Friday's Morning Chaos
As I wrote last night, my Friday morning with Donna had been somewhat chaotic. I shall explain:
Donna and I have a penchant for puppies. This passion for puppy-breath often brings us to the Beverly Center, where a puppyful pet store operates. We parked at the hidden service elevator to avoid the construction crowds, and headed straight to the dogs.
I don't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but we had planned on making a road trip out to Bakersfield to see the Sisco Poodles sometime soon. They specialize in "party poodles" and Donna has always dreamed of laying down on the grass to be surrounded by litters of pooders.

Donna knew there was a "party poodle" (a poodle with mixed markings) at the Beverly Center, and was aching to hold it. Upon our initial view of the cages, it was nowhere to be seen. What a letdown. I asked one of the shop girls when it had been sold, and she informed us that it was actually in the back being brushed. Relief!

It turns out he'd been there for about a month already. Very traumatic. He just clung to Donna in the way only a poodle can (they really hug you!) and snuggled in. We were very sad that we weren't able to rescue him from the store, but he did get a lot of love that day. Somebody will come in soon with their $2,000. (yipes!) and give him a good home.

From there, we went up to the food court for a cold drink (and shared a naughty basket of chili cheese fries from Tommy's), then went out to the car to leave. But wait...where was my phone? It wasn't in my purse, it wasn't in my pocket. I'd never misplaced it before, not in the 14+ years of having the same service. We went back in to the mall, and retraced our steps. I was beside my self. I don't deal well with these situations. We left a query at the guest services booth, and drove across the street to the Verizon store to replace the phone (I was in such a state!)

This did not make things any better. I was between service renewals, so if I wanted a new phone, it would cost upwards of $150., depending on the phone selected. Not a good option right now (what with Gary being out on disability,) but they told me that I would be eligible for a new phone on April 14th. "I could wait that out" I told them, and had them put me on incoming service only (so I could check my voice mail.)

I headed over to the Bridal Bar to work on my projects, but was so tense that nothing was coming out right. About a half hour later, Harmony got a call from the Beverly Center. A maintenance person had found my phone and turned it in to the guest services booth. They simply called the last number dialed, and made everything good again. Donna picked it up for me and brought it to the shop, where creativity was in action now that the tension was gone!