Adventure #21: When Things Go Wrong...

If things go wrong, don't go with them.  ~Roger Babson

 "I locked my keys in the car." 

All I wanted to do was laugh hysterically and curl up into a ball on the floor, but announcing my dilemma made it real. And, therefore meant I was in no state to think clearly. Being three hours from my spare key, having dropped my family off an hour north of my current location, needing to fix this within 12 hours, and losing all capability to be logical, I was relieved to be staying with My Friend Katie.* MFK, since we became friends in June 2011, has taught me a bit about the use of logic and emotions. 

"Don't freak out."

MFK often said this to me when I was overly concerning myself with some little things. Scheduling, contacting people, not reaching self-appointed deadlines, etc. were met with this response. Thankfully, in the instance of my keys locked in the car, she did not say this to me. I actually don't remember the words of her immediate response but she was on her computer looking up 24-hour Locksmiths before I could put myself together enough to recognize the word 'Locksmith.'

"What options do we have?"

A question, while varied in its form, occurs frequently in our friendship and, having come back from Emotionland, I was aware enough to form coherent suggestions. For some stubborn reason, I did not want to deal with a locksmith, at least not as the first choice. My thought then was to look up how to break into a car. Katie, using her super-speed typing, had pulled up several videos on such a subject. We watched a few, searched for materials in her newly-moved-into basement apartment and MFK spent an hour breaking into my car, using a flashlight, twine, a crowbar, gift bag, a shoelace, stick, and a lengthy scrap of wood (we couldn't locate a wire hanger in the accessible parts of the house to which MFK's apartment is attached). At this point, exhausted and unsuccessful, logic necessitated that we rest and call a locksmith in the morning.

"You're going to stress about this all night, aren't you?"

I tried lying but having both lived with me for a year and nearly lived with me for a year before that, MFK knew what my distant eyes, contemplative expression, and attempt at a joke meant. Lying has never been a honed skill for me - I've never wanted to practice it. But I was going to stress and Katie knew it. Which is why in her 'cheer up' voice she sing-songly suggested watching White Christmas (because I'd been wanting to watch it for a month or two and it always got pushed back in, as it goes in our movie selecting process). So I took her up on the offer and an hour in, we were asleep. But not before I decided that I had one more idea to try in the morning before calling a locksmith.

"Any success?"

And that's where MFK found me - 8 o'clock in the morning (I couldn't sleep past 7), with twine attached to a string that I had looped to hang down. I could get the loop over the lock but couldn't keep enough friction to effectively pull up, releasing the lock. Maybe ten minutes after she'd come out, I finally realized I needed a further element to succeed. Having spent another hour trying and not knowing what that element was, I followed Katie back into the house, momentarily defeated.

"Do you have a wire hanger? Melody locked her keys in her car. And we are going to win!"

MFK must have been as determined as I was (or she knew I was feeling that way), because when she asked her sister (who'd been asleep the night before) for a wire hanger, I knew this was the missing element. After deforming the hanger, we headed straight for the car...this time with an audience! A couple attempts with just the hanger proved unfruitful. However, when the hanger was bent to frame the lock and then combined with a secure backing of twine, the ideal circumstances were created to pull up, release the lock, and OPEN THE DOOR! 

Thus verifying that with three hours and the support and resolution of my level-headed, logical friend Katie, anything is possible!




 
 *For clarification, My Friend Katie, MFK, and Katie are all the same person. :) PS: Happy birthday to MFK!!!