A January Miracle

One of my resolutions this year: do more fun stuff with the kids. I tend to wait until everything's perfect and everyone's home and the stars, planets, and moons have aligned, but I am trying to be more spontaneous. So this afternoon, I packed up Nathan and Kaleb and took them to Jump On It, which is a big warehouse filled with trampolines. They jumped and bounced and even flipped to their hearts' content. Happy kids! Their only disappointment was that I wouldn't jump with them, but seriously: even though I used to be fairly good at trampoline jumping, I havehad several children. 'Nuff said.

After more than an hour, they were both thirsty, hot, thirsty, exhausted, and thirsty, so we found their shoes, got in the car, and drove home. [Let me interrupt the flow of the narrative right now to say: I bet when you read "trampolines," "kids," and "miracles," you totally thought someone had broken a bone, didn't you? And the miracle was that no one broke his neck? Well, I suppose that is a miracle, too. Not the one I speak of, but one I needed to mention anyway, because I was terrified the entire time I was watching them that someone was going to break his neck. Interruption over.] It was only after I drove the boys home, dropped them off, drove over to the high school to pick up Haley, and started driving towards a different high school did I realize: I left my camera.

Let me emphasize that: I left my camera at Jump On It. Which was crowded with people. Plenty of teenagers. I left my camera. I LEFT MY CAMERA.

Confession: I freaked out. I swore and berated myself and swore some more. I drove home way too fast. I swore some more. Haley assured me that no one would steal it, someone would turn it in, I would get it back. I swore some more. I pointed out my stupidity and the brilliance of whichever jerk stole it, because who wouldn't just grab a big camera bag someone stupid left?

Then I called to see if anyone had turned it on. I described it for the nice man on the line, and he said "wait! there's a dude leaving right now, and he has a Canon! What if he's stealing it?" and I shrieked "go ask him!" Because yeah, if he was stealing it, he'd be all "hey, yeah, I was going to take this home with me, but because you asked, well, here, I'll give it to you." The guy sort of paused like he was thinking I was crazy, and then he put the phone down so he could look for my camera.

Bad news: he couldn't see it. I gave him my cell phone number, and my name, and asked him to call him if anyone turned it in. Then Haley and I got in the van and drove back. To make things more complicated, the very easy way to get to Jump On It is severely complicated by the removal of an old bridge over the freeway, so it took twenty two excruciating minutes to get back there, exacerbated by 5:00 traffic. I seriously pondered whether or not I should be driving, my heart was pounding so hard.

Just as we were getting off the freeway (but don't be fooled: there were still five-ish more miles of construction-riddled back roads to work through), my cell phone rang. Miracle of miracles, the guy had found my camera. Right where I left it, under the chair where I sat while watching the kids jump. I nearly burst into tears, except I didn't want to get too relieved. What if it was someone else's camera? (Someone else dumb enough to leave their camera under a chair!) So my heart kept pounding and my hands shook until I finally got there, went inside, and saw it: my camera! Safe and sound! Not stolen. Not broken. Not lost.

It might be outdated and old. It might get confused sometimes on how to expose photos correctly. But I am grateful to have it back anyway.

It's a miracle, I tell you. A miracle!

Comments

[elizabeth]

if it makes you feel any better, i got to the front door of the PUBLIC FREAKING LIBRARY right before christmas with my LOWEPRO CAMERA BAG that had my CANON 5D in it on a table in the children's room, SECOND FLOOR. yeah. niiiiiiice. but it was still sitting there, four minutes after i nearly drove off without it :P

[Britt]

Phew!

Once I have left my diaper bag in the booth of a restaurant TWICE with my wallet in it. One time it had my camera in it, too. Thankfully I was able to get it back both times. Close call, though!

[Britt]

I just reread my comment. Please enjoy my awesome grammar.

[Jamie]

I'm so glad you got it back. We do live in a pretty good community for that kind of thing. Carly has lost her ipod twice at school. Once at OJH someone very nice found her name on it and facebooked her that they had it and would give it to the office for her to pick up. She wasn't even at OJH anymore but had been there for something to do with Rachel. At THS it was dropped in choir and even though the picker upper would see her name when they plugged it into their computer it was not returned....
kind of surprised me as OJH seems to have a "rougher element" than THS.

[Laurie]

I left my camera on a bus in Denmark (one of those sightseeing buses that travels a circuit, making stops at multiple places to let people on and off). I was convinced that it was long gone. I waited at our stop for the bus to return and the bus driver had it. Someone had found it and had given it to him. There are good people in the world.

[wendy]

Whew! I'm so relieved for you!

[Julie Lopp]

Wow Amy! I know how important your camera is to you. You love your camera, so I'm so happy you found it in the same spot you left it. That's so amazing it was still there. I loved reading your story tho. I admire you for making it a goal to do more stuff with your kids. They probably loved that. I know that panic feeling and it just makes you so sick. I do that with my phone. My sister and I always are saying "wheres my phone" over and over till we find it, then we laugh. So glad you found your camera. Thanks for your desire to do more with your kids cause I really want to too. We should get all of our kids together and go do something. That would be fun! Love ya Amy

[Becky K]

It is a miracle. I guess miracles were in the air yesterday! So so happy for you I can't even say.

I would die if I lost my camera. Like you said, even if I suck at it most of the time, it's still mine! And I won't be getting a new one any time soon...

[Helena]

Whew! I know that feeling. I'm glad you got it back!

[Lucy]

Really, I believe about 98% of the population is really good. I have left so many things so many places and thats about the percentage of the time I get them back. Because someone calls or turns it in or, as in your case, leaves it alone. I guess you could say my scatter brainedness helps restore my faith in humanity! I'm glad Jump On It was filled with the 98% that I know and love.

[Kim D]

I understand why getting your camera back is a miracle.