What just happened?

This morning on my train ride into the city, I was initially annoyed because my car was virtually empty meaning there were plenty of seats available. That is not the annoying part. A gentleman came to sit directly in front of me. When the train is busy, by all means, but when you can have your choice of a free seat, why take my leg room? Not only am I almost 6 feet tall, but I am currently in a walking cast because of a soccer injury that happened almost 2 weeks ago.

So I was trying to make myself a little smaller and a lot shorter to make sure I shared enough of my space. Why didn’t I move? I had pretty much moved into my seat this morning. My laptop was under my chair, my purse was on my lap and my ear buds were ready for insertion should anyone annoy the living shit out of me with their conversations or their ringers. I became a tree on the train, and I was not going to move.

On a side note, if you have your phone on your person, why does the ringer need to be on the highest volume. Nobody cares if I get a call or a text, so why should I give a rat’s ass if anyone else does? Turn your ringer off or at least turn it WAY down. No one is that important that the entire car has to know that someone is trying to reach them.

Is it me? Am I too considerate of other people’s feelings? Should I be more selfish?

I think sometimes because I am a nice person, people are going to be just as nice and more often than not, I am disappointed. But something happened today that reminded me that there are kind, thoughtful, generous people in the world.

At the end of my train ride, I usually check that I have my Presto card, my wallet and my cell phone. My two bags are impossible to miss so I always have those. I was reading a book today so maybe I was distracted? Maybe I was busy deciding how long I should wait before getting off the train so as not to delay anyone else with my hobbling. Maybe I was hoping that the Presto machines were actually working because I only had $1.80 left on my card and I still needed to get on the subway. For whatever reason, I was not thinking and I didn’t check off the items on my list. If I had, I would have realized that my cell phone was missing.

I began to panic on the subway. When I went to put my novel away, it wasn’t sitting on the top of my other things. Usually, that is the last thing I touch. Thinking positively, which I have been trying to do more of lately, I rationalized that it must have slipped to the bottom of my bag. I lose reception underground, but my Fitbit alerts me that I have a message as soon as I connect with the network again. When that didn’t happen when I got to street level, I knew I didn’t have it.

When I got to my desk, I emptied my bag. Why do I lug so much shit back and forth every day?

No phone.

I have issues with owning an iPhone. I love the reliability and the games, but I had a Blackberry for the longest time and I loved it. Giving it up was difficult for me so even though I have had iPhones for a couple of years now, I am not in love with it. My ex thought it would be great if I had one because he had one. Relax dear reader, I did not get an iPhone just because he had an iPhone.

My oldest daughter has one and I like to know that she has read and received my messages and we share an Apple Music subscription. Additionally, my youngest daughter has an iPad so she can FaceTime me whenever she wants and all my siblings near and far have iPhones so having this model is economical as well.

Another plus? I paid for AppleCare for my daughter’s iPad. When it broke one day before AppleCare expired, I went to the store and left with a brand new device. Good customer service goes a long way when a store/brand is trying to keep my business. It is for all of these reasons that I now own an iPhone.

Because I have an iPhone, I was able to sign into my iCloud to see if I could find my phone, I was able to put it in ‘Lost Mode’. This meant that all my apps were locked and I could send a message that would be displayed on the screen with a number that I could be reached at. I entered my office phone number and within minutes, I received a phone call. A lady had my phone and I could meet her at the Eaton’s Centre at noon to be reunited with it.

I could not believe my good luck. To thank her, I purchased a gift card from Starbucks and when it was time, I walked to the mall and arrived promptly at 12.

The lady was not there. With every passing minute, I admittedly grew more anxious because I did not have a way to contact this woman. I only knew that she rode the same morning train as me.

At 12:12, she arrived! She couldn’t have been kinder. She didn’t want to take my gift card, but I insisted. I told her she is a reminder that there are kind strangers in this world who are willing to go out of their way to help another human being. We chatted briefly and I went back to work with my phone.

The woman’s name is Vanessa and thankfully, Starbucks is her favourite coffee place. I hope she knows how thankful I am to her while she sips her beverage of choice.

Thank you again, Vanessa.