our van

Yesterday, I went shopping at a large store with my sister and my kids. We did our shopping, left the store through our usual door, and headed down the sidewalk in the parking lot that I had parked against. I like to park near sidewalks when possible because it's safer for the kids to walk between 2 rows of parked cars rather than between moving cars and parked cars.

We walked down the sidewalk, and I didn't see our van. I walked farther than I thought we parked, and I still didn't see our van. DH called to let me know he was home between calls, and I hung up with him abruptly because I couldn't find the van. I walked to the end of the parking lot and it was obvious that the van was not there!

I stood there in shock for a few moments before calling DH.

"The van is gone!"
"What?"
"I think somebody stole the freaking van!"
"You're kidding!"
"DO I SOUND LIKE I'M KIDDING?"
"I'll be right there!"

I asked my sister to stand in the middle of the parking lot in the 100 degree weather with my 3 kids while I went into the store to tell the management that someone stole my car and find out which police to call! (I know this may seem funny, but I live between 2 cities on a county island. The county island is policed by the county sheriff, while each city has it's own force. I didn't know exactly where the store was because it's a small slice that doesn't belong to either city.)

I went in, found someone and they paged a manager. I was frantic. I was happy that I had recently cleaned out the entire van, but couldn't believe I was losing my expensive cow print Britax car seat and all the library books we just checked out. I couldn't believe someone would want to steal a stupid minivan.

My husband drove up around now and I handed him the keys. He asked if I had pushed the panic button (on the keychain which makes the horn go off) and I said that I had but didn't hear anything. He got in his truck (remember, the one that was stolen a couple months ago!) and drove off. I waited for the manager.

DH called my cell phone. He said "Hey, do you hear that?" It was a car horn bleating. The manager came up to me and was ready to help. I looked at her and said "Um, I think I'm about to be very embarrassed."

YES, I was very embarrassed. The van was right where I parked it. Near the sidewalk by the MIDDLE door of the store. I was at one of the END doors of the store. The door I always park near, except for yesterday apparently.

We walked over to that door and I burst into tears when I saw DH. I really was sure the van had been stolen. Thankfully, it was just that I had a poor memory.