It's Always the Last Place You Look

It's been a week of madness around here and I can't believe it's finally Friday.

I've been spinning around like I've lost my mind the past few days and have a not so funny story about the panic that came with the case of The Missing Wallet.

I have a gorgeous card holder case that I use as a wallet (similar) and Tuesday evening as I was waiting in line to check in at the dentist office for a routine cleaning - it had gone missing. Nowhere to be found in my purse, I had to plead to the receptionist to ask me some questions to validate my identity and not lose the dentist appointment I'd scheduled close to two months ago. The entire time I sat in the chair opening wide and listening to the suction tube, I tried to re-trace my every step since the last time I'd remembered using it. Good news is that I hadn't used it since Monday morning (yay, savings plan!) but the bad news is that I couldn't get my mind together to remember even what I had worn the previous day, much less what pocket I'd stuffed it into.

So, I did the routine check: Did I switch purses, is it in my coat pocket, did I leave it on my desk, did it slip out in the car, did that dress have pockets, etc etc.

The worst part about all of the thinking and worrying is that I felt like I'd gone crazy. It's a serious feeling of insanity to lose track of a credit card sized case that holds your life in it. Credit cards, gift cards, membership cards, driver's license - sigh. It had me worried. I even felt good that Dan and I had just cleaned the house for Super Bowl Sunday which meant that the clutter level was low.

This pretty much sums up how I felt:

(via)

I may have gone through the five stages of grief and was on the path from Wednesday night depression to Thursday morning acceptance before I had to call and cancel everything. I was dreading having to sit at the DMV, hating the idea of re-linking all of my credit / debit cards to pay my utilities and bills, losing the values on the gift cards, making the walk of shame into costco without a card to show, and obviously replacing the cute case that Amanda got for me a few years ago that I'd never be able to forget.

Come to Thursday morning, before work I checked ONE last place, then was planning a reset plan to get my life back in order. I had remembered that on my way to the dentist appointment I tossed my computer bag into my trunk as to not be left out in the car while I was away for an hour. In the dark of 7am, I opened up the trunk to my car and started rummaging around. Hidden under bags, coats, running shoes and DIY supplies, there it was - my beautiful wallet, chilled by the winter air and warmed by the valuables held tightly in it's grasp. A sigh of relief washed over me and I sent photographic evidence to Dan of what I had found in my final effort.

I'm so happy that I didn't have to sit at the DMV or file a police report, and even happier that I lived off of $17.85 in cash over the span of 3 days of a wallet gone missing... and $15 of that was the dentist co-pay!

Remember - it's always the last place you look. And... technically I never drove without my driver's license, only without the knowledge of having it!

<3 JE