Sometimes All You Can Do Is Laugh

I just got back from a 2 week vacation with my family in California. It was fantastic. I mean, it's California, right? I got to see all my extended family and my high school friends. Got to go to a wedding. Hit up the beach a handful of times and consumed as many California burritos and In N Out burgers as I could get my hands on. Always a good time. I have a lot of great memories from this trip, but my favorite memory consists of a rental car, a rental car key, and a trash truck. Are you ready?

I was with my family in central California visiting relatives, and the plan was to leave at 8 am on Monday morning to head back down to LA. Our plans fell through. You see, a peculiar thing happened that prevented us from leaving when we had planned. It was so ridiculous that I didn't even know what to think, yet at the same time, I wasn't even surprised. After all, this kind of thing that happens to my family on a pretty regular basis. It's often the result of my dad's forgetfulness; sometimes my mom's. I, of course, am never to blame. I used to get really worked up when these things happened, and sometimes I still do, but this was just hilarious.

Since we flew to Cali and had to get around, my parents rented a van, and that rental van had a key. The key was used to start the car when we wanted to drive somewhere. Well, said key was no longer in existence when it came time to leave. It had been in my dad's possession earlier that morning but was nowhere to be found when we were ready to embark on our 3 hour journey back to the hood. He did, however, find what he thought to be the plastic casing to the key chain. It looked like it had been run over by something heavy. Interestingly enough, a trash truck happened to have rolled through the neighborhood a few minutes prior to that moment. It stopped at the house where we were staying to collect our trash. Could it be that the trash truck ran over our key? We had no solid evidence, but that was the general consensus. I mean, what other explanation could my dad have for losing the key?

My parents had us all outside looking in the yard and on the street for the key, just in case the trash truck theory was inaccurate or the key had somehow been catapulted into the air and landed in an unexpected location. Not only did my parents have us out looking, but my dad and uncle chased the trash truck down to see if they could check the tires, just in case the key somehow got stuck in a crevice of one of the tires but was still intact. No such luck. Shocking, I know. After a few minutes, Amy and Rachael (my two sisters) joined me in the house. The three of us commented on the fact that we weren't at all surprised that this was happening. In fact, it was almost to be expected.

Then we heard my dad enter the house and ask my mom to look inside his suitcase. (Rolled eyes from all three of us). Amy and I both agreed that after the elaborate and ludicrous story about how the trash truck ran over the key and after 30 minutes of looking for the freaking thing and being on the phone with Enterprise to see if we could get a duplicate, wouldn't it be funny if we found it in his suitcase. We wouldn't even be surprised, because he's pulled stunts like that before. So we just sat there waiting. Lo and behold, about two minutes later, we heard my mom yell, "I found the key!" We burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Of course it was in his suitcase. And of course he had assumed that since he couldn't find his key and since he discovered a piece of plastic outside, the only logical conclusion was that the trash tuck ran over it. We got in trouble for laughing, as usual. But we didn't care. It was really the only thing we could do.

Good times.