The Case of the Missing iPod

Last Monday I arrived at work and in my typical fashion I reached in my purse to grab my iPod so that I could plug it into my little speaker set and enjoy music in my office. But alas, there was no iPod in my purse. I removed everything else from my purse, no iPod. I assumed that I had left it on the little table in the entryway where I put my purse at night but when I returned home on Monday night it wasn't there. I looked in the usual places (atop the stereo, on my desk) and couldn't find it, so I assumed that it had fallen out of my purse and hence the long, painful search began.

The last time I remembered having it was on Friday evening. When I picked Don up at work it was plugged into the FM radio transmitter in my car. When we arrived at Yarrow Bay Grill I unplugged it and put it in my purse. Since my purse spent a great deal of time in both my car and Don's car over the weekend, I thought perhaps the iPod had slipped out at some point when it wasn't zipped up. So on Tuesday morning prior to heading to work I searched my car and NOTHING. I shot off an email to Don asking him to check his car and again, NOTHING.

I was now beginning to believe that it may be gone.

Tuesday night I searched my entire house. I had set my purse on my bed at one point over the weekend so I took all the sheets off the bed and searched, nothing. It has been in the kitchen, so I searched there and again, NOTHING. I had been working on the deck and thought that I perhaps set it on the arm of the couch since I had thought about plugging it into the stereo and never did and you guessed it.... NOTHING! UGH!

By Wednesday I was sure that it had fallen out of my purse at one of the places that we visited last weekend. So I began calling to inquire about it. I called Yarrow Bay Grill, Maltby Cafe, Bell Street Diner and Silver City Brewing. NOTHING.

Then it occurred to me that there was no identification or contact information on it. So even if an honest person had found it and wanted to return it they couldn't. Damn!

On Thursday I felt that I had exhausted all possible resources to finding it and began to accept the fact that it was gone forever. Work days were longer without it, my office was painfully quiet. Home life wasn't the same without it and I actually had to use CD's in the stereo. I have all the music on my laptop in iTunes so I wasn't sad about losing music just the method of being able to have all my favorite songs in the palm of my hand. Sure I could buy another one but I didn't want to, I wanted mine back.

Saturday and Sunday were sunny and busy and I had accepted the idea that my beloved iPod was never coming home again. I spent some time on the website looking at the newer options in the iPod world and thought that I would likely replace it in the coming week.

Then yesterday afternoon Don and I were at Rock Bottom playing pool and drinking some beer. Don was on-call for the weekend and had just received a call so we were quickly winding things up so that we could head home and he could handle the problem that had come up. I reached in my purse to get my "card wallet" (the wallet that I keep all the bonus, membership, point, punch cards for various retail establishments) and get the Rock Bottom Mug Club card out. My purse was stuffed since in additional all the regular stuff I also had my digital camera in there. I removed my wallet to give myself more space and reached to the bottom in search of the card wallet and felt something with a velvety texture. Could it be? I grabbed it and pulled it out and it was my iPOD! Oh happy day! Had it really been in my purse all this time? Unbelievable.

When Don returned from the bathroom he couldn't believe it. He thinks that I didn't really check my purse well. I swear that I did. I took everything out and actually shook it upside down. Upon arriving at home I plugged it into the stereo and enjoyed my tunes again. I'm so glad it has come home to me (even if it never really left).

I think instead of buying a new iPod that I need a new purse. One that is big enough for everything and has a zipper that will close when it's packed with stuff.