The misadventures of Oblivious Girl
How concentratedly oblivious can one person manage to be? I recently set out to find out.
First, it's not all that interesting to be oblivious to something that is unimportant or incidental in one's life -- and I know already I'm good at that kind of thing. So I picked something to ignore that was fairly important to me -- the suitcase full of my clothes that I was traveling with during my current trip. To up the ante, I started things off by worrying a bit about how much it would suck if I lost track of my suitcase anywhere along the line -- especially since it contains my new business clothes, and I am supposed to give a talk in them on Monday.
With this worry firmly in my head, I bought a ticket for the Chinatown bus (New Century Travel) from D.C. to Philadelphia. I was headed there for a quick overnight stay to visit a friend. I secured my lovely little red rolling suitcase in the compartment beneath the bus and then got aboard with my backpack. As the bus traveled toward Philly, I watched it raining outside and planned my talk for Monday -- all the while being grateful that my raincoat and my business clothes were in my suitcase.
I fell asleep and woke up in a panic that I might have missed Philadelphia (the bus was traveling on to NYC afterward). But no, we were 12 miles outside. I texted my friend to let him know I was almost there. I checked the weather -- still raining a bit. Finally, we rolled into the station. I got off the bus, along with my backpack. I stood right next to the bus as passengers came and went, loading and unloading their luggage appropriately.
I texted my friend. Where should we meet? Ah, the bus terminal! I sat down just inside, so as to avoid the rain, and stared absently at the bus for 15 minutes until it drove off. I thought about the talk I still needed to write, and where my friend and I were going to eat dinner. I thought about how it was likely we were going to be walking a mile or so, and how much it was going to suck to drag along my suitcase with us through the rain.
Hang on. My suitcase. I didn't actually have my suitcase, did I?
Research objective fulfilled: It has been determined that Laurens can contain extremely high concentrations of obliviousness. So high that current instruments cannot actually measure the level.
I went to the counter and told them what I had done. They looked at me about like you'd expect. They gave me the phone number of the NYC office and told me to call them after the bus was scheduled to arrive in NYC. I did call, but it turns out the phone number does not actually connect you to a person ("Mailbox is full, goodbye"), and the email they mention on the phone menu for claiming lost luggage bounces, as does the (different) email on the website. So I gave up and hoped that my suitcase would be waiting for me in NYC when I got there the next day.
It was! And given that everything worked out fine, and I didn't have to lug around a heavy suitcase in the rain for miles in Philadelphia, I have to say I recommend the method of forgetting your suitcase and letting it travel on to your final destination while you make stops along the way. But maybe don't tell anyone that you did, because they'll look at you strangely and wonder how you could manage to be so oblivious as to forget something like that.
First, it's not all that interesting to be oblivious to something that is unimportant or incidental in one's life -- and I know already I'm good at that kind of thing. So I picked something to ignore that was fairly important to me -- the suitcase full of my clothes that I was traveling with during my current trip. To up the ante, I started things off by worrying a bit about how much it would suck if I lost track of my suitcase anywhere along the line -- especially since it contains my new business clothes, and I am supposed to give a talk in them on Monday.
With this worry firmly in my head, I bought a ticket for the Chinatown bus (New Century Travel) from D.C. to Philadelphia. I was headed there for a quick overnight stay to visit a friend. I secured my lovely little red rolling suitcase in the compartment beneath the bus and then got aboard with my backpack. As the bus traveled toward Philly, I watched it raining outside and planned my talk for Monday -- all the while being grateful that my raincoat and my business clothes were in my suitcase.
I fell asleep and woke up in a panic that I might have missed Philadelphia (the bus was traveling on to NYC afterward). But no, we were 12 miles outside. I texted my friend to let him know I was almost there. I checked the weather -- still raining a bit. Finally, we rolled into the station. I got off the bus, along with my backpack. I stood right next to the bus as passengers came and went, loading and unloading their luggage appropriately.
I texted my friend. Where should we meet? Ah, the bus terminal! I sat down just inside, so as to avoid the rain, and stared absently at the bus for 15 minutes until it drove off. I thought about the talk I still needed to write, and where my friend and I were going to eat dinner. I thought about how it was likely we were going to be walking a mile or so, and how much it was going to suck to drag along my suitcase with us through the rain.
Hang on. My suitcase. I didn't actually have my suitcase, did I?
Research objective fulfilled: It has been determined that Laurens can contain extremely high concentrations of obliviousness. So high that current instruments cannot actually measure the level.
I went to the counter and told them what I had done. They looked at me about like you'd expect. They gave me the phone number of the NYC office and told me to call them after the bus was scheduled to arrive in NYC. I did call, but it turns out the phone number does not actually connect you to a person ("Mailbox is full, goodbye"), and the email they mention on the phone menu for claiming lost luggage bounces, as does the (different) email on the website. So I gave up and hoped that my suitcase would be waiting for me in NYC when I got there the next day.
It was! And given that everything worked out fine, and I didn't have to lug around a heavy suitcase in the rain for miles in Philadelphia, I have to say I recommend the method of forgetting your suitcase and letting it travel on to your final destination while you make stops along the way. But maybe don't tell anyone that you did, because they'll look at you strangely and wonder how you could manage to be so oblivious as to forget something like that.