Today was a WEIRD DAY. I drove to Toronto in what was the most smooth drive to Toronto ever. I’m talking better than a Sunday good. Better than first Lockdown good. Got off on my exit, no problems. I left my place early, (as I normally do because traffic is so unpredictable) and got to the Distillery District for a wardrobe fitting with 45 minutes to spare! AND I found AMAZING parking!

I did the things you do when you have to kill time, but it’s Covid so you can’t go to a coffee shop and it’s Winter so I didn’t really feel like walking around outside. I sat in my car, checked some emails, set up my parking payment by re-installing the Green P app. (It’s been so long since I’ve used it, I deleted it from my phone!)

Nature called and I debated going to my fitting early to use the facilities, then I saw on Google maps that there was a public restroom (because it’s is the Distillery District and people drink lots of mulled wine,) so I grabbed my purse, my keys, my tuque, not my big winter jacket, I wasn’t going that far, and while opening the door, my finger slipped on the lock, locking the door. 

I thought to myself, “this is not a problem!” because I had put my keys in my purse when filling it up with with all those loose car-things that become purse-things when one exits their car. 

I got out of the car, the door slammed shut, and I thought, you know, maybe I should at least grab my scarf, it is a bit nippy. (The scarf is basically the size of a blanket.) 

I go to open the door. It’s locked. Right. I remember locking it. The locks work great!

I check my purse for my keys, find my key ring, but on it, there is no car key! There is every other key, but no car key. Where the heck is my car key?

I look around my purse, it’s not in there. I bend down to see if maybe it fell under the car. Nope. 

At this point a car pulls in directly beside me in the parking lot. (There are like TONNES of spots around the lot, why park RIGHT BESIDE ME, DUDE!?) It’s akin to the person sitting right next to you on the subway, but not because he just stood outside his car lurking (ie. probably waiting for people, whatever, I’m calling it lurking,) while I was crouched down on my hands and knees trying to find my key.

With 15 minutes left before my call time, I call my husband. He reminds me we no longer have roadside assistance because it’s the pandemic and we never drive anywhere any more. So we call CAA, and have to re-set up an account, re-set up payment, get transferred to the Toronto district office, schedule a truck to come break into my car so I can find my key. 

• SIDE RANT! HEY! CAA, just saying here, you think you could call the guy, and get him to come over, because while you’re going through a million systems, some of which, oops just froze and we’ll have to try again, and speaking of freezing, I’m standing in -4 degree weather without a coat, (I mean, luckily I had a tuque and mitts – I’m not a complete amateur,) we could be getting something done here!

Like, get the guy to come fix my car, and while he’s on the way, we can set up the payment details and all that. Wouldn’t that make sense? So I’m not stranded outside my car in the cold for longer than I need to be? It’s bad enough I feel like an idiot, do we have to prolong the car-lean-of-shame any longer?

Anyway, the CAA guy came with in 5 minutes of the phone call so I was barely late for my call time, and the situation was resolved relatively easy. I do require his eyes to find the key because I couldn’t see it anywhere in the car. He found it UNDER THE PASSENGER SEAT! (How did it get there? It was in the ignition like two seconds before I got out of the car! What’s happening???)

Overall, it could have gone much worse. But sheesh. I don’t think I’m ever going to trust that easy of a drive into the city again.