Incompetence all around

I am currently at the World Boardgaming Championships.  The event is great so far, and I have had moderate success.  By which I mean I have won a lot of games, gotten through some playoff rounds, but have yet to place in any events.  That is all well and fine though because the two events I have gone in have both been games I am only modestly familiar with - Agricola and 7 Wonders.

However, I did have an adventure on the way here.  The night before arriving we stayed at a hotel 45 minutes away from the venue.  Upon arriving I realized my cell phone was missing, so I bugged the concierge to let me use their phone to call the old hotel to try to get it back.

I then spent the next 36 hours periodically calling my cell hoping someone would pick it up, and calling the hotel getting answering machines, vague statements, and nowhere near any useful progress.  A pro tip:  When someone loses their cell phone it is really quite difficult for them to give you a cell phone number at which they can be reached!

It was stressing me the hell out.  I couldn't know if someone had to call me in an emergency, I don't have a timekeeping device, and I suddenly lack a doorbell, not to mention the loss of money and time that replacement would require.  Just constantly thinking about when I was next supposed to contact the hotel to try to figure out if the person there might be able to check the lost and found was making me crazy.

Finally I just got in the car and drove back there to do it myself.  I arrived just as someone was going off shift, and when I got up to the desk the clerk told me "Oh, the only person who can check the lost and found just went off shift...."  I ran out of the hotel but she was already gone.  I was cursing myself roundly for not collaring the woman on the way out and asking my question, and gave the clerk quite the sob story about how I really needed my phone for all kinds of reasons.

Eventually she showed pity on me and said she was willing to check the one place she had the keys for.  We walked a ways to a sort of dirty utility room with all kinds of random junk in it.  At the back of the room was a cart used by cleaning people.  Buried on the cart under some random dirty towels was my phone.

Because clearly when you find a phone in a person's room the thing you do isn't send it to the front desk!  No, clearly you stash it under some crap in a closet and then leave it there forever.

I am caught between being ecstatic that my phone is found, and insanely frustrated that I spent so much energy spinning my wheels for no reason.  If I hadn't made a scene I would never have gotten that phone back.

But now all is well!  I am playing games, hanging around with all kinds of like minded people, and I am going to have a wonderful week.