Tangled Thoughts

A little bit of background: Amanda is in England. Every time she goes, she takes with her one of our large suitcases. We are down to no suitcases. We are going to visit her next week. She has a mile long list of things to bring with us. We have no suitcase.

I got the brilliant idea about a week ago to list a “Wanted” add on a local website. It simply read “Wanted large suitcase with wheels.” One person responded. After getting the address, and arraigning a time to pick it up, we set off.

The only problem was trying to locate the right house. With the only description being the color of the house, and a paved driveway. And of course, the numbers of the house. When its dark, however, we found out, numbers on a house really don’t mean all that much. Nor do colors. We approached a steep driveway on our third round of “Back and forth” down the little road. “Gotta be that one” I said. Knowing that with my luck we would get the most difficult hill to get up. Thanks to the ice it took us three tries, but eventually we made it to the top. The driveway forked, and not seeing the numbers we needed, we continued on.

A house at the top looked promising. But not seeing a door, we drove around to the back. The back turned out to be a sheet of ice, and no promising leads. After getting unstuck we continued down the tiny, narrow road into another unsuspecting persons driveway. The numbers on the house indicated that the house was close. Infact, it was real close. It should be nestled right between the two houses! Not taking my “Its just GONE!” words, dad drove around back the first house again. “I will get out and ask” I wisely declared before stepping out of the van and almost loosing my footing. The ice plus wind was NOT a good combo.

Standing on the porch watching was a man. “Excuse me!” I yelled above the wind. “Is this house number **4?” “No” he replied. “This is **6” Of course it was. That’s exactly what the numbers said. “Do you know where that is?” He pointed in the direction we had just come “Should be right over there” I thanked him, and we headed off. But the house was STILL not there. A few more rounds and I decided to try one more door. “Stop here I will go ask these people” I said, wiser than the first time. Thinking that since the man had indicated in the general direction, maybe these people could give us a better idea, I stepped out, and slipped. Then ran through the front yard, soaking my feet from the snow and rain.

The door opened…

It was the same man! I was now at his front door!

“Oh. Hi!” I said, a bit too cheerfully. “I think I just saw you!” He stared a few minutes “Yea. I think you did too” he said. “Well…now that you’re here….wheres the house?” Thinking he would point directly at it, he instead admitted he had NO idea what house I was looking for. “Who are you looking for anyways?” He asked. “Suitcase!” I declared. “Well, cant help you there.” But then he started listing off neighbors, when he got to one, I recognized the name from the emails I had exchanged. “That’s IT!” I said. After just admitting I didn’t know who I was looking for. He was nice enough and told us right where the house was.

Back down the hill, around a corner, and into the right house.

*=*=*

Once the suitcase was loaded up, we headed home. Finally. 20 minutes later.

But then tragedy struck. The suitcase, which had been minding its own business in the back…tipped over. Sending Yoshi into panic mode. Frantically trying to escape from the suitcase she tried to climb up front with me. The only problem was she was trying to get in on the wrong side, squeezing between the seat and the door, lodging herself in securely. All I could see were two arms and a head. Yoshi started to whimper. I tugged. She didn’t budge. I pushed. She wouldn’t move. She was stuck. Yoshi started yelping. “SHES STUCK!” I yelled. Dad pulled over, I opened the back door to see Yoshi hanging between the seat and door. Stuck as could be.

After a few frantic moments of trying to dislodge her, I got the brilliant idea to move the seat, and she jumped in the front seat. Refusing to sit with the suitcase.

She refused to get close to it even once we got home.