Update!

Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that if I just admitted my carelessness, I might find my flash drive.

I took a deep breath and searched through my purse again and found it.

Interestingly enough, I am convinced it was not there the many, many times I searched and emptied my purse earlier today. I really and truly believe it was placed there by fairies of some kind and I will give serious thought to the lesson I should learn from today -  just as soon as I complete the semester.