Today is quite possibly the luckiest day of my life.

Here’s what happened. I was out shopping with Gal Smiley this morning, and I decided to make a quick stop at Carlingwood (official motto: The Old People’s Mall) to get some socks for the Captain. I knew I was already risking a cranky little girl since she’d already been in and out of her car seat twice, against her will, and a third stop was really pushing it. Inside the mall, Gal Smiley decided she was too tired to walk, and I wound up carrying her around since I didn’t have a stroller, and that’s uncomfortable and tiring for me in my current state. Plus, the store had socks in all colours and sizes except, of course, the very colour and size I needed. And to top things off, I hadn’t eaten in like, 20 minutes, which, for The Hoover, is a very long time indeed.

Around this time I realised that when I had taken Gal Smiley out of her car seat at the mall, I’d put my keys down on the floor in the back seat. And then locked the door using the automatic lock on the driver’s door. And closed up the van. With the keys inside.

Naturally this caused an immediate panic and stress-related spots before my eyes. I’d have to call Sir Monkeypants to race over and pick up the Captain from preschool, and then I’d have to call CAA to break me into my car, all the while trying to keep cranky Gal Smiley occupied and happy, preferably while not carrying her around. Nooooot gooood.

But! Here is where the story takes a turn for a happy ending. I looked in all the pockets of the diaper bag to make sure I hadn’t stuck them in somewhere weird and unusual, and what do I find lurking in the outside pocket? Sir Monkeypants’ keys to the van! Incredible! I still can’t really believe that this happened…it’s such a mind-boggling piece of luck. First of all, I’m lucky that he keeps his van key on a separate key ring, so he doesn’t have to carry it around all the time. Second, I’m lucky that he has the fob that auto-opens the sliding door, which Gal Smiley likes to play with, which he keeps offering to give to me as the majority driver of the van but I’ve been too lazy to bother to take. Third, I’m lucky that two days ago, while going out with the Gal, she found the key fob in the front table drawer and insisted on taking it so she could be the one to open her own door, and I was in a patient mood, so I let her take it. Fourth, I’m lucky that after I took the fob and key away from her, I stuffed it in the diaper bag, and forgot all about it.

Sooooo seriously lucky. No matter what else happens today, today earns an A+.

From now on, I am gluing my keys to my hand. Or maybe I’ll just wear them on a retractable chain attached to my waist in a glamourous, I-am-a-geek, I-shop-at-the-old-people-mall kind of way.