1/24/2009

Senior Moment? Sez Who?


I lost this phone a year ago.       


I lost another one (or two?) after that so what’s the big deal?

Well, here’s a tale of grace you will never believe, but I’ll tell you anyway.

This time last year, before I turned in, I prepared my bags for school. As my last act every night, I turned off my cell phone (a horrendous habit, Tony kept saying under his breath). The next day, I was so sure I put my cell phone in my bag. But in the car, when I wanted to make a call, it wasn’t there. It wasn’t in my brief case either.

“I could call your number but you won’t be able to hear it because it’s off,” Tony remarked, making the obvious more redundant.

As soon as I got back home, my househelps and I turned the whole house upside down. No phone. So I got a new one and again I lost that one, but that’s a whole new story.

One year later, to the day, my friend Yay (a co-teacher) calls, “I found your old cell phone!”

“Where? How? Why? When?”

“I was going through my cabinet looking for clothes for our church’s rummage sale and I found your phone in a plastic bag with my pink gown.”

“The pink gown you lent me?” I ask. A year ago, I was invited to be a wedding sponsor . . . I needed a pink gown . . . Yay volunteered to lend me her gown so I need not have one made . . . I couldn’t fit into it even after skipping a meal . . . so I returned it the next day . . . the day I lost my cell phone!

“Yes, that gown,” she confirms.

“You mean you never took that gown out of the plastic bag?!”

“Hahaha!” I find it a waste of time to organize my cabinets!” (That’s what makes Yay a great friend, she’s a kindred spirit.)

“I must have put my cell phone in that plastic bag instead of my bag (?)” I say, trying to remember but failing.

“How else could it have landed there? Senior moment, Grace, hahaha! I will leave it in your pigeon hole in school tomorrow,” she replies.

Tomorrow comes and I dash to my pigeon hole. My cell phone isn't there.

I meet Yay in the corridor an hour later. “So where is my old cell phone!”

“Oh, gosh, I forgot all about it! I left it at home.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh, “Senior moment, hahaha!”

Today I suddenly have two cell phones (the prodigal one and the one I inherited from my son), both the cheapest you can find in stores—if you can still find them. I often leave them around, anywhere, but they don't get stolen. One time a waiter ran after me, waving my cell phone, “Ma’am, you left this!”

I drool over those thin, sleek phones with magical functions beyond texting and calling, but two big boys keep count, “How many cell phones have you lost, mom?”

I stay quiet, hoping they don’t find out about those missing reading glasses. Uuuh, but those are other tales of grace.

4 comments:

Yay Padua-Olmedo said...

Muntik ko nang naibuga yung kape ko sa katatawa! Hahahaha! I didn't know you blogged about this. That was when blogging was still alien to me.

"Senior moment" episodes merit another book and could be titled, "Senior Funnies" or "Senior Blank Blank." You'll certainly get a lot of willing contributors saying, Grace, I'll email my story. But then, you won't receive any because we'll forget to email. Harharhar!

Grace D. Chong said...

You are not talking about ONE book, Yay. This merits a series, like an encyclopedia. Hahaha!

Carol said...

I enjoyed reading your blog. Truly worth writing! Had same experience except on a different thing!

Grace D. Chong said...

Hey, Carol, you're not a senior yet! You have not earned the right to experience something like this! Hahaha!