The One with the Lost & Found

I hate losing things.  I mean, I really really hate when I lose things.  I have no patience for myself when it comes to that.  So this past weekend was especially hard because I lost my UCard (my student ID).  It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal except, as a grad student, my UCard is my key to get in to all the facilities on campus where I fabricate/characterize my samples.  This makes getting a new card quite a hassle.  I was especially mad because this semester I splurged on the Fitpass at the rec center (a $60 sticker that lets you in to all of the classes they offer) and they informed me that even though they have a record of me buying a Fitpass, I would have to purchase a new one to continue attending classes.  Not fair!  I didn't understand that and definitely didn't want to pay again.

All weekend I kept retracing my steps and searching every place I could think I'd been before losing my card.  Finally I decided to really search our hungry couch.  I call it hungry because it literally eats anything.  If you have something in your pocket you want to keep, don't sit on the couch because I guarantee it will fall between the cushions.

 I had already looked underneath with a flashlight and stuck my hand in every place it would fit to no avail so as a last resort I flipped the couch over.  This is where the story gets good.  No I didn't find my card but I did find my long lost bluetooth!

 The one Steve gave me for Christmas and I thought I'd accidentally donated to DI a few weeks after.  The one Steve gave me for Christmas 2010!!  Yep, it's been resting in the belly of our couch for over a year.  I've missed wireless cell phone usage!

And now to answer the burning question, yes I did find my card.  I needed to return a book to the library and thought "it wouldn't hurt to ask."  Lo and behold, someone found it and actually turned it in!!  I definitely felt a disproportionately large sense of relief and excitement to see it again.  Yay for honest people!  And yay for pilates!  I'm so excited to be able to go to class again!

The One with the Ring!

No, Justin hasn't been pretending to be Gollum again- last night I lost my engagement ring!  After school we went to the gym like usual and then realized we could make the last Captain America showing at the dollar theater.  We've been wanting to see that movie since it came out last summer but somehow never seem to be quite able to work it out.  Or it gets sold out, like last week (we saw Cowboys & Aliens instead- way better than I thought it would be!).

Anyway, I always take my ring off to work out and was putting it back on in the car on the way to the movie when... it fell.  I heard it bounce around under my seat (the passenger side) and figured once we stopped I could just look under the seat and pick it up.  No such luck.  I actually dropped Justin off at the front of the theater to buy tickets and went looking for a parking spot.  This meant that I didn't actually have to open the passenger side door and hopefully could prevent my ring falling out of the car.  I stuck my hand under the seat from both the front and back, slid the seat as far as it would go either direction, rummaged around, used a flashlight and didn't find anything.  I did earn a few cuts on my fingertips.  Apparently my car is pretty clean but sadly, no ring.  Finally, I did get out (very carefully) and repeated the procedure from a better angle.  Again, no luck.  However, I did find a slit in the carpet underneath the seat where the final bolts were attached during assembly.  I found two pennies in there (both of which faked me out thinking I'd found my ring) and finally decided to run to the theater.

I told Justin I hadn't found my ring but I thought I knew where it was.  We still had a few minutes before the movie actually started which was good because I was quite distracted trying to think of the best way to find my ring in that hole underneath the seat.  By the way, Captain America is really good!  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Although I will admit that all of my favorite movies this year have been based on comic books.  This may further solidify my "nerd" status but I've never actually read any graphic novels so I'm nowhere near Sheldon Cooper.

After the movie Justin helped me search again, but we came up empty-handed.  By now I was starting to feel a little distraught, as you can imagine.  We decided to drive home and see if we could remove the passenger seat.  That was the slowest, most careful, least-amount-of-road-rage drive I have ever taken with Justin :)  When we got home we unbolted the seat (which was much easier than I thought it would be, thankfully) and I immediately saw a shiny diamond.  My ring had fallen around one of the bolts!  Yay!!  Just after I found it, I saw two people slowly approaching us.  Our landlords had seen some lights around our truck and thought it was getting stolen or something.  How nice of them to come check for us!  I would have been terrified to go check out what I thought was a burglary in progress.  What good neighbors!

I'm so glad to have my ring back!  And this was a reminder that now is a good time to get my engagement and wedding rings soldered together.  Oh, and probably that we've been married long enough I should change my last name :)