On Monday, November 20, 2000, a major chapter in my life finally came to an end. A very heavy weight was lifted off of my shoulders – and a year-and-a-half long drawn out battle was finally won. For on November 20th – I finally got my stuff back.

For those of you who do not know the story, it is a long one that spans one and a half years and eleven of my one hundred and ninety-eight columns. The story began when I left my ex-girlfriend in March of 1999 (I know this date to be correct because when I picked up my stuff last Monday – that date was still on my calendar that I left there). At the time of our parting, I left with only what I could carry and had made mutually agreeable arrangements with her to pick up the rest of my belongings. After going back to her house to pack and return a few days later with a truck – she told me I was not getting my stuff back then – or ever.

That statement began a twenty month battle that consisted of pleas, threats and lies – and eventually necessitated a lawsuit. There were times when she would coax me into believing I would get my stuff back only to pull it away from me like Lucy pulled the football away from Charlie Brown. There were times when I was told all of my belongings were thrown away only to be told at a later date that she was lying and that she still had everything – but I still couldn’t get it back. And, there were times when I would sit in a courtroom and wait for her arrival the day our case came to trial and she would not even show up – even to a date that she requested. And all this time, the only thing I could do was hope that my stuff would one day be returned to me either by her choice or by force – and that day finally came on November 20th.

As hard as I try, I don’t think I could explain to anyone what it was like to go without your life’s acquisitions for over a year-and-a-half – but I can try with this simple exercise. Think of the belongings that you have in your home, from your furniture to the pictures on your wall to the papers in your desk. Now, imagine if I was to take all of that away from you and leave you with nothing but the bare walls of your home. Where would you sleep if you had no bed? How would you reconcile your bills if I had all of your files? What music would you play if I had not only your records, tapes and CDs – but your stereo as well? And worse then that – imagine if I would promise you that I would return everything only to change my mind at the last minute – and I did this at least a dozen times over twenty months? Hopefully, that will give you some idea of what this ordeal has been like for me.

If I had a penny – pardon the pun – for every time I gave up the possibility that I would ever get my belongings back – I could have replaced each and every item with solid gold replica of itself. The problem was that each time I gave up – she would contact me and tell me that she would return everything – only to change her mind once again. The most recent time she did this was this month when she wrote me out of the blue and told me that I could have all of my belongings back on November 20th. I will admit that at first, I saw this as another football a few yards away – but being someone who has missed his stuff for so long – I went for the kick despite the fact that I wrote her an letter in July telling her that she could keep the stuff – as long as she kept out of my life.

I wasn’t surprised when she contacted me again. Her behavior comes as no surprise to me because this is exactly what she has done all this time – she has used my own personal belongings as a reason for communication, and each time I was ready to give them up just to sever the tie once and for all – she would offer them to me as a way to maintain contact. As I sit here typing this column now knowing that my belongings are in my possession once again – I thank God that this ordeal is finally over.

When I arrived at her house on Monday with a U-Haul truck and four of my friends to retrieve my belongings – I was still not entirely convinced that I would be taking them home with me – and who could blame me after all the times that I was in this same scenario before. But when her sister arrived – I suddenly realized that the day I hoped and prayed for might actually have arrived after all.

As soon as her sister opened the door – I ran inside the house like a person on a shopping spree with thirty seconds left on the clock. As I made my way through her house, I saw all of my belongings exactly in the same place that I left them when I left her. Seeing my stuff exactly where I left it was both wonderful and disturbing at the same time. It was wonderful because seeing my belongings intact before my eyes made me realize that all of the stories she told me about where everything was (destroyed, given to the Salvation Army, thrown away, etc.) were all false – and it was disturbing because that means that she lived with all of my stuff exactly in the same place it was when I was there as if I was still there – how creepy.

I must admit that it was weird going back into her house again. I have not set foot in there since I packed my stuff up over a year ago – and because of this whole experience, I harbor such negative feelings and bad memories towards her that merely being in there felt very uncomfortable. In addition to the weirdness factor – in the last year-and-a-half, I have come so far from where I was when I was there. When I lived there, there was no Ring Fever, no South Park Digest – and I was just starting at the Department of Buildings. So when I was in that house on Monday, I felt like I went back in time to a galaxy far, far away.

Despite the fact that I had a creepy feeling about being there – I was elated at the same time, because being there meant that I was finally getting back what was rightfully mine after a senseless, drawn out, meaningless battle for items that belonged to me long before I knew that my ex-girlfriend even existed.

As each item was loaded into the truck, I got more and more excited that this ordeal was finally coming to an end. It has been so long that I had forgotten that I even had some of what I had – but I knew as the truck’s cargo bay door was closed, that I had plenty of time to get re-acquainted with my stuff – because for the first time in almost two years – I was taking it home.

Before I left, I told her sister to give her a message – now that I finally got my stuff back, I hope that she will now let me go on with my life without ever having any contact with her again. If she feels justified by having made me live without my stuff all this time, that’s fine. But now that it is over – I would like to finally put her in the past where she belongs. My life is better than it has ever been and now that I can include my belongings in this wonderful life – I would like to take this chapter of my existence and finally shelve it for good. I got my stuff back – the need for communication is gone – let’s keep it that way.

So that’s it. My stuff is mine once again, this drawn out stressful battle is over and the nights of wondering where my stuff is are no more. If this nightmarish experience has taught me anything, it’s that you should always fight for what you believe in no matter what the odds are against you. That if someone does something to you that is wrong – you should not rest until it is righted. And that in the end – good always triumphs over evil.