The Fright of My Life

I am a very scary person.  I can jump and scream at the slightest movement or noise.  There is a huge list of incidents of me screaming for no good reason.  It got to be that most of my co-workers were so used to it that they wouldn't even miss a beat if a scream from me reverberated through the office.

The good thing is that since my reflexes are such that I would punch the nearest person when I was startled, not many people scared me on purpose for a second time.  

Over the years, Randy has gotten in the habit of humming or whistling to try to prevent getting a black eye.  I have had to have an eye to eye, serious talk with Sammy to impress upon her not  to scare me.  The last thing I want to do is to punch a small person.

At Universal Studios years ago, not only did I unknowingly knock a little girl down, I actually started to walk right over the top of her.  I stopped and looked down when I realized that the sidewalk under my feet didn't feel quite right.  The poor little girl was drinking a carton of milk. She spent the remainder of her day at the park with milk all over herself and my giant footprints on her back.

Just kidding about the footprints.

I apologized to the little girl and her mom like crazy, unfortunately, they didn't speak English.

Anyway ~

Last night and this morning was a different kind of scary.  As I drifted off to sleep last night, my last conscious thought was, "I haven't seen my iPad for a couple of days.  I wonder where it is?"

This isn't the first time that I have misplaced my iPad.  The other time was in August when we dashed back to Texas to pack up the odds and ends that the movers left.  We had brought with us rod building books and paperwork for Nick and unloaded them at the McKinney house before we went to the hotel.  Before leaving for dinner, I realized that my iPad wasn't in my bag.  I was relatively sure that it got unloaded at the McKinney house by accident ...  but ... what if ...

Anyway ~

It seems that I woke up a million times last night.  My first thought is 'Hey, something is bothering me and I don't know what it is.  Oh, I know.  I haven't seen my iPad for a couple of days.  I wonder where it is?"

And then the panic and mentally going through the house to figure out where it is.  The last thing I remember is that I had gotten it out of the truck and had to wipe off the cover 'cause I had stepped on the edge of the case.  That's what I get for putting it on the floor for 'safekeeping'.

I got up earlier than normal this morning to look for it.  I was hoping beyond hope that it was buried on the kitchen table along with all the stuff from Randy putting up the new lighting in the kitchen and stuff to take up to the apartment.

Nope.

I grabbed the keys to the truck and went out to look.  Roxy thinks this is exciting that she may get to go for a ride so early in the morning.

Nope, not in the truck.  But I did find my aluminum water bottle.  Orange, of course.

I go through all the places in the house that it may be.  I look under the cushions in the couch.  In the bathroom.  Downstairs.  Upstairs in the loft.  In the drawers of the lamp tables.  Outside on the deck.

Nope.

Even though I know it's not in my car, I grab the keys and look in there.

Nope.

The apartment?

Nope.

The only thing I can think of is that I had it on the floor of the truck and it fell out and I didn't notice it. I try to remember where all we went last week, I can't remember taking it anywhere after I stepped on it.  

New rule - nothing goes on the floor of any vehicle at my feet.

I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit on the couch wondering if it is okay to say a prayer to find my missing iPad.  It seems kind of lame with all the trouble in the universe.

Maybe a small prayer would be okay.

I go through the house one more time, waiting for Randy to get up.  I am trying to remember just how long it takes Mountain Dew to get into his bloodstream before I can mention my loss.

I decide two things: 1) It's about time that Randy gets up and B) I am just going to start his day with:

"I've lost my iPad!"

"Oh", he says, "It's on my desk by my printer."

What the heck is it doing down there?  That's an area that I do not frequent and of course, never thought to look there.

Oh, I had to fill out the Sears survey from his computer, 'cause Sears only knows his email address, and I left it down there.

Whew!  I would hate to think that some unknown person was playing Peggle on my high score.

"Okay, God, thanks for the answered prayer.  You can go back to doing what you were doing."

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy