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Grrrrrr......Yaaaaaay

GRRRRRRR......
I finish kickboxing class at 11am. I say "I'll run by the school to see if they need extra help for School Picture Day". I think "They are probably done with their morning shift and they'll be heading to lunch and I can go with them." I park my van, go inside and see Little Chic eating lunch in the cafeteria. I chat with her and her buds for few minutes, telling several that "No, they can't come over today, but maybe over the weekend." I then go peer behind the stage curtain to see if the photographer is still snapping away. He's not. No PTA moms are anywhere to be seen. They must've finished up and already left for lunch. I decide to run into the office to check the PTA mailbox for any more submissions of volunteer forms. I see an envelope that needs to be forwarded to a teacher, so I write a note on the envelope, pop it in her mailbox and prepare to leave.

I CAN'T FIND MY KEYS. I didn't carry anything else in with me, so I am quite sure I would have felt empty-handed going into the building - so they must be inside the school somewhere. I look around and they are nowhere to be found. I dash back to the cafeteria in case I've left them on Little Chic's table and she dumps them in the garbage with her trash. Little Chic and buds are still in the cafeteria, all thrilled to see me again. Amid hugs from thronging children, I am peering under the table, in various lunchboxes and on trays, finding no sign of the lost keys.

I flit back to the office, figuring I set them on the counter or the table and just didn't see them the first time I looked. I scour the flat surfaces, mention it to the secretary, describing the house key that is painted to look like an American flag. She says she'll keep her eye open for it. I run back to the cafeteria, sure that now that it will be empty of 4th graders and the keys will be easy to spot. Sure enough, there are no fourth graders sitting at the tables; now it's the fifth graders. I plow through the crowd of happy campers all flagging me down, waving wildly, shouting "Hi, Brainy Boy's mom!!" I spot a lunchroom monitor, explain the dilemma, to which she assures me if they were in the cafeteria at all, they will now be in the gigantic trash can. I run into the custodian who promises he'll keep an eye out for them too.

I begin to doubt myself and I go out to the van. There are no keys in the ignition and none sitting within view. The only doubt is that I looked at a particular piece of paper right before exiting the van, and that piece of paper is now sitting in my passenger seat, and could possibly be hiding the keys - but it doesn't look like it. In desperation, I try PTA Friend Mom's key and clicker since she has the same make/model van as mine. No dice.

I begin to weigh my options--I could call Hero Guy from work to come get me. Not my first choice. I could stay for a couple of hours, help with school pictures, and hope they show up as the day goes along. I'm so agitated now, that I'd be miserable. Option 3 came along unexpectedly. As I was going out to the van to peer in the windows for a second time, another PTA Friend Mom who lives just down the street from me, was pulling out. I flagged her down, tried her key/clicker (she also has the same van) and asked her for a ride home. Luckily I leave a door open for the kids every day just in case they sometime beat me home, so I had a way in. I get inside, call Hero Guy to tell him he'll have to drive me to school later tonight to unlock the van and see if my keys are inside. He can't talk right now, so explanation is averted.

YAAAAAY.....
I'm home 15 minutes and school secretary calls me. She was coming out of the copier room and glanced behind the huge plant that sits on the table by the mailboxes. She sees a set of keys shoved behind the plant and one of them is painted like AMERICAN FLAG!!!

I knew I wasn't crazy--and now I get to explain the whole thing to Hero Guy with the happy ending already written. He'll need to drive me down to school which he won't mind since I won't have to pay $100 for another key with a chip in it and $100 for that clicker that I just can't live without.

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