Important Wallet Update

Disaster averted! But it did not come without a bit of tension. Having rescheduled my flight to 1pm Monday, I had some time to hunt down my wallet. As I mentioned in my last post, I was 99% sure it was in the returned tux bag, either in the pants pocket or inside coat pocket. The store opened at 10am, so my Mom and I drove there around 9:30 to see if they would open up early for us.

[aside]
As we are walking to car, Mom says, in all sincerity, "Do you want to drive?"
I notice she is not making a joke, so I say, "Well, I don't have my wallet or ID, but..."
We laugh.
[end aside]

The nice man at the store sees me peering through the glass doors, trying to get his attention. My Dad and I both had left voice mails with the store late the night prior, letting them know my plight. I had not received a return phone call yet.
"Can I help you sir?"
"I know you're not open yet, but I left a voice mail. I think I left a personal item in my tuxedo bag, which was returned yesterday. Are they still here?"
"We had about 160 tuxedos returned yesterday. But yes, they're still here. Come on in."
Nice of me to try and gain entrance by simply saying, "I left a voice mail." As if phoning first should give us all access to any private business. He leads me to the backroom, where there are 4 or 5 racks of tuxes. I hand him the ticket from my purchase, and he shows me what number I'm looking for. None of the tuxes have names on them anymore.

I rummage through two racks, and find my number at the end of the 2nd. "Here it is" I announce. I zip open the bag and begin patting and digging in the coat and pants. No wallet. I check the bottom of the bag in case it fell out of the hanging pants. No wallet. The shirt does not have a pocket.

I can't believe it! If the wallet isn't here, I have no clue where it is - maybe left at the cottage (1.5 hour drive one-way) or maybe lost at the pub. But I don't believe in my heart that is the case. The man says, "Why don't you check the shoe compartment in the bag?" Yeah right. But desperate, I zip it open. I quickly deduce that the bag of accessories I placed in the shoe compartment is not there. Seconds later, I realize the shoes were not the ones I wore at all - size 10. I'm a 12. This isn't my bag! But wait, if it matches my ticket, what happened to my bag?!

Since my buddy AJ returned it together with his, maybe the tickets got messed up, we think. So we just start scrambling through that same rack, looking for another powder blue vest-tie combo. Success! Okay, I know this is my bag, I can tell by the musky smell. Coat first - no wallet. Pants pocket - Yes! There it is! Everything in it!

Whew. I made it with time to spare. After visiting the Mrs. Fields at Rivertown, getting a delicious frozen cappuccino drink, and saying hi to the manager, my Mom and I browse Barnes & Noble for a while before heading to the airport, where I could present my driver's license proudly and head home.

Oh, and Josh's wedding was pretty sweet, too. More on that later?

I am an Idiot

It's been almost a month and I have plenty to blog about, but the reason I'm up at 12:24 am EST (I'm in Michigan) is because I just now realized I lost my wallet, and I have an 8:30 flight scheduled for tomorrow morning to get me back home. This morning, I packed up the rental tux I wore on Saturday for Josh's wedding, dropped it off to AJ's house, since the store wouldn't open until later, and I was off to the cottage with my sister and parents. I had no need for my wallet, and it never came into my consciousness today. I simply grabbed a swimsuit and book and planned to sleep in the back of the car on the way up - I got in at 1:30 am Sunday morning after a phenomenal party-bus ride, reception, and after hours night cap at C-Pub (woo woo!) And no, I did not leave the wallet there or anywhere else yesterday. It has to be in that stupid tux bag. Here's the rub: they don't open until 10 am, don't have a 24-hr hotline, and who knows if the bag is still even in that location. I imagine they whisk them away to a dry cleaner on the seedier side of town, and encourage the staff to rummage around, since I likely signed away any responsibility to the store on some stupid waiver. Needless to say, I cannot get on a plane without an ID, and I cannot make an 8:30 flight when the store opens at 10. If they actually have my wallet, that is.

Tune in next time to see what the heck happens!