Losing it

I’m not a person who loses things. That’s not to say that I don’t forget things on a daily basis – the chance is slim that I’ve left the house on any given morning with all of the following: sunglasses, wallet, cash, cellphone and Blackberry. Lately, I’ve twice forgotten to even put on a belt. And for the first time ever, I arrived in a strange city ready to do some testifyin’, and I had forgotten to pack a dress shirt. I could even picture it on its hanger, outside my closet door, waiting to be lovingly placed in my bag. Never happened (luckily, I was staying right near the Filene’s. There was even a sale). But in general, I don’t lose things.

But now I feel like I’m losing things left and right. Let’s start with pens. I am currently leaking pens from my possession at an alarming rate. I have no idea where they go, but they disappear at a phenomenal rate. The other day I pulled a new one out of the fresh box, turned around to do something, and when I went to put my fingers upon the new pen, I could not find it anywhere. In February, when I was wandering around The Gates, I lost my clip-on sunglasses (the backordered replacement for which finally arrived yesterday, in a box big enough to hold a toaster oven.) I have lost a LOT of bicycle accessories in the past year, which is driving me nuts – I lost a pump and a U-lock (which was about to be eligible for a free replacement, since it was discovered that a toddler could open a U-lock with a Bic pen – which may explain the disappearing pens, now that I think about it). Last week, I lost my bike computer – and if you don’t understand that it is pointless to ride a bike if you don’t know precisely how far you’ve gone, how long it took, what your average speed was, and your total climb in meters, then you really just don’t understand what Type A is all about. That was an expensive loss. I’ve lost a phone battery and a headset. For several months, I had even lost some CDs – I have NEVER lost a record – but they finally turned up, buried in with some old work that had been stuffed away. I don’t know if this is an age thing, a voodoo curse, or simply the work of some old-fashioned gremlins, but it must stop. Go away, gremlins!

I have not yet lost my iPod (though I thought I had, once), but its battery has lost all its power, so I’ve finally had to shell out for a replacement battery, which I’m hoping to find has arrived when I get home. I have a long bus trip with sixth-graders tomorrow, and I may need some music to get through it. Through the miracle of the Internet, I can see that my battery is well on its way to me, but I can also see that it has already visited Crystal Lake and Addison, Illinois; Louisville, KY; East Syracuse, NY; and Colonie, before arriving at its final destination. In other words, it’s seen more of the country than I have.

My point? I lost it.