My wallet is not in the bag I brought upstairs yesterday. I had just looked in the car center console. Not there.
Take a deep breath and retrace my steps.
Ok, I used my credit card to pay for the lo mein take out. Then we had the fairly stressful fender bender (was cut off) – had my license when the officer showed up to take our statements. And at the park, I was thinking about calling Geico so I brought my wallet with me alongside the folding chairs.
Dumping takeout, did not need my wallet because it was prepaid. And I definitely was not holding the wallet when I came back to the apartment because my hands were guarding the precious container of aromatic beef noodle soup.
So fear has now set in – what if I left the wallet in the park? what if it fell out of the car when I got dumplings? There’s so many cards that I’ll have to stop and get replacements.
My wife calmly asks if any of my friends live near the park and if they’d be able to check for me. Yea, I suppose so. Clearly she sees I’m on edge and is offering some good advise. But I’ll go look in the car first before I ask anyone to go to the park.
The trunk pops open. I see the fold up chair and in the beverage pocket, a black rectangle. And finally a sigh of relief.
Obviously I could have handled this entire situation with a bit more grace. But I could also have handled it much more poorly.
My point is that it’s really hard to keep calm in stressful situations, especially when personal stakes are high. I’m really thankful that my wife was able to keep the calm when I was on edge.