
• Another wallet which carried gift cards, membership & frequent buyer cards. Most notably a Paper Source card that maybe had a ~$40 on it (credit from a return). A Cheap Pete’s gift card for I think $60 (last year’s bday present from my Momma I still hadn’t gotten around to using). Thankfully I had *JUST* used the Costco card I had in there worth $120.
• Blue & gray pouch Sarah Hatter had made for me years ago
• My white little ‘pants pouch‘ I sewed for myself a couple months ago, which held things like lip stuff, business cards, tic tacs, etc. Crap that I often wanted to transport from one bag to the next when I changed purses.
• Receipts holder  w/ several business cash & credit card receipts – come to think of it, I bought it from 11:11, who I think will also be at Renegade this weekend, so I’ll have to get myself a new one.
• Jabra JX10 hands free – dammit. Just remembering this was in there. I love this hands free. It’s one of the smallest expensive things. Actually it was over $90 when I got it, looks like they’ve come down now at least. Added it to my wishlist.

I think that was all. Thankfully I had taken my camera out of my bag before going out last night, so that wasn’t in there.

Oof. Ok, I gotta make some more calls to cancel some cards & deal with all of this. I actually am leaving for LA on Friday morning, for Renegade Craft Fair LA this weekend… so it’s really crazy to know I’ll be traveling with no credit cards. Not to mention I had a ton of errands to run in the next 24 hours to get my car checked, pick up inventory, etc. Just a major inconvenience and rattling.

UPDATE: Seems they had a hayday on my cards before I got a chance to get to a phone & cancel them. All cancelled now. Sucks to know they kept my stuff instead of just taking the cash & dumping the rest. :( Maybe they can go get some posters framed at Cheap Pete’s & buy some nice stationary at Paper Source to write me a thank you note!

UPDATE 2: My Merch Manager, Jen, had an additional credit card for my PayPal account, so at least I can take that one with me this weekend.

::::

On top of it all, I don’t even have anyone coming to help me in LA this weekend. JD was going to come with me, but in all honesty, we broke up earlier this week (womp womp). I didn’t plan on blogging that, but it is what it is & I figure while I’m feeling all vulnerable and dishing out the things I’ve lost this week, might as well throw that one in there, too. That said, please know it’s all good, was mutual and we’re still friends, etc. I could probably do a whole ‘nuther blog post all about it, but I probably won’t, so please just know I’m fine.

Anyway, if anyone feels like a trip to LA this weekend, please let me know ASAP! :) I’ll be driving down on Friday & coming back Monday and could really use the help at the fair. I have a place for us to stay (thanks to Jonathan!) & the event is going to be super fun! Come with me? :)

Thanks again for all of your amazing, loving, supportive, darling tweets, emails, texts & IMs. I really hope that is the last time my face is that close to a gun, and that I don’t have to endure the violation of a robbery ever ever ever again, but in light of it all, having the virtual hugs & love from all of you has seriously been very, very comforting. Thank you. <3

I know, it’s been a few weeks ago now… but as I said, this month’s been busy! :)

Official day: June 20th.

The weekend before though JD took me up to Napa. Total surprise, and such a treat. And of course we did what everyone should do in Napa:

And I took a mud bath for the first time! That was wild. I sat… in MUD… for like 12 whole minutes. haha. The whole experience was pretty incredible, I gotta say. Then I got a massage & got to swim in a pool. Took me a LONG time to relax, but I think I finally did. At some point in there anyway.

The following weekend however, I had one of my classic house birthday parties. I hadn’t had one in awhile. Did you miss it? Seems a lot of people did this year, with Father’s Day & all… but that’s OK, we had fun!

My gorgeous bestest girlfriends came:

And lots of fun, supportive, loving pals!

<3

aww yaa, rockin’ a willotoons tee! love it!

Even this lil’ cutie, Cory’s son Solomon! He’s absolutely ADORABLE. See? :)

Who took a lot of cute photos from his POV, like this one:

Aaaaaand now I am a year older. The End.

• View full photo album

yummiest huevos evar!, originally uploaded by Willo.

ftr.

aww, sisters , originally uploaded by Willo.

My little sister graduated High School. And with flying colors I might add! Class President, straight A student, involved in her local church and much more. She’s amazing.

She’s off to Chapman next year, which is awesome because it’s just in SoCal – near Disneyland, woohoo! :)

• View the full album from my Steamboat trip here

(yes, this is being posted about a month late… I’ve been busy)