“Desperation = Lost Phone”.

The other night I lost my cellphone. Somehow, as I was running to my car under a downpour, and huddling under my umbrella, it must have fallen from my purse. The thing is that I noticed it pretty much immediately… mainly because it’s like an appendix.

I searched for it in my house, I searched in the car, I retraced all my steps. Looked under the car, moved the car, looked again. It had just disappeared…as if by magic.

Now, this was a bad situation. I was on my way to meet a friend for dinner and I was already 15 minutes late. However, I couldn’t tell her…because I didn’t have a phone… and I don’t know her number by memory…not that it mattered since I couldn’t call her! I shoot her an email from my laptop and take off. I was fast becoming very frustrated and also concerned. I had a bad feeling that I had really lost it this time.

I came back home and that’s when it really hit me that I’m way to dependent on the apparatus. I tried Find My Phone but the app kept sending authorization codes to my phone! Everything I tried…TMobile…ICloud…wanted to verify with my phone. It quickly became evident that I needed another phone to find my phone! Very very very annoying. I actually started to lose it… and felt like crying. Huh?

I also felt very alone. I had no way of reaching out to my friend to come help. It’s funny how those moments illustrate different things. Like how much my life depends on this cellphone, and who I can count on for help. The only person that I was sort of communicating with through email was just not available. It always surprises me when people just don’t act the way I would. I know it’s just a cellphone…it wasn’t about the actual phone… it was more about the feelings of powerlessness, frustration and vulnerability that I was experiencing. It just would have been easier if someone else would have been there… with a phone!

I did find it the next morning. I had managed to set up an alert through TMobile and at 5 am it sent me an email telling me that it was near my house. I went out and began combing the small neighborhood I live in. It turns out that someone had found it…but it was completely destroyed. My car must have gone over it or maybe more cars than just mine.

It was good that I found it at least. It was almost like finding my life again. Everything is on that phone. Even if I couldn’t access it…it made me feel better that it was back home.

I felt very vulnerable that night. I mean…I couldn’t even have called 911. I didn’t like the feeling. However, everything does happen for a reason. I have to think about it.

In the meantime, I decided to write down to record all telephone numbers of my friends, and also record my passwords… the old fashioned way. One thing that became very evident is that I must be completely self sufficient; so I also went out and got myself a second emergency phone to have in case this were to happen again.

Because one is just not enough!