Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Strangeness of the Road

So... it's the first day of tour. The band is performing in Washington, Pa., and I've just finished eating dinner with my roommate. We walk back to the hotel, get dressed, and board the bus for the concert. I reach for my phone to give a quick call to my kids....NO PHONE!

In my panicked state, I look all around for it. One of my friends suggests using a computer to locate my iPhone. Using some GPS magic, I determine that my phone is lying in the grass down the hill from our hotel. Ah, the wonders of technology! Because we are already in route to the concert, there is no time to stop and look for it.

At intermission, I check to make sure the phone was still in the same place. It was! A sigh of relief.

We finish the concert and board the bus to go back to the hotel, so I check the location of my phone again. It has MOVED! Someone (or something) has taken it! I remotely lock the phone, and send a message to my phone asking for the person to return it to our hotel. Nothing happens.

From the GPS, I helplessly watch my phone move further and further away from where I had first detected it. I'm besides myself. My whole life is on that phone, not to mention that replacing it would be expensive!

We get back to the hotel and our wonderful tour manager, Musician 1st Class Christian Johanson, drives us to the current location of the phone. It's in someone's house! Rather than taking matters into our own hands, we contact the local police department for assistance. They quickly arrive and assess the situation.

They knock on the door and the woman who lives there said she had found the phone. She returns the phone to me without incident. I truly did not think I was going to get my phone back.

Thank you so much to the Washington, Pa., police department and the staff of the Springhill Suites! Maybe I should have my phone glued to me so I don't lose it again!

Chief Musician Laura Grantier plays clarinet in the Concert Band.

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