I had such a busy day at work yesterday.  Had a filing for one attorney, a bunch of revisions of another attorney, and a secretary near me was out, so I had her attorney as well.  I was still planning on meeting my sister for lunch for our walk, but as it got closer to leave, too many deadlines and I had to bow out.  I got caught up at 1:45 and thought “should I really go to lunch this late?”  It was so nice out though, so I decided to head to the River Walk and walk for 45 minutes before coming back and heating up my lunch.

I had my cell phone in my pocket the whole time.  My step-son Joe and I have a thing about having stuff in our hands when we are walking – we typically don’t like it.   I was at State and Wacker, waiting for the light to change, when I pulled it out to see if I could walk a few more blocks before heading back to work.

All of a sudden, I felt a tug of my earphones, and realized a kid on a bike, who looked to be about 14, grabbed the phone straight out of my hand.  It took me all of a couple seconds to figure out what was going on, and then I ran after him!  

You see, I was getting to the point where my blood sugar was dropping – it was late in the day for lunch, and I was fucking hangry.  Like MAD!  I started yelling “that asshole kid stole my phone!” all the while I was literally five feet running behind him and he was on his bike.  He kept looking back at me like “shit – she might catch me!”  I may be almost 50, but I am still pretty fast.  I had it perfectly mapped out – I was going to knock him off his bike, grab my phone, and sit on him and call 911.  Yep, in those two blocks I ran after him, that was my plan!

What foiled me?  My shoes!  I was wearing slip on Mary Jane’s that had a strap across my feet, but one started to give way, and I stopped for a second, and contemplated just leaving my shoes on the ground where I was, but then he got away. 

I ran for three blocks.  A near 50 year old woman running after a kid on a bike, and no one did a thing.  No one asked “what happend?”  or “do you want to use my phone?”  I got looks, of course, but no help.  Thanks Chicago.

When I got back to work I was REALLY mad, and called Verizon immediately to disable the phone, then tried to call Apple because I couldn’t remember my Apple ID, and kept getting Indian people who couldn’t spell my last name and I was at my desk yelling “V E L A T I N I!!!!!”  I am sure my boss thought I was insane, and after I calmed down a bit, he came to my desk and said “do you want to take the rest of the day off?!”  Ha, nope.  

It was then that I realized it’s just a phone.  I wasn’t stabbed or shot for it.  I wasn’t hurt.  Yes, I had to pay $199 (with insurance!) to get a new phone that will be shipped to my office today, but the whole thing just made me mad.  It’s just as the day went on, and especially on the train ride home, how much my phone has become like an extra hand to me.  I thought, oh well, at least I have my laptop for the hour ride home!  Um, no you don’t – because your phone is your hot spot.  

And as I had all the time in the world to kill on the train ride home last night, I also realized that since I started working downtown with my Mom at the tender age of 16, all the years I’ve traveled on the L and the Metra, and walked all over the city, this is the first bad thing that comes to mind  that has ever happened to me, so for that, I am grateful.

I am very proud of myself though.  It was all I could do not to just buy a tiny box of wine for the train ride home (yes, alcohol is allowed on the trains!) and a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos, but I’ve got goals.  I got home at 7:05 and found a Max Insanity on YouTube and did that for 30 minutes.  I wasn’t hungry for dinner yet since I didn’t eat my lunch until nearly 3:30, so I went to the gym.  I finished the day with nearly 24,00o steps.  So I didn’t let something that was out of my control, let me get myself out of control with wine and food. 

So yesterday was a win!  I hopefully will be back to regular Instagramming and Programming on the blog tomorrow – you really will need to make these Greek turkey meatballs I had for lunch yesterday – so good!

Has anything like that ever happened to you?!