I believe you, but I’m sure your step-mother didn’t care why she found your journal containing material inappropriate for a 10YO boy for a second time.
It was an honest mistake on your part, but I’ll bet it’s a mistake you’ll never make again. In future you won’t leave out books containing pictures or naked woman and descriptions of self-mutilation, and that was probably your step-mother’s intention.
Or maybe she’s just a bitch. If that’s the case, alice_in_wonderland’s advice is dead on.
Because 1/3 of my income in Ottawa wouldn’t even pay for one months’ rent in a fleabag hotel.
And Cajo, if she really did follow through on her threat, why wasn’t I able to find it in the garbage afterwards? Did it vanish into teh cosmos after being thrown in the bin?
I don’t know what your stepmother did with your journal, kung fu lola. Perhaps she tore it to shreds or burned it and then flushed the remains; I’ll bet she was angry enough when she found it. Perhaps she stashed it somewhere and plans to give it back to you when she feels you’ve learned your lesson and have been adequately punished.
Or perhaps she meant to put your journal in the garbage but left it lying around by accident. Did you ask your little brother if he has it?
LOL! 
I’m having trouble understanding why she’s a vandal.
Did she take a crayon and color the naked lady or something?
She destroyed my property by (allegedly) throwing it in the trash.
Could you contrive a situation where you have a friend over (perhaps the friend who was going to burn you those tunes) and sweetly ask your stepmom, in the presence of your friend, where your journal was?
Then, if she cops to the theft/destruction of the journal, you have a witness to attach an affidavit to the police report you’ll be signing 
Well, it’d be fun to think about, anyway…
I haven’t read the thread, but I noticed the name of a certain poster who had the last reply, so I wanted to say:
AmbushBug! OMFG! I thought I was the only person on the planet who remembered that comic.
Or a room all to yourself in a lovely surbaban bungalow, featuring all the food you can eat, TV and computer access, laundry facilities, and a nosey step-mother who doesn’t want her 10 year old looking at porn.
So. Flea-bag motel, or nosey step-mother. You choose, I guess.
I find it somewhat disgusting that if a roommate did this, it would be considered at least, the height of rudeness, and at most a crime. Lola is an adult paying rent to live in a house. Why does this other woman get to act with impunity over her in a grossly unfair fashion, and Lola told to suck it up?
There was no porn, alice. It wasn’t anything you wouldn’t see hanging in a Renior exhibit. And like I said before, if someone is old enough to understand about privacy, it follows that they know enough not to read another person’s journal.
I think my stepmother is grossly negligent in her son’s upbringing if it’s too much trouble to teach him about privacy and boundaries.
If I had left my notebook unattended for 5 hours in the wee sma’s at my mother’s house, it would have still been lying on the coffee table, untouched, when I woke up. This is because my mother and my stepfather are moral, principled individuals who aren’t compelled to control other people or play Thought Police.
And thank you, matt. You’re a doll.
Matt, I think a similar situation with anyone else would be treated the same way. It seems that Lola is paying less than market-value rent to live at home and, in exchange for the discount, the stepmom expects a few behavioral concessions in return. If I had a 10-yr old son, I would have a serious beef with my roommate leaving out “inappropriate” (in my eyes) materials where he might pick it up.
She can’t say she wasn’t warned. I bet she’s a lot more careful with her journals from now on.
Hey - I just suggested that she move out.
I’m sure I do all sorts of things that piss my roommate off, but I don’t charge her a helluva lot of rent, so she kinda has to put up with them.
You get what you pay for, I guess.
Besides lola, why don’t you live with yer mom and step-dad?
As to the porn, it’s certainly not the picture I was refering to when I said porn, but self mutilation stories are a bit over the top for a 10 year old. I can understand why she was pissed that you left it hanging around. As to the privacy thing - he’s 10 and can probably be forgiven for snooping. You’re an adult - step-mom asked you to keep your book put away. I can see why she would be pissed that you didn’t.
I can understand why she’d be concerned, but I will never understand why she thinks she is justified in taking my things and throwing them in the garbage - I know she made the threat, but did she really have to make it in the first place?
The coffee table is right next to my room, it would have taken less energy for her to open my door and place the book on my table, than it did for her to stomp up the stairs, yelling things I could barely hear through my sleepyness, and make a big production of throwing it in the bin.
And the note she left me 6 months ago - who is she to judge what I choose to write in my private space, between two opaque cardboard covers that don’t reveal anything unless you actually make a move to open them? The journal I accidentally left out wasn’t even the same one from the first time - how did she know the one I forgot about on Thursday wasn’t full of entries about fluffy pink bunnies and how much I love Jeebus?
If my adult stepdaughter did what you did, we’d be having a serious talk about where you were going to be living from now on. If roommate did it, likewise.
While I would not have destroyed your notebooks, I also would not allow a putative adult to leave materials such as you describe in the general living area where my children could see them. I’d cut you some slack the first time although I would be amazed that anyone would think it was acceptable to ‘forget’ when kids are in the house. the second time, rest assured all hell would break loose.
matt, if there were no children in the picture, you would have a point but it wasn’t the first time lola had done this.
Oh, at least my Dad sort of sided with me though - I overheard him telling her to “Shut up” about it when she went on a tirade about it (it sounded like he was tired of listening to her shrewish harping). And the goodbye he gave her before he left on his business trip that morning was less than affectionate.
Wow - my Dad actually sided against The Harpy - must mark this day on my calendar.
It wasn’t the “general living area”. It was the basement, which is where I live and where the laundry room is. No one spends time down there but me.
Money? Rooms in Ottawa go for $400-$450 per month, so don’t use money as an excuse for not leaving the nest.
As far as adults sharing a space goes, that does not describe your situation. You are an adult in years, but in actuality you are an over-age child who has not left the nest.
When you set off on your own, you will be able to call the shots. Until then, don’t whine when previously explained reasonable rules and sanctions are carried out when you break them.
Don’t go expecting the rights of a self-supporting, independent adult until you are willing to take on the responsibilities of a self-supporting, independent adult.
Excuse me, this woman STOLE a personal object from another adult woman. If someone stole shit from me, especially something like a journal, sketchbook, or diary, I would have the police on their ass. I don’t care if they were letting me stay for free in Fallingwater Mansion and giving me a blowjob every morning, you do not steal and destroy people’s shit.