The Luggage That Never Made It

Title credits to one of my ex colleagues.

Have you ever looked at someone thinking how do such people exist? You probably might think the same about me by the end of the post 🙂

I was always fascinated by how people get a paying job that actually lets you travel places. I currently am in such a job and recently came to know that I had to work at my client located in Burbank for a week.

I packed my bags the night before the travel and got all prepared mentally and physically as I’m going to fly from Eastern to Pacific time zone and eat out every single meal for a complete 7 days which I had never done before.(If you are thinking what’s the big deal about eating out, it is a really huge thing for someone who is narcissistic about home cooked food which I surely am, without a second thought.)

Sounds all exciting, doesn’t it? Sure, it does, until the troubles start showering in. So, I live in an apartment complex that no Uber driver could find until today without calling me at least once. So, as usual, I booked an Uber on the day of my travel, early in the morning with my half sleepy eyes. I was all dressed up for the cold wind and had my laptop bag and a roller bag with clothes for weekdays. I just had an hour left for my flight to departure (still no worries as the airport is just nearby and it’s a pretty small one; no big security check queues)

The Uber lady called me up and said something which I would say sounded very close to Greek or Latin (remember? I was already sleepy). It took me a good 5 minutes to figure out she was completely somewhere else and I guided her throughout on how to reach me. It was still dark to my luck (I would still say it was my luck :)) and she couldn’t find the exact building. So, I have decided to walk towards the car so that I could save some time for my check in at the airport.

I got into the car (finally!!) And was talking to her about my flight and my concern that I might miss it blah..blah.. how’s it so smooth so far was exactly was on my mind. We reached the airport and was about to get down thanking her for bringing me to the airport just in time. Guess what, I don’t have my little rolling bag in my hand!!! I shook my head twice and wiped my eyes thrice, this is when probably all my sleep vanished into the dark. I forgot my bag at home and rushed to the airport.

Then what could I do? I checked the time and I just had 20 minutes for the flight to take off. I thought for a while and checked my work laptop, phone chargers and the valet. I then decided to fly without luggage. It’s not just about my luggage but my gut feeling that I would be okay even if I would just be left with myself.

I reached Charlotte from where my connection to Los Angeles is. I boarded the flight and they announced flight was delayed by an indefinite amount of time. I could see how everything was perfectly planned just to ruin my trip. After waiting for 3 long hours sitting in the super congested seats, texting with my friends, finally, the flight seemed to be moving. With a delayed arrival I reached the LA LA land. I checked into the hotel and did some quick shopping as I couldn’t wear the jeans and T-shirt to an office that I’ve never been to.

It was going on well at work and we reached the end of the week and on Friday I was like yayyy!!! I got to go home tonight. If that was it, it would still have been a smoother story. Then came the twist. The client wanted us to stay back for the next week. I then decided to ship my luggage from home and my friend dropped it at a UPS store from North Carolina. I was waiting for the suitcase to arrive Burbank on Monday.

On Tuesday I received a call from someone with a distribution center of a post office and she told me something on hearing what I freaked out. She told me she found a bag without any label and she was about to send it a recovery center and found my phone number written on the bag. (This dates back to 2 years when I was travelling back to the US from India when my dad had written my phone number on my bag with a wet piece of chalk; which I thought was unnecessary. He convinced me saying this would stay no matter what happens to all the labels and tags they use at airports. This literally saved my luggage today from going into recovery :)).

I gave my address and told her to ship it to my home which she couldn’t do it and I had to go pick it up from the place where my friend had dropped it. I was like whatever you say as there isn’t a way left for me now to argue with her. I reached Greensboro after 2 weeks and I immediately went to UPS store just find out that now it’s sent to a different post office which would be closed on Saturday after 12:00 pm. I waited until I see Monday and I rushed to the post office early at 9:00 am (that’ when they open) to check on my bag. Now, the time is really playing with me. Its President’s day today and the post office is closed. Tomorrow I’m going to visit the place again to check my luck and hope to find it there!!

Isn’t it too much of a journey to reach to my dearest little bag?