A Tragic Loss

Okay, I know it's been ages since I've posted, but there's a story here that needs to be told.

Last Friday, I had a drink after work with a colleague visiting from Spain. She'd been around the office for a month and was heading home over the weekend, and this was the first chance we'd had to have a real conversation. I'd been her default translator around the office, with my incredibly rusty college Spanish skills, and this was a goodbye drink. It ended up being over an hour of very intense conversation about culture, politics, and personal stuff, almost entirely in Spanish - with a little English or French thrown in when one of us groped for vocabulary. Between the glass of guinness and the intensity of the conversation, I vastly overtipped the bartender - I think mostly because I couldn't think how to ask for change for a five in English by that point. We said goodbye with kisses on both cheeks (how European!) and I headed off happily towards home, Spanish phrases swirling around in my head.

Ten, maybe fifteen minutes later, walking down the street in center city, it hit me. I was carrying one bag. I should be carrying two. The one with my wallet in it was slung over my shoulder. But the one with my knitting in it wasn't.

Must be in the bar. There'd been almost no one in there, so it was probably still sitting there by the bar. I walked all the way back to the bar to check. Nope. The bartender reminded me I'd stopped in the bathroom before I left. Not there. I left her my name and number and a description - totebag with pigs on the outside and knitting inside - but figured I must have left it in the office.

Went back to the office. Not there.

Let me explain the scope of this tragedy. The contents of this bag were as follows:

1. Eris. Pullover version. Overdue birthday present for my wonderful, sweet sister. Almost entirely done. Missing only the bottom hem and one sleeve. Done in a yarn that Brooks Farms only sells at festivals. Here are the only photos I have, back from when I was almost done with the collar.





2. Bayerische socks. Also almost entirely done. I was midway through the last pattern repeat before the toe on the second sock. Probably two inches left at the most. Done in lovely Koigu. As seen below, Davy loved these socks almost as much as I did. I don't know how I'm going to break it to him.







I spent another 40 minutes retracing all my steps since I left the office. Scanning the sidewalk for a place where I might have just dropped it. (Did I mention how hot it was on Friday? 90 degrees F and thickly humid.)

I held out hope over the weekend that I MUST have left it at the lab where I had a blood draw Friday afternoon. The last time I worked on it was in the waiting room there. I stopped in on my way to work this morning. No dice. I even remembered that I'd stopped in the Wawa to get cash after my appointment, but they hadn't seen it there either, and there would have been no reason for me to put it down there anyway.

So I think I'm going to have to accept that it's gone. Most likely I left it behind in the bar and someone picked it up and took it away with them hoping it had a wallet in it. When they found it didn't, they probably trashed it. I can't even imagine how many knitting hours were represented in that bag. A hundred, maybe? More? And now, they're probably at the bottom of a dumpster, headed for a landfill.

I'll check with the bar again this evening. Maybe I should report it to the police lost & found? Serious longshot. Might as well just say goodbye. Owwoooooooo!!!

Oh, and it was in my honey's favorite totebag, which she's being INCREDIBLY gracious about. Sigh.