Communication breakdown

Eric and I had driven separately to meet friends at the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for happy hour. Great deals on food and fun with great people! The place was packed and we had all parked in different parking areas. When we headed out with plans to hang out at home for a bit before meeting different friends for board games, I got into our car and the key would not turn in the ignition. After I lost our one original car key a year ago, we were left with one copy that had been slowly bending. When I couldn't turn it, I thought, "Well, this key has come to the end of its life." I called Eric to come back and get me, but...I went straight to voicemail. I tried again, then again, then finally resigned myself to waiting the 20 minutes until he arrived home when he would surely plug his dead phone in (right???). Thankfully, I had a magazine in my bag.

Twenty minutes later, I tried again. Five more minutes, tried again. Still right to voicemail. I called one neighbor--no answer. Another neighbor--not at home. A third neighbor, Lupe. She agreed to go to our house and ask him to plug his phone in and call me. Those neighbors are all Spanish-speakers, but she was my third choice because she speaks less English than the others, but I was sure that she'd be able to get the message across. A few minutes later, Lupe called back and told me that Eric was home but, after relaying the message to call me, Eric had said, "Mira will be home in 5 minutes." Are you kidding me??? I asked her to please go back, this time with her cell phone, and simply hand him the phone. I was feeling pretty tired and exasperated at this point (I hadn't been home since 7:00 a.m. that morning) and when Eric took the phone, I said tearfully, "The key is not working. Please come back and get me."

Another 20 minutes later (for a total of 1.25 hours in the parking lot), Eric pulled up. Silly me, the steer wheel had just been stuck and the problem wasn't with the key at all. I was pretty upset, blaming myself for not knowing what to do and not asking for suggestions before having Eric come back, and blaming him for not keeping his phone charged and not knowing enough Spanish (or trying hard enough, I said to myself at the time). We were going to be 45 minutes late to visit our friends, but we headed there anyway.

I was still feeling frustrated when we left in our separate cars (again), but then I heard OK Go's This Too Shall Pass on the radio and felt something shift. There's a part where it repeats, "Let it go, this too shall pass." I decided to just let it go and the whole situation suddenly started to seem really funny to me. It was just something that happened. A silly inconvenience. Even a good story. And we still made it to hang out and play games and laugh with 6 of our friends until late that evening. There was nothing wrong with the car and Eric has rededicated himself to studying Spanish--a pretty good outcome, I think. :)