"May balat sa puet"

In Tagalog, there's a saying "may balat ka sa puet." English translation: you have a birthmark on your butt. This is usually said to someone if they're unlucky and not because they really have one. How does having a birthmark on your butt make you unlucky? Don't ask b/c I have no idea.

I've been told, "may balat ka sa puet," PLENTY of times. I seriously don't have one but it's become an ongoing joke b/c I don't have much luck with my travels. For instance, there was that one time in San Diego when right before taking off the pilot realized that another plane was seconds from landing on us. Then, another time, the other passengers and I had to deboard the plane because there weren't enough tanks to supply oxygen to the masks should the need arise (I'm not kidding). There was also this one time when the pilot was unable to land (twice!) at DCA so our plane was rerouted to IAD, and after landing at IAD and waiting forever to deboard, we got back up in the air and headed back to DCA. Oh geez, I could go on and on about all this.

Well, I recently took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. When I arrived, Carolyn asked about my flight. I told her it was uneventful which worried me b/c it's such a rare occurence. We laughed and I didn't think about it anymore until.... I had arrived safely back in DC, and was on the airport shuttle about to be dropped off at the lot where my car was parked... when I realized that I had left something on the plane!!! The wedding binder was too big to bring with me to Nashville, so that "something" happened to be a manila folder which contained my planner, my only copies of important documents, and other wedding-related items!! I seriously felt sick to my stomach. The chances of getting back my stuff was slim. I didn't know if I should go back to the airport or give up. I felt bad about calling Cory while he was working at the hospital but I thought this constituted as an emergency. Almost 30 minutes had passed since we landed but he said I should go back to the airport b/c it still might be there. While I was waiting for the shuttle to make its way back to the baggage claim area, I called the information desk, spoke to a man named Wendell who volunteered to go to the gate and check on it for me.

To make a long story short, when I got to the American Airlines baggage claim my folder was already there!!! Lucky for me, the flight attendant found it, gave it to the gate agent, and he took it down to the lost and found!! Phew, I can't believe I got it back.