I’m pretty good at not losing stuff. Actually, I never lose things. That’s something I can confidently say. The only exception is umbrellas, but if I were as good at keeping them as everything else, wouldn’t that be a bit odd? Strangely enough, it’s always – 100% of the time – on the subway. I can vividly remember getting off the platform and seeing my umbrella under the seat through the window. Anyway, apart from that, I never lose my belongings. 🌂
To give you a bit more context, my room is packed with gadgets and components piled everywhere, and I even remember where the USB drive I bought a decade ago is located. If I leave something somewhere, I realize it before I’ve taken ten steps away. Even if a tiny apartment door card is missing from its spot, I immediately think, ‘Ah, it’s in the pocket of the workout pants I wore yesterday…’ and rush to the washing machine to find it nicely washed with the pants. (Honestly, I think that’s something to brag about. Just saying.)
But then, I lost my Apple Pencil yesterday.
And it happened in my own room. This was an unprecedented event. The night before, I had tested the pencil that was attached to my old iPad on my new one. I doodled for a bit and left the iPad and pencil on the floor before dozing off. The next morning, as I was heading out, I grabbed my new iPad, but the pencil wasn’t attached. (The pencil has a magnet to attach to the side of the iPad for storage.) However, I thought I wouldn’t need the pencil much, so I left without it. ✏️
I searched my room thoroughly four times. Even while searching, it didn’t make sense. I clearly left it on the floor, but it couldn’t have rolled under the desk, and it was even less likely to be in the desk drawer. But I had no choice but to check the drawer since it was nowhere on the floor. I feared finding it in the drawer because that would mean I have dementia or sleepwalk. Thankfully, it wasn’t there, but that didn’t make me feel any better. 😕
Even the iPad showed the Apple Pencil was still connected, with 75% battery remaining. How could this absurd situation happen? It was as frustrating as trying to locate a scooter on the street using an app, except this time there was no sound to guide me. (Honestly, even when there’s sound, it’s annoyingly hard to find.)
Unable to tolerate this situation any longer, I went out in the afternoon and bought a new Apple Pencil. I decided to unpair that ghostly pencil from Bluetooth and wipe it from my memory entirely. It’s not a pencil; it’s a ghost, a demon, an oni. Maybe it was a poor object that got transferred to a parallel universe next door. If that’s the case, was it connected to another world via Bluetooth signals? Who knows. Anyway, I’ll just consider it naturally lost.
‘Maybe it slipped out through a small opening in my bag while I was walking on the street?’
That’s what I tried to convince myself. But that didn’t make sense because I always zip my bag tightly. Anyway, I unpaired the old pencil from the iPad’s Bluetooth and connected the new one. The new pencil paired perfectly. I tried drawing with it. But it wasn’t fun at all. I couldn’t even draw properly.
In that gloomy state, I was watching a variety show. Suddenly, the robot vacuum cleaner crossed the living room. I suddenly remembered hearing the sound of the robot vacuum cleaner activating on its scheduled time right before leaving the house yesterday morning. But no way, right? The odds were astronomically low. Still, I emptied the vacuum’s dust bin afterward. The entrance to the dust bin was too small for it to fit inside, and it wasn’t there anyway. The vacuum uses suction along with two long rubber squeegees that spin like gears to lift dust – the rubber squeegees are about the length of an Apple Pencil – but the chance of the pencil meeting the squeegee’s suction horizontally is extremely slim. It would get pushed aside by the wheels when moving forward. Even so, it was worth a look. I had already checked inside the desk drawer.
But seriously, can you believe this?
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