Mark, my hero

So I did that thing that you never want to do--I left something in a taxi. Specifically, I left my cell phone in a taxi and have spent the last five hours trying to get it back. I'm not sure what it is about a taxi company that is reflexively dismissive but people will tell you anything to get you off the phone and that's exactly what happened for the first three hours of this ordeal. The call before I talked to Mark (my 5th call), they put me on hold for 18 minutes when I insisted on speaking to a supervisor, and then disconnected me. Then I talked to Mark and expressed again my incredulity that it would take this long to get in touch with a driver and how I could not understand how it was that the dispatch company could be paging this guy over and over, he wasn't answering, and they had no alternative. Mark resisted me at first but I think since I had demonstrated that I would just keep calling and remain a thorn in their side until it was resolved, he totally stepped up and turned off the driver's meter to force him to contact the dispatch company. Totally awesome.

The driver called, Mark called me back and informed me that my phone was not in the car. When someone asserts something like that when you were so sure, it erodes your confidence. You're not sure you even ever owned a phone after spending an evening irritating every dispatcher at the local cab company only to feel like a moron for being such a pest. So, I took the dog out for a quick walk and then took a shower. I had looked up the airport lost and found and called them and then noticed a message on my machine. My phone was in the cab after all.

What a day.