a full week ...

... of screaming with back pain and I think I'm finally out of the woods.

I did not baby my back (maybe that was the problem) and I did not take off work, even when work meant working at my second job, on my feet, for hours upon hours at a time.  How dumb am I?

Don't answer that.

By Friday night I was regretting (oh was I regretting!) the garage sale I had decided to hold on Saturday morning.  Never mind that I was also scheduled to work later that day (Saturday) at my second job, on my feet, in a casino, two hours away from home.  How dumb am I?

Go ahead and answer that one.

Garage sale ended; lunch was eaten and then I and two other coworkers jumped in my car and headed up to Durant, Oklahoma to work the Chaka Khan and the O'Jays concert inside the Choctaw Casino.  Oy vey.  People with back trouble should not be doing such dumb stuff.

But wait, it gets dumber.

I was chosen to drive (because I'm just that dumb) so I opted to drive Rick's car up to Oklahoma.  A couple of hours later, we arrived.  And the dumb one (me) took MY keys off of my key chain and headed inside to work.  Note ... we drove up in Rick's car but I took the wrong keys off of my keychain and stashed them in my fashionable fanny pack.  Purses have to stay behind in our trunks.  And mine did.  Along with Rick's car keys.  Dumb, I tell ya.

Work over, concert over and at 11:53 PM we all headed to my car to drive home.  At 11:54, I screamed, "OH NO!"  And it went downhill from there.

Fortunately, my sister in law (and coworker) had thought to put her AAA card in her beautiful fanny pack.  And she called them to have someone come unlock our car.  When we got the estimated wait time of ONE HOUR, said sister in law headed back into the casino claiming that she needed to sit down and rest her back.  Um, excuse me???  I'm the one with the bad back!!  Said sister in law didn't care.  In she went.

My other coworker Connie and I were left to stand around ... on the hard, hard asphalt and wait it out.  Why we didn't go inside, too, I'll never know.  Just dumb, I guess.  And dumber for thinking that the locksmith might actually come on time.  Ha!

1 1/2 hours later there was no sign of my sister in law and no sign of a locksmith, either.  No sign of my sanity, too.  My back was still screaming in pain ... that's about the only thing that was hanging around.   Soon my sister in law graciously decided to call and check on us and was surprised to learn that no tow company had ever come for us.  We called again and were given another wait time of one hour.  If you're keeping track, it's now purt near 2:00 AM.  And my back and I had gotten up for a garage sale almost 24 hours before.  My poor back.  My poor eyes.  They didn't want to stay open anymore.

After a comedy of errors, (what?  we hadn't already had comedy enough?) Triple A arrived at 2:00 and blew my car doors open within minutes.  And in Connie and I climbed to drive around and hunt for Linda.  By the way, Linda rapidly gained top spot on my I HATE YOU list and Connie was taking a fast second place.  Hard concrete at 2:00 in the morning will do that to you.  Any garage sale I ever have again takes third.

But we were on the road at 2:20 AM after finding Linda happily gambling away on a soft stool in front of several slot machines.  I can't tell you how thrilled I was to learn that she had won an $800 jackpot.  I can't tell you because, well, I'm hoping to be acquitted and acquire her winnings.

We did survive and I actually spent most of the next day IN BED.  Yes, I did.  I have never slept a day away and I hope to never do it again ... but I am scheduled to work at that casino again in two weeks ... so we'll see.

I wonder if everyone will want me to drive again ... I've got some more fun planned for us if I do.

;)

.