They Don't Call it "Magic Kingdom" for Nothing

Backstory: Rick and I have a sort of ongoing joke about who loses more stuff. While I am constantly in a state of looking for "misplaced" things (cell phones, sunglasses, phone chargers, remotes), I usually find things....eventually. With his help. After acting like a frantic maniac for 15 minutes. The expense of the misplaced object is directly correlated to the level of freaking out. Rick has actually lost a few things (camera, sunglasses). In his defense, I am clearly not as big of a help to him as he is to me in the searching department, so there's that little inequality.

Vacations really seem to bring out my frantic searching for misplaced things. This is usually because nothing is in its "normal" spot. I am constantly rifling through the diaper bag/purse/carry-on combo I am sporting, swearing I forgot something. I panic even if Rick swears he knows it's in the bag. I need to physically see it to stop the freaking. This usually peaks in the airport parking lot where I empty out all our bags, confirm that we did actually pack everything, and thusly confirming I am a total lunatic. I will be accepting invitations to join you all on vacations via email and text (assuming I haven't misplaced my phone) after that ringing endorsement.

So when, on DAY ONE of our trip to Disney, I realized I had "misplaced" my Ray Bans, we went through our usual tossing of the condo and bags in an effort to locate them. No luck. Once I confirmed they were not in the condo, I pretty much wrote them off. I felt I had better odds of getting them back had I dropped them in the Mississippi River. I was actually fairly composed (for me) as the fate of the sunglasses was sealed. I purchased cheap shades (that, ironically, were never "misplaced" for the remainder of the trip) and went about getting our Disney on.

But I loved those sunglasses. And I remembered seeing a HUGE building on our way into the resort that said "Disney Lost and Found" with a line out the front. Yes, even the lost and found has lines at Disney. An entire building dedicated to lost things. I also remembered a stat that almost 70,000 pairs of glassess are turned in at DW a year. I found this stat staggering but it also gave me a bit of hope. Why couldn't mine be one of the 70,000? The smart part of my brain reminded me that they are cute and expensive sunglasses and it's likely they were pocketed by someone, assuming they weren't smashed by a monorail.

The naive and optimistic/dumb part of my brain prevailed (as it usually does) and I called Disney's lost and found (DLAF) 1-800 number a week ago today.

DLAF/Bob: Disney Lost and Found, this is Bob. How can I help you?

K: Hi, I realize this is a long shot, but I lost my sunglasses there last week.

Bob: Sure, do you know the date and approximate location of where you lost them, and can you provide a description?

(at this point my smart brain was giving me the ol' "I told you this was a lost cause" face, but dumb brain pressed on)

K: Sure, it was Wednesday and I think I lost them either at Epcot or on the monorail to/from Epcot. They are light brown raybans with round lenses.

Bob: Ok, let me go check. Hold on.

dumb brain and smart brain in united internal monologue: HOLD ON? Don't you need to sift through a pile of glasses that is in the back of a huge warehouse? EPCOT is an entire PARK! And we took two trains to get there! Shouldn't they get back to you in a week during which Bob's sole purpose on this earth is locating your sunglasses? Surely this is....

Bob (90 seconds later): I'm back. We've got 'em. What's your mailing address?

K: WHAT? You have got to be kidding????

I am pretty sure I might have told Bob I loved him at that point. Or something equally embarassing. I know I did not play it cool.

Bob took my info and said it could take a week for me to get them. And no charge for shipping or the 2-3 minutes of Bob's time.

My smart brain was still thinking that it was likely we would be sent some busted oakleys from 1998 that Bob sends out just to mess with people and get them off the line.

The mail came on Friday:

Losing Power Ball ticket to hide mailing address and to also prove we are not multi-millionaires. yet.

TAAAAA-FREAKING-DAAAAA!

They even have smudges from little sticky fingers on them to prove they are MINE. I guess Bob's services don't extend to lens cleaning.

After Rick's head exploded as he sees what goes on with the much smaller scale museum lost and found, he joined me in being very impressed with what must be the most organized lost and found on the planet.

The return of my prodigal sunglasses was a wonderful end to a great trip. We will certainly be back to Disney, though maybe next time we'll bring Bob with us.