It Started Off So Well

I always keep my keys in my purse.  I mean always.  When I come in my front door I hang my purse on my entryway chair and slip my keys into the inside pocket.  I've tried a few other systems for keeping track of my keys but I could never remember what new system I was working on (vintage mailbox in the back entryway or dish on the console?) and was always looking for my keys.  This is the system I developed that works.  And it does work.  I never have to look for my keys.  I mean never.  They are always in the inside pocket of my purse. 

Always.  Always.  Always.  Always.  Always.

Except for last Friday.  When they weren't. 

Do you remember last Friday?  Tristan and Ava's first day of school?  It was such a great morning.  It was calm, it was smooth.  We were dressed and ready in plenty of time for me to torture my kids by taking tons of pictures.  And when we were done that we still had time to kill!  So I wrote a blog about how the day had finally arrived and I was finally ready for it.  Then we calmly got our coats and shoes on, I calmly locked the door behind us and I sauntered to the van, kids skipping beside me chattering away.  Approaching our van I reached into the inside pocket of my purse for my keys and discovered my morning really had been going too smoothly.    

I didn't panic.  Not then.  I knew my keys had to be in my purse somewhere.  My keys are always in my purse.  They probably just fell into the main compartment.  Do you ever feel like your life is like a sitcom?  After a few minutes of calmly searching I looked at the time on my phone and panicked.  I dumped the entire contents of my purse on the sidewalk and frantically started rifling through it.  No van keys.  No van keys.  NO VAN KEYS!  I shoved everything back in my purse and ran to the front door just in case I hadn't locked it properly.  I had.  I raced around to the back door because that door is almost never locked.  It was.  Have I mentioned that Hugh and I have been meaning to get a hide-a-key for the house?

I called Hugh's work and while I was on hold for him I kept thinking, are you kidding me?  Is this seriously happening?  This is not happening.  It's the first day of school.  This is not happening!
"Yes I am still holding for Hugh.  Hold again?  Sure."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  As I was holding for the second time my next door neighbour drove up.  She had just finished dropping her son off at the same school I was trying to get my kids to and she knew it was Tristan and Ava's first day.  "What are you still doing here?" she asked.  By this point I was hot and agitated and sweating waterfalls.  My purse was laying on the ground and I was pacing our sidewalk with only one arm in my coat holding a phone to my ear in one hand and holding my hair up off my neck with the other.  I explained and she offered me her car and said she'd watch Sebastian so I could run Tristan and Ava to school.  Which is when Hugh finally came to the phone and I had to explain everything all over again.

While I was taking the kids to school in my neighbour's car Hugh came home from work and unlocked the house door.  We ended up being fifteen minutes late and the kids had to get late slips their very first day of school ever.  That's one way to start the year!  The plus side is by the time I dropped them off I was so relieved to finally be there that I didn't have any room left to feel sad.  Four days later and I'm still not sure what is more shocking to me; that my keys weren't in my purse (I found them randomly in our junk drawer.  WHAAAT?) or that I didn't cry when I dropped the kids off.