Are you sure this isn't Monday?

Today started out bad, bad, bad.

It snowed - again - last night. We got about 4 or 5 more inches. School was not delayed or cancelled so I had two grumpy kids wondering why there was school when there was so much snow on the ground.

After they left, I decided to head out to do some errands. I wanted to brush off the car and get it started so it could warm up a little before I left. I could not find my keys anywhere. My keys are ALWAYS in the same place...along with my wallet and my phone. Those are the only three things I always take with me when I leave the house. Wallet? Check. Phone? Check. Keys? Nope.

I had to think about the last time I had my keys....Tuesday evening. Riding lessons. Ok...I got us home...so the keys are somewhere in this house. I replayed the events of the evening - stopped to take off boots in mudroom/laundry room; put dusty barn smelling coat in washer; threw away empty coffee cup. The obvious place to start was the mudroom. After I didn't find them there, the next thought was that I was going to have to go through the trash. I donned my latex gloves and ripped open the bag. There was my coffee cup from that night - no keys though. I checked under furniture and appliances (we have a cat who likes to take things and make them her own...but her normal M.O. is legos and beads...so I didn't really think she had taken the keys....). No keys...but several crumpled pieces of paper, two crinkle toys, 14 legos, and 23 beads were located.

I decided that I still needed to get on with my day, so I took the spare that P-Man keeps with his things.

I went to the redemption center with our returnable cans...and scanned the table as the guy counted up my returns...thinking maybe they keys had fallen in there. No such luck.

To get to my next stop, I needed to pass the Ford garage so I decided to swing in and see what the process is for getting a new key and fob made. They could do it today at 2:00, it will take about 20 minutes, and it will cost me about $60. Holy crap! I made the appointment and said "I'm going to keep looking so you may hear from me later, cancelling this!"

As I got in the car, P-Man called - like he usually does - to see how my day was going. I said "I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but I'm going to ask just in case I'm wrong. Do you happen to know where my keys are?"

Crickets.

"Um, check my leather coat pocket."

"WHAT?"

"Um, yeah. I used your keys when we went to The Diva's concert the other night. I might have forgotten to put them back."

"Are you kidding me? Do you know what I've been through this morning?!!"

His response was that I should have called him first to see if he knew where they were before spending all that time looking. Here's the problem with that:

1. I refuse to be that kind of woman who calls her significant other the minute something goes wrong.

2. Tell me again why you even had my keys? And why I should automatically think that maybe you know where they are? Because you have your own stupid keys.

They were in his coat pocket, by the way.

Sometimes the best man for the job isn't. ~Author Unknown