Thursday night’s plan was to head home after work and meet my mom so she could pick up Mason for a visit, and to then head out to dinner with my friend Andy. I planned on returning home between 8:30pm-9:00pm, just in time to meet my mom. Susan’s return flight from Baltimore wasn’t coming in until 11pm-Midnight, and she parked our other car at the airport so that was no concern.
Instead, here’s what happened.
Mom came over around 5:30pm. Mason’s diaper bag was in the van, so I walked outside with them and got the diaper bag out of the van (holding only the van key), gave the bag to mom and sent the two of them on the way. I think at this time I walked back in the house to grab my coat, and then I walked back out to the van. As I was getting into the van I reached for my cell phone and realized it wasn’t there. I must’ve left it inside. Then I patted my pocket. No cell phone, no wallet … and no house keys. Susan and I have the only two house keys (I was later reminded that my dad has a third), so my house key was locked in the house, and the other was en route on a plane somewhere between Baltimore and Oklahoma.
I tried all the doors but since Susan’s been out of town all week I knew the house was locked up tight. Actually, I also knew that the upstairs window was unlocked, an entrance I might not have ruled out 15 years ago. My mom said they were stopping by Sonic to get a burger for Mason, so I zipped over there and caught them there. I explained what had happened to my mom, told her to keep Mason, and that I’d come by there later to pick him up.
From there I headed out to Andy’s and had dinner (ribs!). After a couple hours there, I headed out to mom’s to pick up Mason. We hung out there for a bit. Periodically, I would call Susan’s cell phone to try and catch her between flights or just to leave her updates on who’s house we were at. I decided around 10:30pm that we would head over to Susan’s sister’s house, which is only a block from my own. At least then when my wife got home I wouldn’t have to drive another 30 minutes to get home. We got to my sister-in-law’s house around 11pm and hung out there until around midnight, when my wife finally showed up.
Go me.