Hey Kids,

Ever had your day all of a sudden go crappy and then just as quickly turn back right?

I had left work at 2:30, a benefit for arriving early that morning. I had worked my 8 hours but it still seemed like cheating to leave so early.

I used my bus pass to tag off of the bus downtown. It’s all habit now. Pull the pass out of the plastic sleeve attached to the lanyard, wait for the bus to come to a complete stop, hold the pass to the little box, wait for the green light, and disembark.

I slipped the pass back into the sleeve as I eyed down the street to see if I needed to hot foot it to the stop just 100 feet ahead. Remember I don’t run for buses, at least not anymore.

No bus. I had time. I stepped back away from the sidewalk to let people pass while I waited. I checked my bus tracker. The bus was only a few blocks away. I checked my email.

The bus pulled up, I stepped towards the open door, reached for the pass and it’s gone. Only the empty hook at the end of the lanyard remained. No pass, no ID, no plastic sleeve.

I wave the bus off as I franticly search all the pockets on my winter coat. Nothing. I stepped the few hundred feet back to where I used the pass to get off the last bus. Nothing. It was gone, gone, gone.

I searched my pockets again and again. The phone rang. I ignored it. The next bus arrived. I paid the $3 for the ride home. Mulling over how crappy it is to pay for the bus for which I owned a pass, the $25 I would need to pay to replace my ID badge, and the fact that I would have to pay another $3 to ride the bus tomorrow morning to get my new pass. It really killed the joy of leaving early.

I noticed that my phone flashed that the caller had left a voice mail. Who leaves voice mail anymore? I listened anyway. The caller had been a gentleman who had found my pass and called to see if he could get it back to me.

I pulled the cord for the next stop and returned the call. He said he would leave the pass and ID with the receptionist on the 13^th floor at the building he had been working, the same building located on the corner where I knew I had lost the badges.

The office was beautiful. Glass walls and conference rooms with meetings being held. The receptionist sat behind a gigantic desk. I thought places like this only exisited in movies. I introduced myself and she compared me to the image on the ID. Yeah, that’s what I used to look like, ha ha.

All had been restored, minus the hour of extra time searching, u-turning on the bus, and the long elevator ride to the 13^th floor.

There are good people out there. There are good things that still happen. An hour spent learning this was an hour well spent.

Day 331