Sometimes you just forget…
Like maybe you forget to put gas in your car. Or maybe you forget to pick up cat food. Or you might even have forgotten to pay your phone bill. This week I forgot… big time.
This week I forgot that I placed my laptop computer on top of my car and drove home. Talk about a bad dream… an L.A. bad dream. STUPID… STUPID … STUPID!!
I realized not long after I left work – which was no more than 10 minutes – that I had done one of the dumbest things that I have ever done in my life and the outcome did not bode well for me. Actually, I have done a number of REALLY dumb things in my life… two almost equally as dumb as this, but that was 40 years ago and another story.
I always come to work resembling a Sherpa… looking like I am going on a week’s vacation, carrying everything I think I might need that day – because you never know what you are going to need in the 9 hours away from home. So I bring everything… and I usually DO NOT bring this laptop.
I am always in a hurry…
I left my Concierge desk on Saturday late afternoon, arms loaded with all of my STUFF and proceeded to my car in our parking garage. With my ADD mind being somewhere else and my keys in my mouth, I placed my computer along with my phone on top of my little car. Hands now free, I quickly unlocked the car, threw things in the back seat, hopped in the front seat, started the car and backed up. Can’t wait to get home! I hear something tumble off the roof of my car. OMG!! What did I forget? Stopping quickly, I opened the car door to find my phone on the floor of the parking garage. OMG! Thankfully, it landed on its back and the screen was intact! I grabbed it- said a thank you and of course, I won’t tell Richard – and sped off! No more than 5 minutes into my drive-home, I kept thinking about how lucky I was that my phone wasn’t damaged. I then remembered that I had placed my phone on top of my computer on top of my car. Oh no… where was my computer? I reached into the backseat, hoping to feel it…
Nope. I felt nothing.
I pulled over immediately and was beginning to hyperventilate… seriously shaking so much that I couldn’t work my phone. I kept fumbling and couldn’t focus to dial, trying to call my co -worker Jacqueline in hopes that it would somehow be on the floor of the parking garage, or even at my desk!
She couldn’t find it anywhere.
I retraced my route, which was no more than 2 miles from work. Nothing. I called the Sherriff, stopped at the Fire Station, in addition to every other venue in the Marina. Nothing. They all had just hoped that a “Good Samaritan” would find it and turn it in. I proceeded to drive home… a magnificent drive along the ocean at sunset – and dreaded telling Richard about what had just happened. After all, he had also put in so much time and energy into this website, and many of the files for the website were on my computer that had gone missing! As I began to try to process this event, I tried to begin by being grateful for what had just happened. It’s something I try to do when anything happens… good or bad. I knew there would be something good to come from this… I just knew it. A valuable lesson… a turn of events or a lesson in synchronicity perhaps… something unexpected and positive. I got home and Richard was amazing. “Honey… it’s just a bunch of chips, plastic, and metal. We have almost everything backed up. Everybody does things like this once in a while. I left an amp on a park bench once!” THIS is what he said, as he hugged me.
It’s true, we did have most everything for the website backed up, however NOT EVERYTHING. Much of what I had been working on for months was not backed up. He insisted that we get back in the car, go back up to the Marina and retrace my steps one more time. Maybe I missed it. So we did. Nothing. Not even any evidence of shattered glass from the screen. So the processing and reflecting of my self-inflicted loss begins. I can’t turn back the clock. Thank g-d I didn’t hurt anybody and this loss did not involve a human being. Most of it was replaceable.
So much for the Good Samaritan.
Monday morning I drove to work once again along the beautiful Pacific Ocean as I do every day, acknowledging “my gratitudes”. What am I thankful for… actually, everything 🙂
I had been at work about a half an hour and my phone “pings”. Someone named Stella has “liked” me on my suzyknowsLA Facebook page! Isn’t that great! I don’t know a Stella… how exciting! How did she find my page, because we haven’t officially launched. I called Richard to tell him the great news… that some “random” person has liked my page! Just as I was dialing him, he was calling me and I am simultaneously getting a call from one of my vendors on my website. Why is Joe calling me? I take Joe’s call and he tells me someone is looking for me and they are wondering if I lost something.
OMG—- I knew exactly what was happening. Someone had found my computer. Will they want ransom money, I secretly wondered… why did they not contact me on Sat or Sun?
Here is my silver lining and my little miracle 🙂
A wonderful dentist, who works in Venice “just happened” to be behind me as I pulled out of the parking garage and drove down Admiralty. He saw something – his wife Stella told me -“fly out of a Mini Cooper” about a mile down the road from my work. He stopped! He stopped on what is usually a crazy busy street, got out of his car, and picked up my computer from the street! But I was long gone! How was he going to find the person in the Mini Cooper who stupidly left her electronic devices on top of her car! But he did! He and Stella found me! When he got home, he took out the computer’s hard drive and put in his own computer’s hard drive to open it up, to try and locate the computer’s owner! Stella – who is an engineer and works on the new James Webb Space Telescope – found a vendor number from my website, called “Joe” who in turn called me to tell me that someone named Stella was looking for me. Stella from my Facebook Page! And the rest is history… I was so impressed with this dynamic duo! I “lucked out”… two super smart people “just happened” to find my computer! A dentist and a scientist! How lucky am I! And it just so happens they even live close to me and to top it off, they are musicians too!! Synchronicity….Timing is everything, pardon the music pun! Lucky, random, and unexpected things happen to all of us… are they really random or unexpected or is it just luck? Maybe. Maybe not.
The take-away from this is that I need to slow down. Jacqueline told me, my daughter told me, Richard told me, and Stella told me.
Maybe you should slow downJ We all need to slow down. Think before we do or speak.
A Good Samaritan… they do exist, even in Los Angeles.
