Lost Droid

Funny how I talked about not going out drinking that much just the other day, but I went out drinking yesterday.  I was in the mood for drinking because I hadn’t in a while, and work was getting pretty stressful.  So I managed to goad my friend Sonny to go to a Korean bar for drinking.  We got one dish, 2 beers, and a bottle of soju.  And my tolerance must be getting really low because we ordered a second bottle of soju and that was enough for me to get drunk.  And when I get drunk, I fall asleep.  And when I fall asleep, I usually do on the bus ride home.  And when I do that, I usually leave something behind.  Yesterday, that something was the Droid.

When I woke up, I realized that I was already past my stop.  I had to get off at the next stop and catch a bus going back to New York.  I got off, but then could not find my phone.  My memory was hazy so I couldn’t recall exactly where I left th phone, although my first reaction was that it was left on the bus.  I had to call my wife, but I didn’t know how.  There were several pay phones but collect calls weren’t getting through.  Luckily, a bus came in about 10-15 minutes, although I can’t be sure of the time since my phone is also my watch.  I made it back to my stop and got home to an unhappy wife.  I got the number to the NJ Transit Lost and Found, but there was no answer on the other line.

This morning, I called back and they said no smartphones have been turned in.  I called my own phone but it was turned off.  My final option was to call the restaurant.  (By the way, it is not easy to search for a restaurant called “K Town” in K-Town.)  I tried calling my phone one last time, but then it rang before going to voice mail.  This means someone turned it on!  I called it again, and someone answered.  I explained my situation, and he agreed to meet me on Monday to give the phone back to me.  Turns out, he is a bus driver, which means I did leave it on the bus.  Why did he not turn the phone in to Lost and Found???  I don’t know, but if I get this phone back, I will consider myself lucky.

Back in the old days, losing your phone meant losing your contacts and phone numbers.  When people started texting and taking pictures, it became a bit more embarrassing to lose your phone.  Now, with these smartphones, there is so much more at stake.  Someone who finds my phone has access to my contacts, text, photos, Google Voice text, Yahoo Mail, 3 Gmails, and most importantly, ability to make posts on this blog.  Luckily, I did not store any passwords to any banking sites so that’s off limits, but the point is that so much more of my life is now stored on my phone.  But does my phone finder have the ability to check these things?  I would say no, since I have the phone password-protected.  He can receive calls but cannot call anyone.  That is why I kept calling it, because him calling anyone on my contact list was out of the question.

I’ve been playing some addictive games on the phone and I realized today how much I’ve gotten used to logging into these games several times a day.  If I lost the phone for good, a silver lining would be not having all these distractions.  But I consider myself real lucky that someone found it and is willing to return it back to me.  I have to go to Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York on Monday night to pick it up.  I think I need to give him a cash reward.  Question now is, how much?  $20?  $20 seems a bit cheap.  $50?  $50 seems too much, although if he held the phone for ransom, I would pay more than that for it.  $30 or $40?  Seems more right but handing over more than 1 bill seems calculated and cheap.  How much should I give him?  I guess I have 2 days to think about it.

Fresh Socks

I am on the bus ride home and I just cannot wait to take a shower and get into my bed.  Why?  Well…

Work is seriously beginning to pile up because of several reasons, most notably my laziness and my stubbornness in trying to figure things out on my own.  I’ve spent all night in the office a few times when I had a lot of work to do, and I figured last night would be a good chance to do that.  That is because last night was my office holiday party, and I also had tickets to the Nets-Wizards basketball game.  I’m feeling a bit too lazy to work out a good frame to tell my story so I will just do this chronologically.

Last night was my third holiday party at my company.  It isn’t a fancy affair – people just come after work for the open bar and free buffet while mingling with co-workers and watching other people dance.  There are no assigned tables and not enough seats so some people just stand around or walk around.  I had to leave my first two holiday parties early because both of those nights coincided with my wife’s one weekday off, but that wasn’t a big deal since I’m not all that friendly with my co-workers.  This year, the holiday party fell on the day my wife was working (she works 3pm to 11pm as a nurse), but again I had to leave early because I had to go to the basketball game.  Party started at 5:30 and I had a little more than an hour to get as much free food and drinks as I could.  I hung out with some people in my department, and had one strong Long Island iced tea and 2 jack and cokes before rushing out of there with a co-worker for the basketball game.

We took the PATH train to Newark and watched the Eastern Conference’s worst team, my Nets, beat the Conference’s second worst team, the Wizards.  At the game I got beers for myself and my co-worker but he was so full that I ended up drinking both beers over the course of the game.  I was a bit drunk at this point.  By the game ended it was almost 10pm, and I imagined my trek back home: PATH to Grove St., transfer to Hoboken train, bus to NY, bus home, 5-minute walk to my car and then a drive home to sleep for 5 to 6 hours before my 2-hour morning commute.  Instead of that, I decided to spend the night at the office getting some work done.

I stopped by the supermarket on my way back to work and got myself two instant noodles, which is a cheap Korean hangover food.  I killed one as soon as I got back to the office, then I felt tired and fell asleep.  After sleeping on the office floor a few times before, I’ve been keeping a sleeping bag in my cubicle, which has been there ever since I brought it in to the office to let that same co-worker borrow it a few months ago.  So my sleep was at least comfortable.

(Honey, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I lied about sleeping over at my co-worker’s house.  I was going to do that but I decided to work instead.)

I woke up at 6am, and downed the other bowl of noodles before getting myself ready to face another day.  I started working at 7am, but in the end, I didn’t get any extra work done because I left work early, negating the extra hours I put in in the morning.  I had to get home as soon as possible because I haven’t washed myself, I’m wearing the same clothes from yesterday, I’m dirty, and I’m tired.  The only thing I brought yesterday was a spare pair of socks.  I can go days wearing the same clothes and same underwear, but I have to have a fresh pair of socks.  And now I can’t wait to take them off and get into my bed.