I was on my way to aikido class. I had a bag strapped across my back, I was running intermittently because I’ve decided I’m going to see if I can use the eminently walkable trip as a way to get some extra exercise in.
I came to what may or may not have been the first turn I needed to take. I wasn’t quite sure, so I reached into my bag for my phone. It wasn’t there.
I swung the bag off my shoulder and dug through both external pockets. Nothing. It must have fallen out. I kicked myself mentally; as I was putting the phone in the bag I thought “I should really put this somewhere else, it’ll probably fall out if I sling this across my back”, and ignored this very sensible advice. So I started walking back with my eyes on the ground, hoping to find it. A couple blocks on, I took the bag off again and double-checked, running my hands through both outside pockets, taking out everything in there. Nothing.
Two blocks away from home, just as I’d resigned myself to the hassle of acquiring a new phone, and smirked at the irony of this happening right after I grumbled about T-Mobile signing me up for phone insurance, my bag chimed and buzzed. My phone was in there. It was casually nestled in my bag, in plain sight. Exactly where I remembered putting it, and had checked twice. Visually and tactilely.
I guess it’s possible that it was somehow nestled against the profile of the bulky stuff in my bag, such that I didn’t feel it. I guess? Maybe? The location history says it went to that turn and came back with me. This certainly makes more sense than “it fell out, then was suddenly, magically in my bag again the instant I quit worrying about it”. But that is one heck of a narrative coincidence.
All I know is that next time I head out for class, I’m sticking my phone behind a zipper.