Disaster (well inconvenience) averted

Carefore is the big grocery store I do most of my shopping at. It's a relatively short 15-20 minute busride away, and the store has not only groceries but there is a level that has everything from electronics to hardware to school supplies. It's sort of a small Walmart, although there are signs around town that says the real Walmart is supposed to be here pretty soon. There are lockes located on the several levels of the store. You push a button and a machine spits out a piece of paper and a locker automatically opens. You put your stuff in, and in order to retrieve it, you need to place your piece of paper, which contains a bar code, in front of a little scanner. I've often wondered what would happen if you lost that piece of paper, and yesterday I got to find out.

I'm still not sure exactly where I lost it, although I think it was at the checkout counter when I reached into my front pocket to get my wallet. I had put the locker receipt in my front pocket ironically after deciding not to put it in my wallet. Indeed, I am never sure where to put the damn thing. Anyway, when I got my groceries down to the locker, I realized the locker receipt paper was missing and of course felt sick. I thought for a while of what was in the locker and whether I could do without it. There was my backpack and my good rainjacket, and while there was nothing I could not live without, I certainly would not easily be able to replace that jacket and would have to buy another backpack. So I decided to stick my groceries in another locker (this time I did put my locker receipt in my wallet) and went to search for the lost locker ticket, but to no avail. I would have to bite the bullet and ask for help, the only problem was for the life of me I could not remember what the word for "lost" was. I think if you had told me you were going to give me a hundred dollars I could not have remembered the word, but somehow under the pressure of the situation it came back to me "diule." So first went to a woman cleaning around the checkout and said, holding up my locker receipt for the groceries, "wo diule jige" this, to which I half expected her to respond with the equivalent of, "it's in your hand" but she seemed to understand, as did the checkout person who called over someone who brough me down to to a customer service counter who called over someone who brought me to the locer. There was a moment of panic as I was not exactly sure what the locker number was. Sometime I don't even look at the piece of paper which has the number and section of the locker until after I get done shopping. This time I was pretty sure I remembered it, but I wasn't exactly sure whether it was section 16 locker 21 or section 16 locker 23. Fortunately I chose well, and retrieved my stuff.