Close Call

I knew I had my cell phone in my pocket when we left the post office. I had set it on vibrate since we were heading to the library. It wasn't until the Read, Music, and Play session was mostly over when I realized that it wasn't in my pocket. I figured that I had put it in the diaper bag or our book bag, but after taking those apart, it hadn't turned up. I explained to Mia that we were going to get their reading prizes, we had to look for my phone. (We are doing really well so far and they both earned their big prize, a beach ball, plus a smaller prize. Mia chose one of those annoying squishy things you send flying with your fingers and Logan decided on a truck.)

So, I asked the children's librarian where to find the Lost and Found and she told me to check with the main desk. I mentally reviewed the description of my phone in case they needed to know (LG Cosmos, the kind that slides open for texting, has a hot pink/black/white cover on it with flower/butterfly design, and the wallpaper is set with a picture of the kids and Ritzy). Unfortunately, after checking out our books and videos, the lady at the main desk said they had no phones turned in recently and I told her I was sure I had lost it in the past hour or so. She suggested I go back downstairs to the administrative offices where cell phones often get placed in a safe. After having no luck there, I was starting to get worried. The woman in the office commented, "It's nerve racking isn't it?" She added that I should check back another time because it might get turned in, which I didn't find particularly reassuring. It would only get turned in if it was in the library to begin with, and I wasn't feeling as confident about that.

I never thought I was one of those people who are connected at the hip with their cell phones, but it turns out that the thought of losing it was pretty scary. For sure, it was starting to put me on edge not knowing where my phone had ended up. Not only do I like to have it with me wherever we go in case of emergency, but it also has lots of pictures of the kids (since Brett got me that new memory card, I've been using the camera feature much more often; I just haven't gotten around to uploading any of them onto the computer. This means they would be lost, or worse, in the hands of a stranger.) Not to mention, I have practically every number I would ever need to call programmed into my contact list so I don't need to look up the number for the pediatrician or the dog groomer or the salon (or poison control).

As a last ditch effort, we retraced our steps throughout the library, first through the children's section, then upstairs through the racks of murder mysteries, which is where I had to stop before the story time began. I asked the kids to look on the ground as we walked to the van, and looked around inside the van as I put them into their car seats. On the way out, Mia had suggested that maybe it was lost forever, and I was starting to think that may be the case. I decided we would stop at the post office on the way home just to see if I had dropped it there. Shortly before we were at the post office, I glanced down, and right between my feet was my cell phone. I don't know how I didn't see it when I got in, but I was totally relieved by my close call.