It'll all come out in the wash...

Literally. Figuratively. It WILL all come out in the wash.

So, this idiom means that we shouldn't worry because it will turn out all right in the end. It's a rather fitting idiom for this post, though.

If you haven't heard, my cell phone went missing last week Thursday. It was a rotten day. Alex was fussy, fussy, fussy & refusing to nap. Nothing was going right. I couldn't get anything done. I was frazzled, trying to do 4 loads of laundry in one day, do some cleaning, and take care of my cranky kiddo. We needed clean sheets on our bed, Alex needed clean clothes, and Keith needed a lot of clean work clothes for his trip to Pittsburgh.

Then, while I was running a few local errands, I couldn't find my cell phone. I looked everywhere that seemed logical. No cell phone.

I got home, and moved a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer.

"Thunk".

Um, that's not the sound you're supposed to hear when wet clothes land in the dryer.
Guess what? I found my cell phone.

Now, what do you suppose a cell phone looks like after 45 minutes of agitating in the washer?
The pretty teal paint is chipped in a few places.
It's dripping with water.
Water is SLOSHING behind the screen.

This is my brand new cell phone. I'd only owned it for about 6 weeks, and I was excited to have nice, new cell phone that has good enough reception to actually...well... make a phone call. My former cell phone, which I'd been using for 4 years, didn't really do that any more.

So, living in our high-tech world, what did I do first?
I went to Facebook, changed my status to request help for a wet cell phone, and then googled "cell phone in washing machine". (Try it sometime; I'm not the only idiot in the world!)

Within minutes, I had the answers I needed:
DON'T turn it on; the water might cause something to short.
Remove the battery.
Open up everything on the phone that can be opened in order to air it out.
DON'T use a hair dryer; you might overheat important elements in the phone.
And, the most unusual advice:
Stick it in a bag of uncooked rice.

After 2 days, it was a no-go. The phone turned on, but the screen just showed a bright grayish-white color. After 3 days, same thing. I gave up, figuring my phone was a lost cause. I activated an old phone of Keith's, and I figured that this was a valuable lesson to always check my pockets when doing the laundry.

On Monday, though, the screen came back in a cloudy, hazy way. It was functioning, but not well enough to use. By Tuesday, it was back to life! I have my wonderful cell phone again!

Here's the really cool part - Keith is in Pittsburgh this week, and I'm really missing him. I hate it when he's gone; a nightly phone call just isn't the same as having him here.

When my cell phone 'died', I'd had a blue-green floral wallpaper on the screen.

When my cell phone 'revived', the wallpaper was a picture of Keith & Alex.

I never changed the wallpaper. Really. I'd taken that picture on the day I got my new phone, but it was a little blurry so I didn't use it. I have no idea why the picture changed, but I'll tell you - it made my day!

So...having a bad day? Don't worry - it'll all come out in the wash! :)