Does it not seem amazing that an envelope containing my Codrington reader card, my St. Antony’s laundry card, and all my other Oxford-specific cards (except my Bodleian card) could remain unfound, despite four intensive searches of my entire room, since my return from Vancouver? I’ve gone through every drawer and pocket and folder and box. I’ve flipped through binders and looked through stacks of books. I have dug around under and behind furniture. All told, I have spent at least six hours searching.
All this in a room no more than four paces by six paces. The part likely to make me bitter is the reasoning behind putting them in an envelope in the first place: I didn’t want to lose them while I was in Vancouver.
The time has come, I think, to abandon the search, acknowledge that the cards are permanently vanished or destroyed, and replace those that are worth replacing. How much fun it will be to finally locate them, when I am in the process of moving out next June.
Point #1 – Don’t look for it, it’ll look for you
Point #2 – You are in the wrong place
Point #3 – What did you do differently than regular?
Point #4 – When did you last and most positively have it in your hand?
Point #5 – Are you looking at it?
Point #6 – Are you looking at the right place, the right way?
Point #7 – Ask for assistance
Point # 8 – Is it really lost?
Point #1 – Don’t look for it, it’ll look for you
It is doing a bad job. Then again, this isn’t the One Ring we’re talking about.
Point #2 – You are in the wrong place
Evidently. Perhaps the Galapagos Islands would suit me better.
Point #3 – What did you do differently than regular?
Set up my room in case Edwina would want to stay there. That is to say, made it tidier than usual while putting things that reflect well on me in unusually prominent positions and hiding those that reflect less well.
Point #4 – When did you last and most positively have it in your hand?
The last time I did laundry, before going back to Canada in September?
Point #5 – Are you looking at it?
No.
Point #6 – Are you looking at the right place, the right way?
Evidently not.
Point #7 – Ask for assistance
Done.
Point # 8 – Is it really lost?
So it would appear. Nobody would come into a room containing a fair number of electronic gizmos and choose to steal nothing but an envelope with a few worthless cards inside. Likewise, they are unlikely to have absconded of their own volition.
A new laundry card has been purchased.
All told, I have spent at least six hours searching.
Considering just your fees, you are a student at an effective rate of 12.5 Pounds an hour, assuming you work forty hour weeks. I really doubt those cards are worth 75 Pounds – as much as seven and a half of the Strategic Study Group dinners that you were moaning about last term.