Further Dis!

Abbie called this morning while I was driving to work with time to kill since most the major stoplights on my commute had been blown out by the latest storm, bringing traffic to a near standstill. She pointed out that she still thought I was completely off base with my Utah compression blog. "Name one person that had a less than year long engagement here in Utah."

"Try everyone in my family," I said.

"They aren't in Utah," she said.

"I meant everyone in my extended family."

"They are all Mormons! It doesn't count. Name one sinner- one peer."

I floundered. I hemmed and hawed.

"Ha! I think it is clear that I have won this argument," she said.

"I think I have to agree," I said.

During the course of this argument I had arrived at work, gathered up my belonging and come into the office building. The door to our offices is always locked and I started rummaging around my belongings for my keys. 'My belongings' have gotten completely out of control over the course of the last few weeks. The rule of thumb with purses is, the more space you have, the more you will lug around. I am way, way beyond this rule of thumb. I have taken to lugging my work back and forth in a backpack, along with my gym clothes. Next I added a bag for my lunch. I'm going to a play tonight, so I also had my theater clothes with me, and my purse, and of course, my coffee. I had a lot of rummaging around to do. I couldn't rummage and continue the conversation. "Uh, Abs, I gotta go. I'm at work and I gotta find my keys."

My keys were not to be found. I called Abbie, "Yes? The Winner is speaking. What do you want?"

"I, um, locked myself out of the car. Any chance you have a spare key?"

"I'll see what I can do," she said. In the meantime, I had no keys to the office and no one responded to my knock. I wasted a few minutes taking photos of all the junk I am lugging. Enough to distract me from remembering to also grab the keys.



Then, I started calling co-workers- all who were at least 30 minutes away from getting into the office. One of my coworkers is always in by 9:00 am, except, apparently today. I called my co-worker in Chicago. "Any chance you can send a chat message to Sara and ask her when she's getting in today? I, uh, am locked out of the office."

"Sure. Hmmm. She's writing that she is in the office and didn't hear your knock. I am telling her to come to the door and let you in." And sure enough, courtesy of two cell phones, two lap tops, and instant messaging across 1,000 miles, my coworker who was 15 feet away from me, emerged from her office to let me in. "Sorry!" she whispered and she opened the door and then ran back to get on her conference call.

I spent the lunch hour jimmying open my car door with a wire hanger. Which was actually quite rewarding. At least something made me feel cool today!