Katang!

Ok...katang (-ahan) na kung katang!

Yesterday, I checked out from my hotel (As for those who don't know, I stay in Indiana from Monday afternoon til Friday morning since my client is located there). Since I had a laptop trolley, shoulder bag and an extra large luggage (pasencia, paranoid ako kaya kahit one week lang ako eh palaging extra large ang luggage ko), I decided to put first my laptop trolley and shoulder bag inside the car. After putting them in, I went back to the hotel to get my luggage and back to the car. Okay...this is where my main story begins...

I had my car key in my left hand and my right hand was trying to push my luggage towards my car in the parking lot. My hand slipped and I accidentally pushed the 'doors open' of my key. So I heard the sound of my doors signifying that they were opened. But then, I have this habit to keep the doors closed when I'm putting something inside the trunk (pasencia, paranoid ulit...baka sakaling may salisi gang at may sumakay sa kotse habang may niloload ako sa trunk...alam nyo yon, yung napapanood sa movies kapag may habulan..katulad sa movie na WANTED...uyy...plugging! My rate for that movie by the way is 3 out of 5.). So I pressed the 'doors close' button of my key. I opened the trunk. Since my luggage was too heavy, I had to put down the car keys in the trunk to free up both my hands. I lifted my luggage and loaded it inside the trunk.

Usually, before I close the trunk cover, I would check if I have all the things I need...like I would check if I already have the keys with me...if my mobile is not left inside the luggage...all those stuff. But then, these days, I've been very busy with work-related things. I'm having huge problems with my client and project so there's always lots of things going on in my head...I can't even sleep at night because of these troubles.

So...back to the story... as I've said, I loaded my luggage inside the trunk and closed it. At the exact moment that I heard my trunk went 'thug!'...I uttered,

"Uh...oh...where - is - my - key-?" Yes. I uttered it in a very slow manner. I checked my doors. They're all closed.

Then I began to shake. My hands and feet were trembling as I gushed towards the hotel lobby. I asked for help from the hotel manager and I was lucky that he's so helpful that he dialed the number of the company that could help me. So, there...yes, I sought help from the ever-reliable 'Triple A'. I had to wait for 1 hour before they arrived. But I really appreciate the concern from their reps...in my 1 hour of waiting, they would often call and check on me if I'm still okay and remind me to stay in a safe place that I could see my car. Triple A is famous for servicing road accidents and other vehicle-related stuff...so their service always comes with a 'calming-down-the-customer' procedure..he-he-he! Well, at that time, I really needed that. I was hyperventilating as I have an 8:15am conference call which by the way, I was not able to attend to because all my things are inside the car. I don't even have my mobile phone or even my purse. I was literally empty-handed.

At 8:20 (the time they told me that the service would arrive is 8:27, so they're still on time), the service came. They had this small deflated balloon bag that they tried to insert thru the door...pumped it with air to inflate it and to have a small space open for the door...and for them to insert the metal rod inside the car. The metal rod has a hook at its end and they used that in pulling the unlock button of the door at the driver's side. At the sound of 'click', I immediately opened the door and my car began, 'beep...beep...beep...beep..beep'...I immediately pushed the trunk release button and got my key from the trunk and pressed the 'doors open' to stop the loud beeping sound. Whew! Thank God!

Lesson learned? 'Wag masyadong paranoid...wag mangarap na nasa movie ka.'