Epic Fail

As part of my initiative to appreciate the new and exciting by planning fun events, a friend and I made plans weeks ago to see the new Batman movie opening weekend. A long, rainy weekend inside with children made me even more excited to get out Friday night. I stopped over at her house and chatted with her host family and some friends and before we knew it, it was time to go to the movie down in Mission Bay. So  without having dinner (I thought I'd just grab something later) we drove down, grabbed a quick pint at our favorite Belgian Beer Cafe and went into the very long, and somewhat disappointing movie (I just thought there were too many things going on and in a few places it lost that something special the first two had but I am getting off track here). Since I am often in bed hours before 11pm I had completely forgotten that everything - restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations - close before 10pm so no dinner for me. As we were walking up Patteson Ave I slowly realized that we must have passed the car since we had passed all the cars on the road and were heading into a large residential area. We decided to walk back and try again. My friend pointed out some cars in the distance asking if they were mine, which they obviously were not. After walking up and down the street again it was clear that somehow the car had moved itself without my key, but with my phone in it. They didn't cover what do in this sort of situation in my au pair orientation.

Mission Bay is small and there is really only one police HQ in the CBD and I didn't have my phone and we were a good half hour walk to my friends house and..... where is my (host family's) car!?! A few awkward and embarrassing phone calls later (her host family, my host family, the tow hotline) I had discovered that the car had been towed because apparently I had parked in front of a drive way. I would contest this but somehow had forgotten to take the necessary photographic evidence of my car after I parked it. A cab ride down to the CBD, a signature, and proof of my license, along with the 111 dollar and 50 cent ticket, to be paid within 28 days or they will send a nasty letter, and I had the car back. All in all, not the highlight of my life, but an experience none the less. I have to say its pretty funny now, and was actually pretty funny at the time since it seems just so impossible and ridiculous to have lost my car and my phone in a foreign town, in a foreign country, in the middle of the night when I hadn't even eaten dinner!

Things like tickets, and awkward phone calls, and skipped meals just happen in life and even more so in travel. I am dedicated to continuing my travels, probably to farther, well wait, I can't really go farther away, but at least more exotic places, where I don't speak the language and things like this are just going to happen, and having the right attitude will hopefully keep me from losing anything too important. I promptly paid my ticket and moved on, taking a good story and maybe a little more life experience with me.

Saturday and Sunday contained more rain, a jog to Cox's Bay, heaps of reading under my down comforter, a little babysitting, and few pointed jokes from the family. All is well in paradise.