A Comedy of Errors

Yesterday I worked out.

I know, for many of you that's not a WOW moment, but for me it was a big moment. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned and it turned into a comedy of errors.  At least that's how I'm choosing to view it today.

As I said I worked out yesterday. I got home around 3:45, changed and then battled with myself as to whether I should walk to the gym (it was freakin freezing outside) or drive.  The New Jenn won and I walked over. Leaving the house, as I've done a hundred times before, I left through the garage and closed the garage door via the key pad outside.

Did my thing at the gym. Caught my breath and stretched and walked home.  I got home and tapped in my code and nothing. No garage movement at all. I tapped it in again and nothing. 

Last time this happened I had to just sit and wait so the stupid pad could reset itself and it would work fine. I sat. I waited. I froze.  Finally, I tried it again. Nothing. Argh.

I walked across the way and knocked on the neighbors house.  They have a thousand kids and I was dreading having to talk to the thousand kids and beg to use their phone.  Then it hit me, do I even know Blueberry's cell number?

Mr. Neighbor and his thousand kids let me in - ahh heat - and I used his house phone. Called Blueberry who apparently couldn't hear me through the phone.  Tried again. She still couldn't hear me.  Finally Mr. Neighbor said, "Use my cell phone."  Called Blueberry again, and after her struggling with something on her end, she could hear me. 

She was working later than normal and hadn't left work yet.  She did agree, with very little begging I might add, to run home, get my key and come help me. 

It's important for some of you readers to know the logistics here.  Blueberry works in downtown Seattle. She's a bus rider (Yay saving money and gas).  And she lives 20 miles north of Seattle.  Which means, she has to leave her office, get to the bus stop, wait for the bus, get home (during the busiest time of traffic), get in her car at the park and ride, get to her house (another quarter mile away), rummage through her drawers to find my key, get in her car and drive another 20 miles to my house during rush hour (thankfully going against traffic). I'm tired just typing that out.

So I told Blueberry I'd wait for her at Tully's across the street. It was at least warm and had a bathroom. In hindsight I should have waited at the gym and maybe worked out some more. At the minimum they had TVs and people to watch.

By the time I got to Tully's it was 4:45pm.  I sat. I waited. I sat some more.  Also keep in mind, I have no phone, no book, no money, no nothing to entertain me. Just me and my bottled water - which I was conserving in case I had to make a night of it on the street.

Finally at 6:30pm Blueberry pulls into Tully's with her Wad-O-Keys. 

We head to my place and proceed to try every - single - key on this Wad-O-Key ring. Nothing. None of them work.  Argh! We debated at least for 10minutes about what all those keys belong to - why I don't know, but it entertained us a little. Well, it entertained me.

We tried them again. We even looked for a flash light in her car to help us see the door handle, because maybe that would miraculously make one of them work.  I walked back over to the garage to see if the key pad would work. Nothing.  I did happen to glance up to my living room window and there sat Pookie.  Staring at me with a face like,  "WTH? I'm hungry here." Too bad he doesn't speak English and can't open doors. 

Finally, giving up on the keys, I borrowed Blueberry's phone to call the Landlords. I figured Mr. Landlord was still at work at Hotel CaliforniaSoft which is near me so I hit his "work" number on Blueberry's cell phone. 

It rang a couple of times and Mrs. Landlord answered. Huh? Turns out Blueberry's numbers are all weird. It also turns out that Mrs. Landlord was in Redmond and has a garage clicker and she'd be happy to swing by.

Ten minutes later she's swinging by and her clicker isn't work.  Great. Now what?  Mrs. Landlord says she has a spare key at their condo in Bellevue.  So we all head caravan style to their condo.  20 minutes of looking for a key, chit chatting and peeing (what? I had to pee.) Blueberry and I are back on our way. 

Mrs. Landlord wasn't 100% sure the keys she handed me were to the house, but Mr. Landlord, whom we called from their place, said he has a set at work.  Blue and I decide to save time and swing by Hotel CaliforniaSoft and pick up a set of keys from Mr. Landlord.  If none of these keys work, I was going to be calling a lock smith and waiting another 4 hours likely.

We get back to my place and try Mr. Landlord's set of keys - and voila! The door opened.

Incidentally, the other set of keys didn't work.  Not sure what those belong to but will give them back to the Landlords for them to figure out.

By this time its 8pm. I'm STARVING as is Blueberry. I offer her a Jenny Craig meal which she turns down saying "no no. They're expensive I don't want to use one of those." Which translates into, "Gross. Are you kidding?"  So I heated up some chicken noodle soup for her and a JC meal for me and we sat laughing at how stupid this who event was.

BTW, the garage door does open with my clicker and the inside door opener.

So what did I learn from all this:

1. Take a spare key and hide it outside somewhere
2. Give Blueberry a BIG key ring, brightly colored with BIG Letters that says, "Jenn's Key. Do Not. Lose."
3. Perhaps take a spare key with me to work out.
4. Blueberry has too many keys where she doesn't know what they belong to. She might be a key hoarder in disguise.
5. Tully's is boring without money.
6. The bathrooms at Tully's are clean.
7. I can make good food decisions even though I'm starving.
8. Laugh at everything.  It may be bad, and frustrating, and annoying, but really, what can you do? Laugh and it'll make it better.