Monday, May 21, 2007

The day

After church, Alex and I drove over to my Mom and Dad's place. Together we went for a Szechuan lunch. Then I dropped Alex off at the Skytrain station, so he could run some errands at the mall and go home. Andy and Fi were in the theatre for Fiona's play all afternoon. Mom, Dad and I drove downtown to see The Andersen Project at the Playhouse.

I parked in the Playhouse/Queen Elizabeth Theatre parkade, and locked up with my "club" antitheft device. As soon as I locked it, I realised I had made a big mistake. Alex had my club key. One of his errands was to get a copy made so he would have one too. So there we were, parked and stuck. After the play we would need someone to bring us a club key so I could drive my car home.

I called Alex's cell, but it was not turned on. I called Andy at the theatre in Port Moody, where the show was about to begin. He would not be finished there until about 90 minutes after the play was set to finish in Vancouver, so worst comes to worst, he could rescue us about 2 hours after our show ended. It was pouring rain in downtown Vancouver on a Sunday, so waiting around at suppertime was an unattractive option.

Our play was a one-act (2 hour and 5 minutes long). Fi's is a 2-act. I asked Andy to try to call Alex at home on his intermission, and give instructions to find the Playhouse by transit so he could come rescue us. I asked Andy to leave me a voicemail so I would know what was happening. Before the show began, I checked with the front of house manager at the Playhouse. The parkade closed at 6, but if we were stuck he would give me his cell phone number and come back to free my car whenever I needed it. I hoped I wouldn't, and thanked him. I crossed my fingers, turned off the cell phone and enjoyed the play.

As soon as the lights went up after the play, I turned on my cell, and it was ringing. It was Alex, at the Stadium Skytrain station, just two blocks from the theatre. He needed directions. Five minutes later we were unlocking the club and everyone was laughing at me and I was thanking Alex about a hundred times for coming downtown in the pouring rain to a place he doesn't know to help me because I was absent-minded.

Alex requested a Dairy Queen sundae as a reward. Mom, Dad and I were grateful for not having to wait around to get home. I was glad I didn't have to go home by transit then come back for my car later. Even with the Dairy Queen stop, we got home about the same as if everything had gone as usual.

question: did you ever forget something then everything was okay anyway?

mompoet - grateful

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh my...what could have been a terrible evening for you turned out very nice. A sundae is a perfect rescue award too!