View From the Grown-Up Table

Okay, so I'm old enough to know better, right?  Believe me, my butt sits squarely at the grown-up table.  No doubt about it.  Yet, so often I find myself cleaning up childish messes of my own making.

The latest one was losing my wallet--complete with credit cards, driver's license, and insurance cards.  With the attention span of a gnat's twitchy minuscule brain, I dropped it in a parking lot next to my car and drove off none the wiser.  Didn't even notice it was gone until later that evening--not because I needed to buy anything, but because I swear I have a guardian angel who whispers in my ear when something's not quite right.  After an exhaustive search of the usual places, I called the gas station, which was my only stop that morning, and asked if they'd found a wallet.  I felt like such a goof just asking, but was even more disappointed to hear that no lost wallets had turned up.

Now, I really panicked.  I called my bank to put a hold on my debit/credit card and cancelled my other credit cards immediately.  Fortunately, there hadn't been any activity on any of them all day.  That meant one of two things.  Either A. it was just somewhere I hadn't looked yet or B. someone had figured out they weren't going to get far with the maxed-out credit cards in my wallet.  Of course, they were more than welcome to pay some down while they had them in their possession.  I might have even bought them something nice if they had.

Alas, still no clues as to where it could possibly be.  So, I re-ordered insurance cards and prepped myself to file a police report.  After all, that would be the grown-up thing to do.

However, my super-secret guardian angel seemed to be telling me to wait, and so I figured if it still hadn't turned up by the end of the week, I'd file the report and cross my fingers no one tried to pretend to be me--poor fool that they'd be.

The next morning, I stopped at the same gas station, cash in hand this time, gathered a few items and went to pay.  The cashier looked nice enough, so I swallowed my pride and asked, "Did anyone, by chance, turn in a wallet recently?"

He glanced below the counter and asked, "What color?"

Oh, my hopes soared as I said, "Pink, with flowers."

"Yeah, this one?"

And you know what?  It was my wallet.  Aaaaah!  Needless to say, I gushed profusely about how he'd made my day and how beyond happy I was now.

Of course, it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns.  I still have to wait for all my cancelled cards to be re-issued in seven to ten business days.  But life is good again, and though I still feel very much like a *cough*-year-old child playing grown-up most days, I guess I don't have to worry about anyone else doing a better job of being me now that I have my identity back.

Anyway, one of these days, I might actually grow up.  Until then, happy reading and writing.

C. C. Marks