Sometimes I Lose Stuff

When I was a teenager there were many things about me that drove my parents nuts. One was my tendency to lose things. Things of value. Things such as a camera. I was the high school yearbook photographer. There wasn’t a week that went by that someone didn’t visit my father’s classroom to return my camera, which I had left somewhere in the school. My father’s classroom was also where my jackets, books, bike, etc., would be deposited.

This was an advantage of having my father as a teacher in the same school I attended.

This week I lost my gym bag. More specifically, I left it in the overhead bin on the bus Tuesday evening. I was on my way home. I was tired. I had actually been to the gym. When I got up to leave the bus I left the bag in the overhead compartment.

The next morning I asked Eddie, the bus driver, what I should do. He gave me the number to the bus garage where my bag would have been turned in. I took my seat and, using my cell phone, called the garage. The guy who answered sounded like a guy who works in a bus garage.

No, the bag had not been turned in. Eddie, having overheard the conversation, speculated that another passenger had taken the bag.

Let me see if I have this straight. Things are so bad for someone that taking my bag filled with sweaty socks, shorts, T-shirt, underwear, a pair of sneakers I used to use when cutting the grass and a pair of headphones I could never use again, now that I think of it, is going to improve their lot in life. Well, ok. He/she can have the bag.

I usually put other things in the bag, such as my Walkman, PDA, cell phone, wallet, and keys. This day, due to divine providence, I didn’t do that. When packing things into the bag at the gym I decided that these were items that didn’t need to be co-mingled with the clothing I had just used in the gym. Normally the gym cloths would have been placed in a separate plastic bag. However, the rack where I usually get this bag was depleted this day. It is the first time in my memory that they were out of plastic bags. Because the gym was out of plastic bags I still have possession of my Walkman, PDA, cell phone, wallet, and keys.

Usually there also would be a soapbox in the bag. This is the plastic thingy used to carry a bar of soap. I didn’t lose that on the bus because I lost that in the shower the previous week. In fact, I have been losing one of those every couple of weeks for the past six months. As big as New York City is, with as many stores as are located in NYC, the only place in the city that sells these stupid soapboxes is K-Mart. I hate K-Mart. Still, every couple of weeks I have to visit the K-Mart on 34th and Seventh Ave. to buy a new soapbox. I’m now at the point I buy several on each trip. The gym provides soap in the showers, but it is liquid soap and it smells like coconuts. I don’t want to smell like coconuts. I have enough problems without smelling like coconuts.

I mentioned my lost gym bag to a co-worker, Martha. She suggested that the next time I visit my father I stop by his old classroom to see if anyone dropped it off.

Well, I hope all is going well with you, and that you found your keys this morning right where you left them.