My Village Called....

their idiot is missing. I swear I'm the only one these days doing really stupid things. That or else everyone else is smart enough not to confess them on their blog.

So, am I the only one who gets in bad habits and realizes it, but doesn't think it'll matter? Take for example the habit I have of throwing my keys in the car over the driver's seat while buckling Tayler into his seat. I've always realized that it could have consequences, but I couldn't see how it would really happen. Now I've seen.

I ran to Shopko (yes, Shopko. I think I go there maybe twice a year, and this happened to be one. It makes the story that much better because [insert apology to all loyal Shopko shoppers] I think of Shopko as a little white trash. But, hey, so's Walmart and I shop there regularly.). Anyway, as I was leaving and trying to buckle Tayler into his seat, I had my keys in my hands and he was grabbing at them. This is why I always throw them over the seat. So I did. Unfortunately, I forgot to recognize that in his grabbing, Tayler had hit the lock button. So I threw the keys over the seat, closed his door, and tried to get in. No luck. The entire car was locked tight with Tayler inside, buckled tightly in his car seat.

Now, had Tayler been free inside the car, he could have found a way to let me in. I found myself half hoping he would suddenly learn to escape his car seat, and then realizing the horror that new skill would entail. So, I started calling everyone who I thought could help. Tyson - no help. No keys. (I've always wanted to see if that "5 Uses for your cell phone" spam email was true, and if Tyson had taken his keys to work today, we could have tried it!) And then I realized that the spare set wasn't hanging on the key rack and I had no idea where they were, which meant that no one would be able to find them except me. So I called my dad, he looked up the non-emergency number for the police, and I humbled myself and called.

An officer came really fast and was very nice. He advised me to not let me 2-year-old drive again and was into my car in 5 seconds. It really made me feel secure about my car's theft potential! At least the alarm went off. He told me my tire needed air and was gone, all in less than 2 minutes. Thanks officer!

Unfortunately, I'm not a stranger to the police letting me into my car, but it's always been campus police before, and hey, are they really police? It seemed to happen during finals week when my mind was so preoccupied with formulas and facts that I couldn't find the space to remember my keys when I left the car. I did, however, remember to lock the car. Really it only happened 2 or 3 times in the all of undergrad and graduate school, but it was always when I was too overloaded with school, work, and life to function. I guess I'm there again, just with different overloads like kids, church callings, housekeeping, etc.