surreal moments

Do these things happen in real life?

I spent this past weekend in Salt Lake City, attending an academic conference. I’ve never been to Salt Lake before. I’ve never had any desire to go, either. But now that I’ve been there, I have to say there’s something to the place.

I’d taken a bus the last few blocks to the conference buildings, having managed to walk most of the way from my hotel. And then, in that brief space of time, I managed to leave my bag on it—the bag with the paper I was supposed to deliver in less than two hours (not to mention my iPod, the loss of which grieved me, if possible, even more). I didn’t miss the bag until about a half hour later, when I was sitting in a panel. I panicked, visions of half-assed explanations to my disapproving audience frolicking through my brain. Isn’t a lost paper the equivalent of, “The dog ate my homework?” And stupidly, I’d brought no other copy.

I left mid-panel, returned to the reception area, and called the bus’s lost and found. They were very polite: the woman there told me she’d contact the busses and try to figure out which one I’d left my bag on….I hadn’t even noted the number of the bus or the route. It could have been any of three. Things didn’t look good.

So I went back outside to the bus stop, thinking I’d just flag down the busses as they came by and hope for the best. What else was there to do? Maybe mine would circle back again.

I crossed the street; a bus was coming my way even at that moment. The driver pulled up. It was the same driver—the nice man who hadn’t even charged for my ride the first time. He leaned out the door without my asking and said, “I was hoping you’d remember.” He handed me my bag and drove away.

I had been waiting hardly thirty seconds.