#30in30 Day 5: No Phone Left Behind

As I get into my #30in30 stride, one of the challenges I face is posting on the weekend. Spoiler alert: Most of these that appear will be written in advance because I don’t want to get caught out there. To a more important point, I was worried people wouldn’t read my stuff on a Saturday or Sunday, and posts would be “wasted”. Then I remembered the purpose of this series, and my original stance when I first started writing that while I appreciate the readership, this site wasn’t about strategy or unique visitors or Google analytics. It was about expressing myself and having an outlet for my creativity. I’ll drop the same quality (or better) regardless of the day of the week! cool? Cool. Let’s get into today’s post!

If you know me in real life, I love telling stories and parables. I swear I’m Jesus on the side of the road preaching. So much randomness either happens to me, or I witness, that I have to share. I have a great story about serendipity and counting blessings, as trivial as it may appear on the surface. One late night in May, I was coming home from another successful First Saturdays event with my 4G brethren in Brooklyn. I was driving down Atlantic avenue, and my gas tank was begging for sustinance. It shouldn’t be a secret to anyone that this is a common occurence with me. So I stopped at a gas station to fill up and ensure that my late night drive wouldn’t end in struggle. When I fill up my gas tank, I usually turn off my engine, put the keys in my pocket, and go about my business. I usually leave my phone in the car too (I heard a rumour that you run the risk of your gas tank exploding if you talk on the phone while pumping gas. I know its bullsh*t but I rarely chance it). While I gassed the car, I was checking Twitter and email passing the time. I was tired and I wanted to get in and out of the gas station ASAP. So I gassed up the whip, got in, and continued on my way down Atlantic.

I wanted to check to see if #Team4G made it home safely, and I was at a particularly long red light, so I decided to check my phone and see if any texts arrived. I reached into my pocket and my phone wasn’t there. No problem, it should be in my other pocket right? WRONG! I checked all my pockets and couldn’t find my beloved iPhone. usually when I drive, the phone may fall on the side of the driver’s seat, so I figured no worries. I checked the seat and it wasn’t there either. I don’t stress a lost phone in the car, but something was bothering me about this situation. I had a funny feeling that the phone may not be in the car. I began to run through the nights events, tracing my steps to determine whether I lost the phone earlier in the night. I remembered having it when I went to the gas station. I remember looking at my phone as I pumped the gas. Running these thoughts through my head, some images appeared blurry as I attempted to put this jigsaw together into a cohesive picture. I then vaguely remembered that during the gas process, I put the phone on top of my car’s roof to finish the job. Then the next memory I have is driving. Not putting the phone in the car, or my pocket, but driving home.  Nah… I couldn’t be that stupid could I?

I hurried down Atlantic until I got to the next light where it was possible for me to bust a U-turn. I raced back down in the other direction, panicking to see if my vague thoughts would bear fruit of confirmation that I pulled a massive idiot blunder. I was about 3 minutes away from the gas station, so I might still have time. I got back to the gas station, and drove up to the pump I used previously. I also saw a few teenagers at the gas station store ordering some food. I got out the car and looked at the area around the pump. No phone. I hear the teenagers talking to one another. I eavesdrop, to see if they are discussing the phone I lost. Not only did I possibly do something completely stupid, I may now have to approach a group of dudes in order to reclaim my possession. I checked the car quickly and thought “If the phone was on the roof and I drove off, it should have fallen to the side. No way it stays on the roof that long”. If the phone wasn’t by the pump, than it was truly gone. That meant buying a new phone because iPhone doesn’t have insurance to get a new one, and that was a possible $400 penalty. I was pissed! I’m a person who doesn’t accept defeat easily, so I crunched my mind to think where could the phone have landed. That’s when I gazed into the street, and saw something slightly resembling my iPhone case.

I ran into the street, as the light was red and few cars were on the road anyway. I looked on the ground, and there it is, chilling on the floor: MY PHONE! Say Word this phone fell off the roof of my car, onto the street, and not 1 car ran over it. I was hyped! Then my hype slowly faded as I figured the screen was dismantled. I picked up the phone and to my amazement, there were NO scratches, scuffs, or cracks on my phone. I’m great in math, but even I know the probability of this is slim to none that my phone would come away unscathed. I did a 5 second dance of joy got out the street, and happily got into my car and went back on my way home.

What seemed like hours was only 7 minutes, but I was thankful that I didn’t lose my phone, or have to pay any extra money to retrieve it, or have to confront young boys to get my sh*t back. Life is good. God is great! I lucked out that day, and hope I won’t pull a dumb move like that again. Now you know why I rarely put gas in my car! Not really but really.

Keeping my friends close and my iPhone’s closer,

The Phone Whisperer