how I spent Tuesday night, or things that are (not so) awesome

As is so often the case these months, I woke at midnight and could not return to sleep even hours later. Knowing I needed to be on call for picking up my nephew from school, I knew I could not risk being ready to sleep in the middle of the morning so I decided to make caffeine my BFF for the day. Problem was, I had no Coke in the flat. Which meant a trip to get some. And being the undisciplined schmuck that I am, I just had to fulfill the craving immediately instead of sitting up all night thinking about it and counting down the minutes. I also knew that McDonald’s is open 24 hours, making it nothing more than a cruel taunt in my mind. So I left the apartment at 3am to pick up said BFF.

All went well on the drive there and back. No one is really on the road at 3 o’clock on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morn, and all the stoplights are set to green. The guy at the drive-thru even gave me a bonus Coke at no charge! And I returned home without incident. Until I stepped out of my car…

With two Cokes, my wallet, and cell phone in my hands, I slipped my keys into my pocket. Then I slid out of the car while auto-locking the doors. As the door closed I realized, while simultaneously reaching for my pocket, that said keys had slipped right out and were now lying in the driver’s seat of my car. Which was now locked. And I realized in precisely the next split second that my spare car key was no longer in my wallet, where it has lived for years, but was hanging on the same keyring now sitting in the driver’s seat. Of the locked car.

All I can say is, “thank you” to ATT for emergency roadside assistance. Thank you, auto rescue guy, for not judging me and for allowing me to take your photo, even though you had to get out of bed in the middle of the night. I wish I could thank my mom for not saying “I told you to keep that key in your wallet,” and also for not telling how foolish I was for going out in the first place, but she’s a truth-teller to her children so I’ve got it coming. I’m sure my dad is snickering right beside her. But I can thank my apartment complex for being a safe place to wait outside in the middle of the night, and I can be thankful that WordPress has an app that allowed me to capture this post while the thoughts were raw and I was waiting in the parking lot for the rescue. That being said, let’s not do this again any time soon, k?