Hangers and Endings

So the end of my work experience is getting closer and closer every day. This job with the city has been the most favorite job I have ever had. I love being outside, I love working with my hands, I love the people that I work with. It is really just a winning situation for me. However, the grass is going to stop growing here pretty soon and the leaves will finish falling and winter will be in full swing. I think they will keep me around for a few more days (hopefully at least one whole week) but then I'm done. I guess all good things must come to an end.

As tribute to my wonderful experiences this summer, I thought I would take a few moments over the next few days to reflect on some of my favorite experiences over the summer. Let's start with the second most embarrassing (since I have already shared the first most embarrassing).

As part of my job, I am supposed to drive around town to all of the parks and lock the bathroom doors. We take turns locking up so that the same person doesn't do it every night. We are told that we should leave as the sun begins to set behind the mountains. It takes about an hour and a half and it is one of the easiest tasks required of me.

It had been a few nights since I had my turn to lock up, so I had forgotten about it. Usually I would leave my house around 8:45 and be back by 10:15. Well, one particular Wednesday, I didn't remember my duty until 10:15. It can be pretty scary heading out alone, especially when it gets late, so I called Colette and begged her to come with me. I convinced her that it was her duty as my friend to keep me safe while performing this task. She made the sacrifice (since her usual bedtime is 10:30) and rode along with me to lock up.

We made it to all of the parks without any problems. We pulled up to the last park, a little delirious because it was so late, and I got out of the truck to go lock the doors. As I stepped out, the truck started moving forward and I thought "Hmmm. That's funny. Why is that happening?" And then I realized "I didn't put the truck in park! WHO DOES THAT?!" The next few seconds were absolutely ridiculous as I tried to decide if I should jump back in and slam on the break or dive in head first and just use my hand while Colette did the shifting. I decided to jump back in, slam on the break, and put the truck in park. After a good round of laughter, I locked the bathroom and we headed back to the Service Center.

"Good thing we're done because I gotta pee." Colette told me as we drove back, still giggling about my blond moment. I parked the truck outside of the Service Center and reminded Colette to lock her door. I opened my door, locked it, and grabbed the keys. I shut the door and as I went to place the keys in the hiding spot, I realized I had grabbed the wrong keys! "Oh, boy, Jalayne. Really, you forgot to turn off the truck. Get back in and get the right keys and get outta here!" I thought to myself. As I reached for the handle I remembered that I had locked the door. Colette looked at me with an unforgettable expression of disbelief. "Colette..." I said, trying to laugh about my stupidity. "I locked the keys in the truck...and the truck is still running."

We laughed and laughed and laughed. Then through a fit of laughter I was able to say, "Who does that?" We continued to laugh and I answered my own question with "The same person who forgets to put the car in park when getting out!" We then laughed even harder.

After a good few minutes, we finally realized that we really had a problem and tried to decide what to do. "Who could help us?" we both wondered. Colette suggested our friend David, so she gave him a call. Once she explained what happened and they had a good laugh, Dave suggested calling the police. Luckily, I keep a phone book in my car so I called the police station and was informed that police officers no longer carry the equipment to unlock cars. David willingly drove down to the Service Center to help us out.

In the meantime, Colette reminded me that she still need to pee so she found herself a secret spot on CITY PROPERTY and relieved herself. After we had a good laugh about that one, David showed up. By this time I think I was pretty close to having lost all sanity. Dave looked at the ring of keys in my hand and asked "Isn't there a key on there that can get you into the building where there might be a spare key?" DOH! So I let myself into the building, into my boss's office (I was so nervous I thought I was going to pee my pants) and looked for a spare key. There wasn't a spare key to be found, so I grabbed a hanger from the closest and locked the door behind me. Once I was back to the truck, we looked through the tool box and found this:

We used the flat edge to pry the door partially open so that Dave could slip the hanger through the door and pop the lock. We had ourselves a good laugh and headed home. Once home, I praised my little hanger and was a little worried to share the story with my boss the next day.

Once at work, I looked for the opportune time to tell my boss about my moronic experience. He looked at me like I was a complete idiot and then showed me where the spare keys are kept. I ruined a hanger, but I certainly got a good story.

Who would have thought that this little hanger could save me so much trouble?

So maybe it's good that this job is ending and I can stop having embarrassing experiences. Maybe I'm better off sitting in a chair watching a movie or studying while a machine sucks out my plasma. It's a quick thirty bucks and I can't embarrass myself while doing it.