What a damn lucky girl

Long story, but one worth reading... It's ~8:15am when I'm cruising down the 405 Freeway on the way to work today. My cell phone rings, a rare occurance at this hour. It's one of my female friends, T, with whom I love to party, but don't usually chit chat. A frantic voice on the phone greeted me- it was my other good friend, B. She had lost her purse last night while partying at a charity event, which meant she had nothing. No keys, no ID, no money, absolutely nothing. She ended up staying at a friend's house in LA, because she couldn't even get back into her own house. I asked if she had called her phone, but she said no one answered- bummer. She couldn't even go to work until she got her spare car keys back from one of our other friends. I became B's phone directory.

B called me back again by the time I arrived at work. Our other friend was not answering her cell phone, but I didn't have her work phone number. So my friend called 411, but the company wasn't listed. I surfed the net, but only a general email address was available on the site, no address and no phone number. How stupid is that?? Eventually, I figured I would give www.WhitePages.com a chance. Bingo! I found both the address and phone number, so 411 was completely useless. Did you know that 411 charges you a buck for each inquiry?! Not going to break the bank, but free is nice.

So my friend finally got ahold of our friend to retrieve her spare keys. At 10:00am, I decided to send a text message to B's cell phone: "Hello. Please return the phone and purse." Yes, this was a shot in the dark that a random stranger would have the good heart to do the right thing. Even if all the cash was gone, I personally would be happy to get my ID, credit/debit card, and cell phone back. I advised my friend to cancel her debit card, but she didn't want to cancel the cell phone yet. Our other friend, K, reminded us that B should put a fraud alert on her credit too.

At 2:00pm, I receive a call from a phone number I didn't recognize. I normally don't bother answering the phone, especially when I'm at work and if it's a telemarketer. However, I proceeded to "screen" the call (very helpful feature, btw). The person of the phone was saying, "Hi. We found your phone and purse..." Hastily, I answered my cell phone. I couldn't believe it. My friend had left her purse in the taxi cab last night. The cab driver was willing to drop it off to our location, but the meter would be running. My friend was willing to pay the money. Everything was still in the purse, cash and all. What a damn lucky girl.