I am going to blame it on the heat, a busier than usual weekend, house guests? But Saturday, I lost my car and get this...
I didn't know I'd lost it until Monday.
Hear me out. So, Saturday I drove to work at the bookstore. I don't usually work on Saturdays but a friend of mine, Dr. Kevin Cordi -- writer, professional story-teller, OSU professor--was leading story-time and I didn't want to miss it. (Side note: he was amazing) and then some other author friends, Kristina McBride, Mindee Arnett, Lorie Langdon, and Natalie D. Richards showed up for their YA panel and book signing,
but first we all trooped next door for lunch, chatted about books and writing projects and the dark hole that is the publishing industry and foods we are allergic to and Natalie's daughter who might or might not be winning a ribbon at the Ohio State Fair because it seemed like she'd gotten a cruddy impatient judge, but Natalie wouldn't know for sure until later in the afternoon...
and back to the bookstore where the group did their panel and book signing and then it was only Natalie in the store, and she was heading directly to the state fair and could I please please please come with her, and of course I wanted to support her daughter and see her possibly win a ribbon and I had never been to the state fair
so off we went, in Natalie's car, to the fair where her daughter DID win a ribbon and then a quick swing through the crowded fairgrounds, sweating it out in the heat, past booths selling every-kind-of-fried food and barns filled with farm animals and quilts, and one exhibit depicting the movie A Christmas Story sculpted in butter
and then to my house for dinner
and the next day, which was busier than the one before because my daughter's boyfriend was in town for a visit and for some reason we'd all gotten it into our heads to drive up to Mansfield to tour the The Ohio State Reformatory (a former state prison and the site of the Shawshank Redemption movie and now supposedly haunted)
which we did (in my daughter's car) and I must say, the place was creepy, but not haunted as far as I could tell and I know haunted places,
then a drive back home, a quick dinner, and out, again, this time to see the latest Mission Impossible movie, which was only meh, although the meh-ish-ness of the movie may have been exacerbated by the fact that the air conditioning in the theater had broken down and we were all dying sitting there in pools of our own sweat.
Home late
and the next morning seeing off my daughter's boyfriend and then getting ready for work when I went into the garage to find my car missing,
and for a full three minutes, I literally had no idea why it wasn't there or where it could be until my daughter played the Where Did You Last See It game and I remembered.
Dummy
ReplyDeletelike you have never misplaced your car, tom :)
DeleteI actually misplace it constantly in my dreams. Either that or all of may previous cars show up in random places in my neighborhood like I had never traded them in, but just lost track of them.
DeleteThere's a story in there somewhere.
DeleteBUT! You saw the butter cow. And remembered fried foods and the fair stuff, so whatever. You just selectively forget a few things.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I love you, Natalie.
Delete