Oops I did it again

Most people seem to have at least one bad habit and sometimes that is a propensity to lose things.  Thankfully I have never been the sort of person to lose my keys, though I have on rare occasion lost my phone, but I do seem to be the person to forget her keys.  Specifically inside my current place of residence and I often realize I forgot them after I’ve shut the door with the lower lock…locked.  My mother ingrained in me from day one to always lock doors; it’s just reflex now.  Unfortunately I also am always running behind and sometimes forget my damn keys.  9 times out of 10 my roommate is around or out and has her key so I’m able to get in.  What follows however is the story of a time when I locked both myself AND my roomie out of our apartment.

It was late evening and we were going to go out and grab a drink and unwind after a long week.  I was still getting ready and my roommate went to our neighbor’s place to hang until I was done.  When I go out for the night I don’t like to take my whole key ring because I resemble a janitor.  In order to lighten my lode I remove just the key to my apartment.  The problem this particular evening was that the key to my apartment and my parent’s house look exactly the same.  Usually I keep my keys in a specific order so I know which is which but either the order was disrupted or I was just so hurried that I failed to properly select the correct key.  In any event I quickly discovered I had grabbed the incorrect key AFTER I locked the doorknob, shut the door and tried to get the deadbolt locked.  I went to the next apartment to discover, to our mutual horror, that my roommate (I’m going to call her Gizmo from here on out), that Gizmo had neither shoes nor her key.  It was 10pm and the end of the week.  My apartment managers were not going to be in until Monday at 9AM and had no emergency contact number.  I was frelled.

A friend of Gizmo’s who can pick locks attempted to free me from my predicament for 30 minutes.  For some reason, most likely a liberal lubrication of his liver or the high quality of our lock, he was unable to get the door open.  While I was pleased to learn that our apartment is fairly resistant to intrusion, I was not happy that I was going to have to call a locksmith and shell out nearly $100 to get into my apartment.  I made the call and went to wait for him out on the street while Gizmo (wearing borrowed shoes) and friends went out after I promised to meet up with them after I gained entrance to the apartment.  As I was sitting pondering my epic stupidity, I saw a light go on in the house across the street.  There is a very friendly, older couple whom I’ve often spoken with.  They have a 3 story orange tree and a nice Labrador that Oz occasionally plays with.  They also lived in my exact apartment a few years ago.  Realizing they were up, and praying to every god in the book, I ran across the street to knock on the door and ask if they by any change had an old key to the apartment.  The kind man who provides me with oranges all the time went out to his lock box and retrieved a potpourri of unknown keys.  After trying 10 others we discovered that one did indeed unlock my apartment and I was both ecstatic and disturbed that the locks hadn’t been changed.*  Of course this is the exact moment the locksmith arrived and I paid him the base fee I had been quote and not one cent more.  He tried to insist I pay him for work he didn’t have to do and I used their ridiculously overpriced policy against him.  $45 to “see” the door and then $40+ for whatever work.  Well he did NO work so I refused to pay one red cent more.

In order to thank my kindly neighbors I baked some delicious goodies to deliver.  I also wanted to share with my apartment neighbors, one of whom is vegan, so I broke out a new vegan cookbook for some cookies.  The results were warm, gooey and absolutely 100% “omg these don’t even taste vegan” delicious.

*  I later on had the apartment managers change our locks.

Vegan Ginger Cookies

from “Vegan with a Vengeance” by Isa Moskowitz

• 4 tablespoons decorating sugar
• 2 cups AP Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F and prep two cookie sheets.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, molasses, soy milk, sugar and vanilla.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and combine well.

Roll into 1 inch balls, flatten into a 1.5 inch disk and sprinkle with the decorating sugar.  Place 1 inch apart on the cookie sheets because they will spread.  Bake for 10-12 minutes…10 minutes sharp if you really love soft cookies.  Let cool on the sheets for a few minutes then transfer to racks until cool.