Between “senior moments” and “widow’s fog,” some days I don’t stand a chance. Over Christmas break, I accidentally locked myself out on one of the coldest days of the arctic blast. That’s when I decided to always carry an extra house key. I put it on a Vera Bradley key ring and attached it to a cute Phillies Chapstick carrier from my daughter.

When I went back to school after the break, I put the extra key and Chapstick combo in a front zippered pocket of my backpack, where it stayed until I got home from work and used it to open the door. That is, until last Thursday.  That evening, I went to get the lip balm, and it wasn’t in the pocket. That was unusual.  I remembered using it at school, so I thought I had probably left it on my desk. No worries.

Friday morning comes, and the key combo is nowhere to be found. I searched my desk, the drawers, and the floor around my desk with no luck.  Now I was puzzled.  I checked my backpack once more and figured it must be at home or had possibly fallen out in my car. No worries.

I spent the entire weekend thinking about my lost lip balm and where it could be hiding. I looked behind couch pillows, under furniture, and in hoodie pockets with no luck.  Surely then, it had to be at school, but now I was getting worried that I had dropped it somewhere in my travels.

This morning, I was asking the students in my homeroom if they had seen it. One of my colleagues came in and asked me if I had prayed to St. Anthony.  I said no because my prayers to him usually go unanswered.  He was Chuck’s guy. She said she would say a prayer, and I laughed and said, “Come on, Chuck, I need that key.”

You guessed it.  Not two minutes later, I searched my backpack yet again and found the missing item in the zippered pocket in the BACK of the backpack, a pocket I NEVER use!  I hope this is a sign that I may not lose any more marbles this week!