It all began with a day trip to Cleveland this past weekend…

Hubby was going to help our friends’ son and DIL (you may recall them from My First Jewish Wedding post a few months ago) with some electrical work in their new home.

I, on the other hand, was going to “play” with one of my BFs and her girls and our GFC friends.

It was a gorgeous, unseasonably sunny, not-so-frigid February day that started with lots of hugs and kisses, a new home tour, a delicious steaming breakfast casserole loaded with eggs and bacon and potatoes, fresh chewy bagels in pumpernickel and cinnamon raisin and sesame seed with generous shmears of cream cheese, and mugs of hot coffee with french vanilla cream.

After all the hugging and kissing and eating was done, the guys went to work, and the girls went to play!

We took a ride to a quaint little village called Chagrin Falls.  The scenery was stunning, the shops were eclectic, and the restaurants were yummy!  The streets were bustling with girlfriends and couples and families and even lots of dogs strolling the streets with their moms and dads.  (Sssshhh!  Don’t tell Charlie!)

After we found a parking space (that allowed for us to accumulate some steps on our Fitbits), I threw my camera in my purse, and we were off.  The views were breathtaking, and we giggled and chatted and wandered while we waited for a text from the restaurant we chose (with a 45 minute wait) to let us know a table for six was ready.

After about – oh – maybe 42 seconds down the road, I noticed my cell phone was missing.  A bit discombobulated, I decided I was with my friends and didn’t need it.  “Let it go, Jodi,” I told myself.  “I’m sure I left it in the car, and I don’t need to be attached to it while with these people I love and don’t get to see nearly enough.”  So I mentioned it to the gang – ok – maybe 2 or 212 times – but “let it go.”

After a bit of strolling and photo-taking and giggling and selfie-ing and posting on Facebook, we got our text that our table was ready for lunch.

If you are ever in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, be sure to check out Flip Side!  We had the sweetest waitress, the most amazing cocktails, and to-die-for burgers!  My One Red Door Burger was topped with melted brie cheese, crispy shallots, and date and applewood bacon aioli (O. M. G!!!)

After we ordered our drinks, I checked my purse one more time for my phone.  When I couldn’t find it, I decided it was worth a walk to the car to get it and put my mind at ease.

I looked in the car, under the seat, under the car, on top of the car, around the car.

No cell phone.

Well – maybe it is really in my purse.

So back to the restaurant I walked.

After pulling pretty much every item out of my purse, I realized I didn’t have it, and it wasn’t in the car.  Still not too concerned, I asked my “Bub” to dial my number and see if we could hear it ring.

Well – much to our surprise – a deep, gentlemanly voice answered my phone!

It seems my phone was at the local police station – dropped off by a kind gentleman who found it.

Mystery solved, we toasted friendship and the fact that there truly ARE still good, good people in this world.

We enjoyed our cocktail(s) and lunch, laughing and joking with our waitress about the fact that we might be stumbling a bit intoxicated to the police station to retrieve the phone after we finished every morsel of burger, sweet potato fries, crispy onion rings, and every last drop of Hendricks gin loaded with thinly sliced cucumbers over ice.  (Okay – maybe that was just for me!)

Wiggling and wobbling through the streets and practically skipping with joy in the fact that good people do still exist, we got to the local police station where we found the door locked….

While I waited, my Bubby opened the box next to the door and picked up the phone to call “inside.”  The dispatcher assured us someone would be right there to let us in.

A minute or two passed while we laughed and chatted about our good fortune.  Then five minutes passed.  Bubby stayed by my side, while the rest of the gang gathered at the front of the building near the street.  Ten minutes or so passed, and Bubby and I were beginning to wonder if the people “inside” forgot about us….

A police car pulled up and a young officer drew near the door.  “YAY,” we thought, we can slip in with him to the people inside who are waiting for us.

When the young officer approached, Bubby shared with him that “we have been waiting here for a long time!”  We were relieved to be let in.

“No you haven’t,” he replied.

“Oh – YES – we have,” my dear Bubby retorted in true “Bubby-style.”

“Well – I was only a few minutes away, and I came right over….” declared the officer.

Jaws dropped….

OOOOOPS!

“Sorry Officer!”

“We were waiting for someone to show up from inside!”

“We didn’t realize…..”

Backtrack.  Butt-kissing.  Apologies….   OOOOPS!  (and this is not our first experience involving the police at a GFC activity...)

Thank goodness for the kind officer who forgave us, who laughed at with us, who gave me the name and phone number of the kind gentleman who turned in my phone so I could call and thank him (which I did!), who noticed a selfie posted on Facebook while in the possession of my cell phone and responded with a private message to my Bubby (under a code name we are still peeing our pants laughing about!), and who waved at us with a grin when we crossed paths AGAIN at the intersection leaving town that day.

If you ever doubted, there STILL ARE good good people in this world.  We only need to relax, to trust, to believe, and to embrace.

I’ll never forget you Chagrin Falls….

for your kind citizens (thank you Mr. A for taking the time to pick up my phone, ask people around you, and then walk it to the police department, so it could be returned to me),

your amazing police department (we’ll not soon forget you Officer J – and we’re guessing you won’t soon forget us),

your beautiful sites (the waterfalls and walking paths and old-town feel),

your delicious burgers (thank you Flip Side for your hospitality – can you PLEASE deliver to Mars?),

your popcorn shop (which made for a fun snack on the ride home while hubby and I sang along to oldies with the radio blasting),

your jeni’s ice cream parlor (whose name we first thought was “penis”),

and your friends and friendship (to all the people and dogs we couldn’t resist stopping to chat with along the street).

Oh the laughs we had joking about Officer Naughty and Officer Nyce.  That’s all I’m going to say about that….

My GFC girls will understand.

And they know how much I love them.

And isn’t that just about all that matters?

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi