lockout

I knew the day started out simply too good to be true.

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the air smells like spring, and the temperature is predicted to reach nearly 60.

Today is my Friday; I have no rehearsals tonight and am planning to drive out of town to visit friends, maybe commit gluttony at a fish fry, and to return Saturday morning. I shaved my legs. I lotioned. My hair looks fabulous. I weighed in at the gym last night and am down 5 lbs from my weight a week ago.  I'm wearing a simple dress and new $6 earrings from Target. I have a travel mug full of deliciously hot and deliciously strong black coffee. Things are/were looking up.

Things were/are looking up, that is, until I locked my keys in my car. Fumbling with a paper bag carrying today's lunch in it as well as my purse, I locked my car doors while still groping for items in my backseat. I put my car keys in my purse, grabbed my lunch bag and slammed the door shut, only to realize within a split second that I'd done it again. I'd locked my keys in my car. My keys were safe in my purse, and my purse was safe in my backseat.

a 'dramatic reenactment'

The custodian here at work has no such device with which to break into a vehicle. I asked. 

The last time I locked my keys in my car was in rural Pine City on an otherwise beautiful, summery, sunny Saturday (and, coincidentally, the day of my very good friend's wedding) just 8 months ago. I was charged nearly $100 for someone to come open it. And that was after I talked the locksmith down from $125. What the what?

As I feel very resolute that this type of service should come at only a minimal cost,  I immediately got to work doing online research. Thanks, www.dexknows.com. For you St. Cloud/Waite Park/Sauk Rapids/Sartell/St. Joseph residents, the following information should come in handy in case you ever need a locksmith or a tow in the future. I compiled a very nice (thorough) list of businesses offering lockout assistance and the amount they charge.

Now I simply need to find out how much it would cost to get a duplicate set of keys made (the set I'm using is my spare- I lost the original- and the auto start with it- somewhere in a snowdrift during a blizzard in '06). At least it's what my insurance provider advised me to do, anyway.

Lord, help me.

Enjoy (?).

Orange Cab  (320)252-8080   $25

Lockout Services  (320)249-2890  $35

Security Locksmiths Inc.  (320)253-4862  $60 (YIKES- no thank you!)

Collins Bros Towing  (320)257-5525  $30 (and they take personal checks- and they have a location in Elk River- and my brother's name is Collin, so I see this as a good sign)

All Care Towing  (320)253-5203  $35

Andy's Towing  (320)251-5691  $35

Anchor Towing  (320)259-4199  $35

Perhaps, as a thank you to me for this useful information, you could click on some ads all over my blog so I can pay for these little incidents (that seem only to happen to me with great frequency). 

silver lining

In the last year or so, I have managed to gain a somewhat substantial amount of weight. This is due in part to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to the following: my own negligence (going to the gym is not something I look forward to by any means), my slowing metabolism, genetics, a work schedule that does not lend itself well to meals prepared by myself and eaten at regular intervals, a penchant for mochas (I've learned to order them with skim milk recently, and honestly, I enjoy them more that way) and a nearby Qdoba and White Castle. I can't help it. I love food. In part, I blame both sides of my extended family. Holidays were just as much about gluttony as they were spending time with each other. Who am I kidding? I loved it, and I still do. Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without Grandma Agnes' mashed potatoes and my aunt Cindy's vegetable pizza (as an "appetizer"), and Christmas isn't the same without Grammie's homemade caramels, my aunt Dorothy's brandy slush, and a host of savory dishes. We Gaffaneys and Grundmans really know how to put it away. To this day, I associate feelings of being overly full with family gatherings. It's just... what we do.

Every day I plan to go to the gym. I have my bag of gym attire in my car should I feel a strong urge to swing by there before work, after work, or on the way home from any other plethora of engagement or errand. I have been planning to go since January. My bag is still untouched.

I lie. The bag has not gone untouched. I had arbitrarily thrown some nail polish and a book I had been reading into it, thinking that I'd read whilst on the elliptical machine to trick myself into thinking that time was passing more quickly than it actually was, and after about a week of being unable to locate said book, remembered that it was in the bag. I went out to my car to get it. If I had time to read, I had time to go to the gym...

The best laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry. (Thanks, John Steinbeck, you really hit the nail on the head with that statement.)

There is, however, a bright side to this.

My hair is the best it has ever looked. In my life. No, seriously. It is. The color could use some work (this is also due to my own negligence), but the cut is superb. My stylist, a young woman who I happen to have known since elementary school, has set up shop with her mom in my tiny hometown. K has managed to cut my hair in such a way that I am able to style it up, down, straight, curly, sophisticated, artsy, and everything in between. So, you see, there is a silver lining to every sad story.


Now, be a friend and click on the ad(s) on my blog, so I can continue to afford going to see K, and thereby continue having several great hair days per week. Unprecedented, to say the least.

desperate

At tj maxx with a friend yesterday, perusing the clearance racks and shelves, I found an interesting little wood cutout, meant to decorate a home. So intrigued by this, but unwilling to spend the $3 to forever have it as my own, I asked my accompanying friend to snap a photo with her phone. With a little simple editing in Picasa, I took the irony to a new level. Pictured below is the result (laugh at it- you know you want to- I am still laughing).

(once again, feel free to click on the ads below and between posts- it helps to sustain my livelihood)