My Keys, My Car, and Lego Yoda.

I accidentally cleaned my car out today. Now I know people don’t usually clean out their cars “accidentally,” but there were special circumstances.

I also lost my keys today. This is not a shock to anyone who has actually met me in person. But these two events, the losing of the keys and the accidental cleaning of the car, are related.

Most of the time when I lose my keys (it happens quite often, despite all my desperate attempts to actually hang my keys on the hook WHERE THEY BELONG)...anyway, this usually happens when I am trying to LEAVE. Today I lost them on the way IN the house. I came home in the car (having driven with said keys), saw my neighbor, handed him something that I had for his family, and then sat back down to get the keys so me, my kids, and all our stuff could go in the house.

No keys in the ignition. Gone.

What...? Where...? How...? But I didn’t go anywhere! I must have dropped them. So there I am, on my knees in the street, pulling EVERYTHING out of the car. Tote bags, backpacks, leftovers, heels that I have been wearing for too many hours, and then floor mats, the required Day-Glo safety vests, and trash. I even stuck my hand under the front seat, and that is a very scary thing to do, my friends. Everything got frantically tossed into the yard in hopes that I would unearth that jangly silver cluster adorned with Texas and Lego Yoda.

No keys.

On the plus side, I did find 20 euro cents and the book of Christmas CDs I’ve been looking for since...Christmas. (I know, I know, it’s April. Sheesh.)

With my brain careening rapidly towards Full Tilt panic mode, I prayed, “Dear God, help me find my keys, because they were just here and I didn’t even do anything or go anywhere!” After more tossing and gingerly feeling under seats and even folding up the back seat--which made absolutely no sense, but neither did losing the keys when I hadn’t even left the car when they went missing--I was at a loss. I slammed the seat down, stood up--

and there they were. Sitting on top of the car. Mocking me. 

Sigh. The lesson? Lego Yoda says it best: “When lose keys you do, pray first you shall. Then keys shall you find.”