Next morning I got up and went into the center of the city with Cheryl and Renee, two of my coworkers. We went to a Forever 21. I was in the dressing room, decided to buy a pair of shorts and a shirt and was halfway to the cash register (about 20 feet from the dressing room) when I realized that I didn’t have my phone. The last time I had seen my phone was in the dressing room so I went right back. I told the girl at the front what had happened and we walked back to my room. There was someone standing outside the door to the room I had been in looking at herself in the mirror. I asked her if she had seen my phone and she just glanced at me out of the corner of her eye and said dismissively, “Naou” with a whole lot of attitude and turned back to her reflection. I was pissed. That bitch stole my phone! I bent down and tried checking the floor but I didn’t see it anywhere. I tore through my backpack a billion times and found nothing. We filed a report, of course to no avail, and then left. I was furious. I called my mom to tell her what had happened and mostly just to make myself feel better. I knew she would jump right on it and at least help me a little through the process. She is so reliable and far more competent that I am, things always just feel better when I know Damama is on the job because I know we will figure it out. So resourceful, that one.
One thing I learned, is that as much as I love cities, and all the options they have and easy transportation and cultural activities, I couldn’t live somewhere forever where I have to worry about my stuff getting stolen. I couldn’t spend every day clutching my bag to me and eyeing people with suspicion. The cell phone incident made me miss home a little. No one there would steal your stuff, someone would have turned it right into the changing room lady or come running out of the dressing room asking if someone had dropped their phone. I couldn’t live somewhere forever where people don’t look out for each other and do the honest thing. It would harden me, I think, and I like that I can always find the good in people.
Anyway, after that we wandered into the skinny girl shops I can’t shop in so that Cheryl could find something she was looking for. We happened to be in Ann Taylor, which was right next to an Aveda salon, which had haircuts for 18 dollars. I said playfully to Renee, “I should get my hair cut, it would probably make me feel better.” I was quasi considering it because my hair had just been feeling like too much lately, especially with Peru on my mind. Little did I expect Renee to grab me and walk me in to the salon and try to get me to cut my hair right then. I was not sure I wanted to actually get my hair cut, but fortunately for me they didn’t have a hair appointment open that day. Renee pressured me into making an appointment for 12:30 the next day so I did, knowing that I could cancel if I wanted to. We then went to a bar and got $3 margaritas, which weren’t terrible but weren’t amazing. We talked about a bunch of things for a while and then left to go to a restaurant for dinner called Busboys and Poets, which was a really great little restaurant with a lot of personality and a vibe I was really into.
After dinner we were walking back to the metro and I got a hold of Mom on Cheryl’s cell phone. Turns out she had gotten right on the job, had called the U.S. Cellular company and told me what I needed to, adding that she had put it all in an email for me. Gotta love her.
I popped on the metro by myself and headed out to Eastern Market to find Lilly. We had planned to meet up that night and I really wanted to see her, although I had asked Mom to tell Jamey to tell Lilly that my phone had been stolen. I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find their apartment but I managed it ok. I loved wandering the city on my own, taking the subway on my own, navigating a relatively new place with confidence and competence. There really is just something about going somewhere on my own these days. It feels right to travel by myself, even if just on the metro. I found my way to Lilly’s and we chatted. I got my KINDLE! Mom and I split it for my birthday and I was really excited to get my hands on it finally. It is much smaller than I thought it would be but I really like it. Anyway, Lilly and I watched You’ve Got Mail (suchhhh and good movie) and then Jamey called, insisting that I stay over at the apartment because it was too late for me to travel back to Georgetown by myself. It was only 10pm, but I agreed, mostly because although it is minorly patronizing and a tidbit obnoxious, it is still super adorable that he is protective like that and I decided to ignore the condescension in favor of the loving brotherly concern. So I stayed over. Lilly went to bed and I watched part of Inception. Such a great movie! It is way better the second time I thought because you absorb so many more details. Brilliant.
I woke up in the morning, had some breakfast while I finished watching the last little bit of inception, wrote Lilly a thank you note, googled some locations of things, downloaded some free books on my Kindle (everything published before 1923 is free on a Kindle, so naturally, I downloaded everything Jane Austen ever wrote and more). I then headed out to explore some of the city on my own, wandered around a bit, and ended up back at Georgetown by the early afternoon.
Now, at this point, I still did not have a phone, and I was leaving Georgetown for NYC three days later (on July 3rd). I needed a phone stat. The last time I had something sent to Georgetown though, was my drivers liscence last summer, it took 2 and a half months to finally get into my hands from Georgetown mail. SO, I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out. I tried desperately to find a cheap phone on Ebay, but I couldn’t find any that weren’t broken or had bids that would end that night. I ended up finally calling the insurance company and asking them to send me a new one. I had to pay a $50 insurance deductible and $15 to try and get it to Georgetown before I left. I was relatively frustrated because I hate my phone, I wasn’t sure it would get to Georgetown in time, and I didn’t want to spend $65 to replace a phone I would only use until September. But that’s what happened.
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