Better to have liked and loss than never to have liked at all

I am currently mourning the loss of my flash drive. The one Ming brought me from the States because my previous one suffered disaster (my friend borrowed it, left it at an internet place, which I went back to retrieve a week later - because I had been away - and actually got it back, but with everything erased from it because the guy who works there thought it had been abandoned and gave it to his friend. He went to his friend´s place to get it back for me, but it had been through some torture in addition to having its contents erased, so it doesn´t really even work any more).

Flash Drive II was just stolen from me, at another internet place in Cuenca. While I was in the bathroom, for 5 minutes - the story of my lost purse in SF a couple years back, for which I take full blame. But this time I was typing away on a computer (job negotiating time again, sigh) when I HAD to use the bathroom, pronto (part of my living in Ecuador, and I will refrain from any more colorful details). I grabed a usb cable from the comptuer and my purse, but neglected to take the flash drive during my scramble - though it was obvious I was still using the computer. And 5 minutes later, the flash drive had disappeared. Luckily I obsessively email documents to myself (lessons from grad school), but still ... so sad.

And makes me think of all the other things I have lost in South America. I thought I would give those a shout out, just to acknowledge our brief time in history in which these things belonged to me, but now have new homes thanks to my absentmindedness and other people´s desire for things (or lack of having things and seeking other people´s, however you look at it).

-- 2 carabiners. 1 of which Ming brought me to replace the one I had stolen off my bag during airport transit. Such was the fate of the new one, as well as one of Ming´s, you would think I learned but obviously not.

-- ATM card. You have heard enough about that. But thank you to Christina for sending it from Seattle (and Maria being on stand-by!) and the Islas for trying to receive it in Lima.

-- 1 and 1/2 pairs of pants. And the half was not the half you would expect. Being a fan of detachable pants, as in those with segmented parts that you can take off to make shorts, I took our rafting trip in Mendoza as a perfect day to wear mine but it was so HOT I only wore the top part (so shorts) to the river. So of course we were soaked when we returned to the "base camp" near the river, and since I was also wearing my bathing suit I thought to myself, "Self, why not take off your shorts to dry in the hot sun whilst you drink your celebratory beer?¨ Great plan, but after the wonderfully cold beer to commemorate survival, I forgot all about my shorts and left them at the campsite. And thought nothing of it until we returned back to our hostel in Mendoza and all that remained were my pant bottoms. Kinda useless, except maybe for dusting.

-- Peruvian hat, taken right off the top of my head on New Years Eve in Cusco (after having bought it a few hours previously, but again I deserved this because I actually bought it for my brother so should not have been wearing it anyway).

-- 100 (or more) pesos in Peru, because I tried the system of placing money in multiple places. The squirrel region of my brain is apparently damaged, so that was a dumb idea to begin with.

-- Several snacks for trips, in Argentina and Peru. I think it was 2 or 3 bags worth of little goodies like crackers and cookies (and Ming´s really expensive Pringles, sorry!) that I was in charge of carrying whenever we were on a bus or train or plane. Which I left on said means of transport or taxi or who knows where.

-- 1 hoop earring, somewhere in southern Ecuador.

-- One pair of white (and therefore not my favorite anyway) socks, somewhere in Peru

-- 3 pairs of underwear, lost in a different sense and I will not clarify. But I will take the opportunity to gripe that the replacement process was very frustrating because Ecuadorian woman are either unnaturally tiny or just really like floss-like thong underwear.

-- My alarm clock, which I loved. Many other people have the same Timex - I see its characteristic indiglo light in many people´s homes (and have recounted with other people about the little sound the indiglo makes, which some people love and others hate). I actually just lost the BACK to the battery cover, but that eventually made the clock go bezerk and the screen stopped working, so it was pretty useless and was abandoned in Argentina.

-- A gift for Vinay. Sorry. I´ll tell you the story someday.

-- My innocence.

Okay, just kidding on the last one. It could have been much worse (and I still have a week to go!), but I thought I would commemorate those lost in batttle. Which is often my mind fighting to remember to keep my head attached to my body, much less keep track of posessions.