What a night I've had ... !!

How does that saying go - 'it never rains but it pours'?

This has been the most stressful Saturday night ever. It really has. Why does everything have to happen at once?? I had two parties to go to tonight ... but if it had only been that, I'd have had no complaints. Here's what happened:

A few weeks ago, a month or so, I was invited to a house warming party by a coworker. She bought her first apartment this summer, moved in in August. I've been following her various trials and tribulations on the housing market for over a year now, from a ringside seat. :-) Of course I was happy to accept the invitation. Then the very next day I was invited to a birthday party on the same night. The birthday girl's a good friend of mine, we've been friends for 15 years, it was her 30th ... I kind of had to go to that one. Plus I wanted to go, too, of course. :-) OK, no problem, I'll just go to one first and then the other, I just won't stay all night. I checked with both the hostesses and they said it'd be fine if I was only there for part of the party. Parties. They'd just be happy to see me. Aw.

Then on Thursday I got a text message from my secret cousin. When I was in Egypt, I bought Christmas presents for her daughters ... fragile presents made of glass, which I really didn't want to send in the mail. I was going to take them with me last weekend, but I forgot ... I was thinking about too many other things just then. So I told my cousin that if they were going to take a trip to Oslo any time before Christmas, to be sure to remind me about those presents. She said she really wanted to go but wasn't at all sure that they'd manage it. But on Thursday she told me that her husband's in the city this weekend, so if I got the chance, I could drop the presents off at his hotel and he could take them with him. OK, no biggie. I could just stop by there on my way from the first party to the second. It would be a slight detour but nothing major.

To get to the first party I figured I could just jump on the 59 bus and be there in no time. It'd practically be door to door. But luckily I checked the schedule - turns out that there's no service on that line between 6:08pm Saturday and some time Monday morning. So, OK, I had to find a new route - the subway eastwards for two stops and then wait fifteen minutes for another bus line. On my way out I was really stressed out - I was running a little late, and I had so many things to remember ... the Christmas presents, the birthday girl's present, some snacks I was bringing to the housewarming, my lipstick, my scarf ... so many things to remember that I forgot the one thing that really mattered - my keys. And my front door locks itself when you pull it closed. I remembered two seconds too late. Aauugh ... !!

Now, there are three sets of keys to my apartment. One is the set that I use every day. Or try to. ;-) One is at my parents' house ... but it takes me an hour to get there. The third is normally inside the apartment - it's the one I lend to guests, when I have any, and that friends use if they need to get in while I'm not here. (<-- Turtle related.) As luck would have it, KAS and trilltrall, as you may recall, used those keys a couple of weeks ago, in the performance of their turtle keeper duties. I haven't had a chance to meet up with them since I got back, so they still had my keys. I didn't have time to think much just then, I was already running late ... and I knew that KAS and trilltrall wouldn't be home anyway. I'd talked to KAS a few hours earlier so I knew they'd be at the movies. So I ran off to the subway and called her cell while I ran ... leaving a semi-coherent message on her voicemail about Christmas presents and two parties and please call me as soon as you can, please. :-) Then I texted her to say that I'd locked myself out and please call me as soon as, and then I texted trilltrall to say that I'd locked myself out and please get KAS to call me as soon as you get this. :-D Overkill, maybe. But I was kind of freaking. :-) Especially since C., my best friend, is going to be here at 10:30 tomorrow morning, so although I could find a place to stay, I'd still have to get back home on time tomorrow ... and tomorrow being Sunday, that would not be pleasant. :-o But I texted Anne Ida too, just in case, to warn her that I might need her couch in a few hours. ;-)

So I got to the first party, spent a little over an hour there, and then as I was waiting for the bus downtown KAS called, woohoo, to say that they were back home and I could come pick up the keys pretty much whenever. trilltrall stays up late on Saturdays, he'd be awake till two in the morning. :-) So ... everything worked out. But sheesh. I took the 31 bus downtown and it went practically right by where I was going ... I almost started to get up. Next stop, Bridge Street. Oh, that's me. No, it's not, because I have to get up to St Olav Square with these Christmas presents first. And then walk that whole way back again. So I got to spend about an hour at the birthday party too, before I had to go catch the subway in time to get up to KAS and trilltrall's place to get my keys, and then catch the last subway back down again.

Oh, and when I was walking down Karl Johan (Oslo's main street) I caught my boot heel in some kind of little gap between two paving stones and almost got stuck there. :-(

What a night I've had ...