the tragedy of losing a cellphone

the normal pinoy is almost always with his cellphone. it has become a necessity of sorts, providing you with time, games, stored notes and messages, not to mention the all-important convenience of keeping in contact with relatives/friends to leisurely look/shop around in places, such as the mall.

but last night while helping my cousin with his science project, it was just gone. not in my room. not in any of my bags. just gone.

my heart almost stopped beating for a second. then came the paranoia. using another phone to call your cel while franctically searching each rooms, each corner. retracing steps. checking the car. room searching again. calling. stop. the last time i left it, it was still in SILENT, VIBRATING MODE. oh. my. god. it was controlled hysteria, folks. and the bitter part of it all, as the realization was slowly setting in that it was nowhere in the house, or car, was it had happened to me before. TWICE.

the first time was at the Tokyo Fashion, Festival Mall. it was a Nokia 5510, and i just bought a new casing for it - pearl with purplish highlights - and i distinctively remember leaving it inside one of the changing stalls. the whole mall was closing then, and certainly we were the last persons to leave that store. when we leave the mall, i realize i had left my phone, but we couldn't get back in. that night we made franctic calls, but no one answered the phone. the next morning, as soon as the mall opened, we rushed in to Tokyo Fashion. but it wasn't there, supposedly. i looked at the sales people dejectedly, but oh so menacingly. i was convinced them greedy folks had taken it for themselves! the liars! and from then on, i CURSED that store. i wished its lousy business sales or better yet, its demise. i abhored the very sight of it, avoiding it always and even vowing never to walk inside it or any branch OF that store.

few years passed and new, better cellphones passed in my possession. the last one before my current sony ericcson z600 was the nokia 3650. THAT phone i was fond of. and the longest list of accumulated phone numbers of friends, acquaintances, and business contacts. how i lost it was unknown; somewhere between walking from my office to the tricycle (i was going home then), it went missing. or pickpocketed. or fallen. but oh, the heartbreak!!! like losing a friend! like being stripped naked! and with no one to blame!!!!!!!

and here i was, AGAIN, on the verge of losing yet another one! and while it had almost no sentimental value (i had wisely kept a copy of all phone numbers, this time), the SE z600 was the most expensive i had bought (after diligent research and a few months of budgeting), and had the most features. bluetooth, infrared port, camera, sound recorder, the works! and i left it at another freakin' changing stall again!!!!!!!

by then, i had calmed down a bit. i knew of a relative who had a spare phone and was devicing how to ask for it, if i could. i thought of calling the service provider to have the phone temporarily cut off, but then decided to just visit the store the following day. i didn't want to get my hopes up, but it was better to not lose hope at all.

thankfully, i got it back. had it been a philippine scenario, let's face it, that phone was a sure goner. in a bad example, the finder might contact you and offer to give it back, but only for a fee. the saleslady unhestitantly gave it to me, with an amused smile. no bother of even verifying if i was the owner. i guess the relief must have been so clear in my face, and it was enought.

it was just that, the moment of return was strangely... un-momentful. just like that. all that panic and worry, when it was all just for a phone. there are other things in life are much more important to worry over for, but then again, why focus on worrying in the first place? i had to remind myself to just relax and enjoy.

of course, that's not gonna stop me from making sure this losing thing won't ever happen again (crosses fingers).