You may find a new umbrella

It was only a matter of time until something like this happened.  If you are someone who does any degree of traveling, you will relate to the following experience.  If not, you probably still can recognize the pandemonium that occurs in your mind.
Even 10 years ago traveling seemed simpler.  Flying, you packed, got your ticket and sat down to wait in the terminal.  By car, sometimes you might even go somewhere at the spur of the moment, throwing a toothbrush and change of underwear in an overnight bag.
No more.  Whether a sign of the times or growing accumulation of things as you age that you presume you could need on the road, more goes into the suitcase in 2008 than it did in 1998.
One of the biggest indicators of the era in which we live that highlights and defines us through the tools we use is the broad category of electronic devices.  Because they allow us to play and work remotely, almost from anywhere, they more and more become traveling items that “must” go along with us.  Lose one, and you are lost.
Companion to your communication gadgets are the wires to recharge them when their batteries rundown.  Have a laptop, cell phone, text messager, I-Phone, Palm Pilot or any other contraption, and they can run out of power.  So your bag must fill with wires as a safety valve.
Though I don’t like it, I live with a big bulge in my briefcase that holds 4-5 sets of these wires snaked together and almost untangle-able when they are removed and put to use.  Safe to say, I know they are in there and do not check their whereabouts on a regular basis.
The opportunity to lose things grows exponentially based on how much you travel and the increases in what you have to bring along.  For example, beyond the plug-in accessories, there is my identification badge, business cards, umbrella, pair of gloves for cold weather, cough drops, important business phone numbers and email addresses in a folder.  This list could go on.
You don’t check on these items regularly.  You assume they will be there when you need them.
Probably, over 99 percent of the time,  you will be well-served by making this presumption.  The problem is that less than one percent when the routine has been disrupted or something mysteriously left the confines of your slightly disorganized briefcase.
That leads to that “uh, oh” moment when you get to your hotel and look for the plug to your cell phone, as happened to me recently.  I’d reached the meeting room in the hotel and saw the cell phone was down to two bars. 
I dug into the pouch where I bundle all the plugs, and pulled out one for my laptop, one for my palm pilot, one connector for when I go to our business offices and can directly connect to our server, and one for something else I’m having trouble remembering.  Hmm, what is that gray one for?
Anyway….  As my hand got to the bottom, my fingers fumbled around and found nothing.  I opened and looked inside.  Figuring I’d misplaced it, I looked in the main compartment, thrusting pens and paper clips aside, and still coming up short.  The final search was where I place papers and folders.  Nope.
Oh great, two more days on the road and I’ll lose service within an hour or two.  This is not a time to panic because everyone else has a phone and you can always place calls by borrowing one.  That wasn’t a concern.
Also, I figured there had to be someone else who had the same cell phone as me, so I could use their plug to charge mine, then see about buying a new one later.  Getting over my initial red face, I traced my steps since my arrival to see if it had fallen on the ground or someone had seen it.
Exhausting that, I turned to talking to other attendees, checking cell phones quietly while they talked earnestly in groups.  Oddly, none matched up with mine.
“Why aren’t all the chargers standardized????!!!!!” was my battle cry as I passed from embarrassment to frustration. Someone decided there must be a need for a competitive market in plugs for mobile electronic communication devices, I reckon.
Problem still unsolved, where do you go?  The front desk. Yup.
“Excuse me, do any of you back there happen to have a cell phone that matches mine, so you could charge  this    up?”
“Oh sir, you need a charger?”
“Yes.”
“Here.”  She reaches under the counter, pulls up a box with 50-odd chargers in it.  Third one fits my cellphone.  “May I use this?”
“Keep it,” she says, “people lose them all the time.”
Next time you lose something, remember to go to lost and found first.  You may find a new umbrella.