a key-less, phone-less wednesday

As I was walking out the door to go to work at 8:32 Wednesday morning, I realized I didn't have my keys. I panicked slightly, then laughed and kept looking. And panicked a lot more when I realized I couldn't find them. For real. They were gone. I knew exactly where they were. Tuesday night I was playing the piano at the church and they were sitting on top of the piano in the Relief Society room.

I'm supposed to be at work at 9:00, but at 9:00 on Wednesday, I was still tearing my house apart, praying that Heavenly Father would make my keys appear under my bed or in an unknown corner of my bite-sized purse. But that miracle was not meant to be that day.

I called Lauren, who lives at least twenty minutes away, to see if she could come take to me to work. She and her husband had just sat down at a restaurant to get breakfast; however, the kind soul said she'd come pick me up and JJ would wait for the food, and they'd eat it at work.

While I waited, I called my dad so I wouldn't cry. But they're on their way to a family reunion at Island Park with a boat and fun cousins, and I wasn't much in the mood for laughing. So I cried a little. And went to go get a key from management so I could at least lock the apartment.

What an angel Lauren was. She picked me up and chatted with me on our twenty-five minute drive back to where she had just come from. I got out of the car, walked upstairs, she drove away, and I realized that my phone had fallen out of my back pocket and onto the seat of her car. But she was long gone.

Let's just say work was less than 100% productive. I was too ashamed and prideful to just call Lauren and ask her to bring my phone to me on her lunch break, so I finally emailed Michael and told him I would be walking to the church, and he could come get me when he got home from work. I suppose I didn't really understand how far of a walk that would be. But at least it was sprinkling, not pouring, and not 120*.

I was almost to East Jefferson General Hospital, about twenty-five minutes into my little jaunt (and about a third of the way to the church), when I heard a honk, and saw Lauren's cute little red Mini Cooper pull into a parking lot behind me. Shaking my head with embarrassment, I got into the car and she said, "I can't believe you tried to walk to the church. That is so far!"

She followed that with, "You've had a long day. You need a treat," and we flew off to Tutti Frutti, where I drowned my embarrassment in Cake Batter and Red Velvet Cake frozen yogurt with cookie dough bits and white chocolate chips and Snickers bars.

We just talked. It's been a long while since I've just chatted with a girlfriend. She drove me home and told me to have Michael give me a foot massage.

Michael got home and said, "You've had a long day. You need dinner." So off we went to Raising Cane's, the Korean store (hooray! kimchi!), and to get my keys.

That was a long day. I owe Lauren fifteen bucks in gas and twenty for interrupting her and JJ's breakfast. But I got frozen yogurt, Raising Cane's, lots of hugs and kisses, and a friend out of it.

All in all, a successful day.