Laugh at yourself, before anyone else can!

Since I was young, my parents have always told me, "You just gotta laugh at yourself!" Yielding to this wise advice, I share the following story.

Almost two weeks ago on Saturday, August 15th, I headed to the University Mall just before closing to exchange a pair of shoes. I do not go to the mall often but this errand had to scratched off my post summer term finals "to do" list. I stopped by the shoe store and Forever 21 and headed on my way. Upon reaching my car I realized I did not have my keys. I thought I had put them in the side pocket of my purse like always. I began to panic and called my brother (who was on a date) to come rescue me. I saw the cops nearby and asked if they could maybe open the car to see if they were inside. They did so, but no keys were found. When my brother arrived, he searched my purse, knowing my past history of losing things in obvious places, but again no keys were found. I ran through the closing mall yelling at employees through the gates asking them if they had found any keys. In the end, everything closed and I had to give up for the time being and be taken home like a child by my brother and his girlfriend.

The next morning I found my spare! Hope was restored. I debated whether I should give it to my brother for safe keeping, but in the end my pride prevailed. I decided I was capable of not losing the key for a few hours. Ty and I planned to pick up my stranded car from the mall parking lot after we attended church. I walked out of my meetings, stuck my hand in the pocket of my purse, and felt nothing. This time I felt I was losing not only my keys at a disturbing rate, but also my mind. In my fit of frustration and close to tears, I called my little sister to wallow in self-pity.

The next three days were spent borrowing my brother's car to drive from one lost and found to the next. I went to the mall's customer service desk, the shoe store, and Forever 21 every day. I even slyly searched around the stores myself! I frequented the BYU lost and found since the church where I lost the spare was on campus. My precious days between school semesters were spent stressing over two sets of lost keys.

On Wednesday I left for NYC to see my sister, Kimber. I welcomed the chance to escape my key search. I had an absolutely wonderful trip (more on that later) but had to return home to the key issue. Tuesday morning I set out for my final check of the lost and founds. After BYU, the shoe store, and customer service, I gave up.

I called AAA to tow my car to the Nissan dealership. They said they could rekey my car over the next day or so. I hated to say I failed and pay large amounts of money all because I misplaced something. They did the job and I picked my car up this afternoon (Thursday).

I was paranoid about my keys. I kept them zipped up that little pocket so there was no way they could fall out. Bree, Lisa, and I decided to go see Star Trek at the dollar theater tonight and I volunteered to drive my newly rekeyed vehicle. As we walked to my car in the garage, I felt for my keys in the pocket. Again, nothing. I could have cried right there. However, I pulled it together and Bree drove instead. Although Star Trek seemed like a decent movie, I could hardly concentrate, nauseated with the thought that I might have lost my brand new keys. I seriously thought I was losing my mind one key at a time.

After getting home, I rushed to my room searching every surface. I dumped out the contents of my purse on my bed. While doing so, I felt something underneath the lining of my purse. I searched for an opening to this compartment. My stomach dropped. I pulled the lining of the side pocket completely out and saw a little hole in the corner. Absolute panic pervaded me. I reached my two fingers through the hole and felt around. I started pulling the loot out one piece at a time. Eventually my fingers graced the edges of keys- not only the new pair I had lost tonight but my original set, the spare, my parents' condo key, and my brother's spare. Five sets of keys total. I called my parents tearfully reporting everything I pulled out of the hole and beating myself up over the whole ordeal. There are many reasons why I should have cracked this case sooner (before spending the money to rekey my car would have been especially nice) but instead of focusing on that I am going to laugh at myself.

It is all quite hilarious so it's hard not to. For the last week and a half I have been running to lost and founds, stressing over this while the keys sat right in the very purse I was still carrying around. Brilliant.

In this lovely unknown black hole I found eight chapsticks (didn't even know I owned that many!), a blush brush, mascara, an eyelash curler, eyeliner, two pens, pearl earrings, a bracelet, way too many bobbypins, and five sets of keys. Holy cow. Here's some photos of the purse, the hole, and the contents.

A while ago I found this quote, which wittily conveys what my parents have tried to teach me.

"Laugh at yourself, before anyone else can." Elsa Maxwell, September 28th, 1958

Now that I've amused myself, feel free to laugh until your heart's content.