Lost and Found!

SOLSC  #19 - Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers.  For the month of March, I've joined the challenge to post a slice of life daily. 

What a day!  Grades were due today, and I had a few final items on my list of outstanding work - most of it from student absences or teacher error.  Why can't I be one of those teachers with a firm cut-off date?  Probably because I spent the weekend grading and only discovered some of the issues over the weekend. 
One of my students came in before school to tell me that even though she had looked all weekend, she still couldn't find her writer's notebook.  I encouraged her to check all the notebook bins in the classroom, not just her class, and not just the LA bins, but also the SS (Social Studies) bins.  She sadly reported that it was not to be found.
After a few moments, I queried, "Did you check your math and science teacher's room?" 
"Yes, it wasn't there," she sadly replied.
"How about your other classrooms?"
"Well, I thought it might be in the art room, but the teacher is not there."
As the bell rang for the day, I sent her off to check the art room.  She returned a few moments later, jubilant, with her notebook in hand.  We shared a quick high five for her good fortune and started the day.
Alas, I was not so lucky.  As I was going through the checklist of unfinished items, I discovered that a student's partially completed assessment was gone.  She was absent when we did the second part, and somehow, I had never returned it to her to finish.
Now, where did it go?  It was here just a minute ago and had a purple paper clip on it.  I kept looking for it throughout the day, but when my student arrived 3rd period, I had to ask her if the assignment was on her flash drive.  I looked again during lunch, but couldn't find it.  So I asked the student to print it out again.  The section she needed to do didn't take long to complete, but now I had to score both sections of the assessment.  All afternoon, I kept trying to think of what file, what stack of papers, had gulped my purple paper-clipped assessment.  Finally, I grabbed the rubric, scored the paper again, and entered the grade!  So exasperating! 
I escaped school with enough time to hop on the treadmill before dinner.  I phoned my friend, Joanie,  for a quick chat.  We shared lost item stories and bemoaned our advancing age which seems to exacerbate the lost item syndrome.
I quickly made chicken and rice soup for dinner, ate dinner, read some slices, responded to a few, loaded the dishwasher, and as I was stepping out of the kitchen, I spied the purple paper-clipped assessment on the edge of the kitchen island.  It had never made it to school today!