You may remember my post about Galen’s adventure with my spare car key.

Well, last weekend Galen was in town again (did I mention he was a good boyfriend?) and I was planning to host a housewarming party on Saturday evening. He was going to be hanging out with family and other friends on Friday night/Saturday morning, so I got up early on Saturday to run errands before he came over. I wanted to get the house ready for the party but didn’t want him to have to help or deal with me as I ran around like a crazy person.

My first mistake was thinking I could get up early and go to Ikea to just get a few picture frames. This is like saying you’re just going to “run in to Home Depot to grab a few nails” or “drop by the Goodwill on 82nd to get a plain white t-shirt.” Somehow, I only had to sit down and take a breather ONCE (on a very comfortable and colorful couch) and I managed to get in and out of the overwhelming awesomeness that is Ikea in about an hour. This can only be attributed to a miracle or a wrinkle in the space-time continuum.

So I get out to my car in the parking lot (which measures approximately twelve times the size of the store itself) and unload my bags in the passenger seat. I check my to-do list to figure out what my next stop will be. I then put the key in the ignition… And it won’t turn. Confused, I pull out the key and stare dumbfounded at one of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen:

That’s right. I had broken off THE ONLY KEY to my car.

Many thoughts ran through my mind at this point. Which is probably why I sat there staring at the key stub for what must have been at least five solid minutes. After I had finally come to terms with the situation and had convinced myself it wasn’t a dream, I called AAA. They ended up sending a mobile locksmith who created a key to my car FROM SCRATCH and saved me from the blazing heat in the giant Ikea parking lot. The best part of the phone call, though, was after I explained my situation to the nice man at AAA and he said, “I see. And do you have a spare key?”

“I did. And you’ll never guess what happened to it.”