Harold is at my parents’ house, after driving up for a meeting and then getting caught into the snowstorm. I’m really glad he’s spending the night there, and not on the road in a blizzard, but it’s sad to be in Chapel Hill without him, and it does mean another day without the car for me.
Chapel Hill really requires a car. I got a ride into work, which was awesome, but I can’t just rely on people to drive me around all the time, especially if it’s going to be a couple days and not a one-off favor, so I decided to take the bus back. It’s only 2 buses from my office back to my apartment, and I routinely took more transfers than that in NYC, without even thinking about it. If I could make public transit work out for me, I wouldn’t have to drive and park every day, and that would seriously improve my opinion of this area! I went out to wait for the bus. North Carolina laughed in my face and started snowing.
Also my phone died, taking with it the number of a cab company I’d saved in case my travels didn’t work out, but I can’t reasonably blame that on location. At the bus stop (which is in the middle of a strip mall parking lot, because North Carolina), I noticed I was only wearing one earring. It was one of my my 3D-printed Tardis earrings, which I bought from an artist in Seattle, so pretty hard to replace it. Ugh. Losing my favorite earring at that point is exactly the kind of heavy-handed symbolism I would just hate to read.
It was no longer snowing this morning, or even particularly cold out. It’s actually only one bus to my office if I walk a bit first, which is quite nice in the sunshine. I enjoyed walking quickly up the street, and commuting with my Kindle and my coffee, and my bag tucked between my knees. (Because that is how you ride public transportation. You do not take up more than one seat. I’m just saying.) Civis Romanus sum, and all that.
At work, I pulled on the corduroy blazer I leave in my office (because I’m always chilly, and apparently it’s not professional to curl up in a duvet at my desk), and found my missing Tardis earring in the pocket! It wasn’t really lost! I think I’d slipped it off while on the phone with Harold, finding out that he wasn’t going to make it back last night? And I wasn’t exactly thinking about my earrings then? I’m not totally sure. But it’s here!
So I’m just, you know, sitting at work a couple hours early, taking photos of my earrings. As one does.
You are ignoring the obvious possibility that your TARDIS earring traveled through time and space from the bus stop to your office.
THAT IS CLEARLY WHAT HAPPENED! I feel sad that I didn’t think of it!