2010-10-11

The Key To Success – Don't Loose Them

Friday night, Cora met me at the train, like normal, and we walked back home. We got to the gate, and I reached for my keys. Whoops! They must be in my bag.

No big deal.

Cora had her keys, so problem. I'll dig them out upstairs.

We get up to the condo, and I dump the contents out on the already cluttered table.

Not there.

Maybe I didn't take them to work. I don't lock the door when I leave (Cora and Gwen say good-bye to me in the hallway, then go back into the apartment), so maybe they are in the shorts I wore last night.

No.

The pants from the day before.

Try again.

Any of the usual places I toss my keys?

Nope. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Crumbs. I must have left them on my desk at work. Normally, it wouldn't matter, but it's the weekend, and I need my keys. Around 6:20, Cora and I jump in the car and take off, shouting the parental advice to Gwen as we left, "Don't burn the place down." Traffic was wretched heading back to the Loop from my NW side place. It took us at least 45 minutes to get there. Then we circled forever looking for a parking place to stash the car while I ran inside. (Friday night theatre crowd + Cora not familiar with downtown and all the one way streets = Need to street park.) Finally found a spot on Wabash, and narrowly avoided taking off my front end on a 100 yr old "L" support squeezing in, but we made it.

Walking to my office, Cora split off to see the new Disney Store that opened the other day, and I ran to my office for what I figured would be a quick in-and-out.

The keys weren't on my desk.

The keys weren't under the papers that I moved around. They weren't under my keyboard. They weren't in the stall I'd used to vanquish some of the pizza from lunch. I ran all over the office. They simply weren't their, either.

Defeated, I trudged to the Disney Store, and saw Cora checking out with a pile of presents for Gwen's birthday and Christmas. So, at least someone scored. As we left the Loop, Cora and I called up a Chinese restaurant that would be on our way home. They said that it would be ready in 10 minutes. It took us at least 20 to work thru traffic to get there.

We finally got home around 9:00.

We set the Chinese down, and I started to clear the table for dinner, and there were my keys. Hidden under the turkey's butt.

GobblesYeah, under Gobble's tail feathers.

Did I feel a little stupid? Yeah.

Was I relieved to have just found the damn keys, and that Cora got some shopping done?

Oh, sweet dancin' Jesus YES!

13 comments:

Scope said...

They were at most, 6" from where I'd dumped out my bag, looking for them.

Jan @ Struck by Serendipity said...

Usually when I've lost something like that, it's in my hand! Should I admit that?

This has been the case ever since I was a kid... I remember almost being late to a softball game because I couldn't find my glove...which ended up being on my hand.

I'm glad you found your keys!

BeckEye said...

Do you honestly say, "Crumbs" when you're frustrated?? Do you live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood? Is it a snappy new day now that you've found your keys?

Cora said...

From now on whenever I lose something the FIRST place I'm gonna check is the turkey's ass.

Ellie Mae said...

Key fairies again?

SkylersDad said...

I wish everything I owned had a beeping device on it that I could activate.

Including my son...

Scope said...

Gnomes. I think there are gnomes who hide the keys. But I'm not putting it past that house elf, since he's my wife's servent, I think he has rights to mess with me.

J.J. in L.A. said...

And don't forget the Chinese food. YUM!

For 2 days, my mom looked for a check. She said she put it inside the cover of her checkbook and looked there several times. One last look...and there it was - right inside the cover.

Anonymous said...

Im sure Cora didn't mind since she had an excuse to go shopping in the Disney store!

DavidShag said...

I used to keep a spare house key in a magnetic box under my car and a spare car key in my house. I also used to actually bury a spare house key on property not my own so that no one finding it would connect it to my house. The only discipline I needed when I used these spares (and yes I DID have to use them once or twice - OK, more than that) was to make myself put them back IMMEDIATELY after use. This is what you learn to do when you know you are an idiot and you live alone. May I suggest you think of what you would do about important keys if you lived alone, and then do it? ONE trip thru traffic back to my office would be more than enough to make me change my ways forever, and since I can't change stupid, I change the way i compensate for it...

Scope said...

DavidShag - I don't really to go to those extremes with my keys anymore. I recently got married, so both my wife and daughter have a set of keys, I have a spare set of house keys in the house, and a "key buddy" with a set of keys about a mile away. If it wasn't except for the fact that is was the weekend, I would have just ignored the key issue and gotten them the next day.

When I lived alone in the 'burbs, I kept a set of apartment keys on the patio in a magnetic key holder under the bottom tray of the gas grill.

Sassy Britches said...

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys layed eggs, not keys.

Scope said...

WKRP. Niiiiiiice!