By June Mathews
I’m about to tell you something about myself that, if you’ve known me for more than about five minutes, you’ve probably already figured out: I’m a bit scatterbrained. And sometimes not just a bit.
I prefer to think my condition has more to do with how busy I am rather than age, but I suspect it’s a little of both. And I believe an incident last Thursday proves my point.
I’d been in my usual state of juggling multiple projects that morning, so by the time I drove into the civic center parking lot around the middle of the day my brain was already abuzz with everything I needed to accomplish that afternoon. On top of that, I was about to take my first crack at presiding over a chamber luncheon, so I was a little nervous.
Running a few minutes later than I’d intended, I grabbed my purse, popped the lock button as I exited the car and slammed the door shut behind me. I paused to fumble with my magnetic name badge, coming perilously close to dropping the magnet part down my blouse in the process then took a step or two toward the building.
Hearing the low hum of an engine, I turned to see who was sitting in a nearby car that I might wave to and walk in with but no one was around. Vaguely wondering why someone would go off and leave a car running in the civic center parking lot, I spun back around to walk away. In doing so, I nearly tripped over my own feet – as I often do – and placed my hand on the hood of my car for balance…Yeah, you guessed it: Mine was the car left running.
I was briefly horrified until I realized the door lock mechanism won’t engage with the keys in the ignition and no one sitting in the driver’s seat. I could just imagine the desperate plea for help I would have otherwise been compelled to place to my husband in the middle of his workday…
“Um, Jimmie honey, love of my life, could you please bring me the extra key to my car? Like, um, right now? I seem to have, well, left the car running and locked my keys inside. And since there are only a couple of miles left on the fuel indicator, could you either get here real fast before it completely runs out or, um, bring a gallon or two of gas along?”
Fortunately, thanks to modern automotive technology, I never had to make that phone call. But boy was I feeling stupid anyway. I furtively peered around the parking lot to see if anybody had witnessed my boneheaded move and was glad to see that apparently no one had.
I felt less stupid, however, after sharing the incident in the break room at work the next day and heard a story even more embarrassing than mine.
Seems there was once an attorney working at the firm who decided to treat her secretary to lunch at a local restaurant one day. After a relaxing and rather lengthy meal, the pair returned to the lawyer’s car to find it still humming away, doors unlocked and keys in the ignition for TWO HOURS. She obviously had more gas in her tank than I did last Thursday, and she was darn lucky a car thief didn’t happen by and drive away.
So it just goes to show you that no matter how scatterbrained you are, there’s always somebody a little less collected than you are, both a comforting and scary thought to me. I mean, I like the idea that I’m probably not the most addled person around. But really, to think that the world is full of people as scatterbrained as I am or worse isn’t comforting at all.
Email June Mathews at jmathews120@charter.net.