Missing

No, this isn't in reference to my previous post, but the title is apt. I originally wrote about the missing cnet editor, James Kim. I followed the story this morning and started blogging about it during my lunch break. Unfortunately, I somehow lost the post and was unable to recover it. The updated good news is his wife and children were found. Unfortunately, as of tonight, he is still missing.

His story, along with something that happened a couple weeks ago, got me thinking. But first, here's what happened a couple weeks ago. A friend e-mailed me to confirm plans for this weekend. She sent it to an e-mail address that I check frequently, but not daily. So it took me an extra day or so to reply to her. I didn't hear back from her right away, but I wasn't too worried since I thought she might be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday. I called her about a week later and didn't hear back from her the next day. So I started to get concerned. Perhaps she was still traveling? Or maybe she was sick? My next thought was that I could call her sister to see if she knew what her plans were. I don't have her phone number, but I do know where she works. The Internet is a wonderful tool for sleuthing. She ended up calling me back two days after I left the message. She laughed good naturedly when I told her I was getting worried after not hearing from her, but she also said that it made her feel good. That someone cared about her. She's single so there is no one to miss her if she doesn't come home. And she works out of her home so there isn't an office staff to miss her. As we talked, I realized it could be so easy to disappear, at least for a while.

The Kim family was missing for about a week before a search was called. Would someone wait that long before searching for me? When A and I travel, we're pretty casual about it. Yes, we make reservations at hotels so we know we have a place to stay. But we don't tell people when and where we're going, especially if it is just a weekend trip.

I have a friend who is obsessive about planning her travel. She has a detailed itinerary for the entire trip, with each day's events planned down to the hour. She leaves this itinerary (along with hotel and airline info) with a couple of family members, so if they need to get a hold of her, they know how to. Probably something between what I do and what my friend does is reasonable. But I would hope that if I were missing, someone would miss me before too many days had passed.