On the way home from work yesterday I noticed that I’d missed a couple of calls on my cell phone. While checking out my phone Susan called, and when she did I realized my phone was only vibrating, not ringing. I checked the mute switch and it wasn’t flipped. Then I remembered, the last time this happened, my SD memory card had popped loose. I checked the top of my phone and, where my card normally goes, was instead a big gaping hole. Uh oh.

Tracing my steps backwards, I remembered that Monday I dropped my phone out in the parking lot. The card slot is spring loaded, and it must’ve shot the card out far enough away from where my phone landed that I didn’t notice it on the ground. Sucko. I wasn’t really bummed about the money (a replacement card should cost less than $50), but I had a lot of things on it that my phone requires to work (including my MP3 ringtones). I’ve learned my lesson about doing backups over the years and I have backups of everything that was on the card, but it’s just the hassle of setting everything back up. The card also had excel files and photos — nothing private or sensitive, but it’s always a weird feeling knowing someone out there could be flipping through pictures of your kid.

I was lamenting about my loss this morning when a co-worker threw her arms up in the air and exclaimed, “I know where your card is!” Turns out, someone upstairs found my card out in the parking lot several days ago and had been asking around, trying to find its owner. After a quick trip upstairs, both my phone and I are back in business!