Red car, blue car

The second instance of my fascination with strangers’ cars occurred a few short months after the first. The joke of it still ruminated amongst my friends and I did not expect to live the story down any time soon. My second year participating in the Haney to Harrison relay with the same crew of people, I suppose with the antics of the weekend I could take the fifth, were we in the United States, for the way events unfolded. H2H is a 100 kilometer relay that begins at 6 AM which means that you are awake before 5 AM and running until the late afternoon. The race is split into two segments with a team car for each segment. Following the completion of the race, everyone goes to the hotel to shower, have a few snorts and then go to dinner…and keep drinking there. So you have a town full of sleep deprived and dehydrated runners that are now all rehydrating with alcohol.

And then those runners get driven to a town hall in the middle of nowhere where a beer garden takes place. The evening unfolds in a predictable manner from that point onward. Last year, as people were slowly dragging themselves out of bed to check out and get some breakfast, I had packed up my things and decided to take them out to amazing!T’s car for the ride home. Just to make life easier you understand. I went out to the parking lot which is full of little sport utility type cars and approach where I thought we had parked the night before. Amazing!S and amazing!T are at the window of one of the hotel rooms and pointing to the car as I had wandered a little aimlessly to begin with. (Their conversation at the time: “Should we tell her she’s going to the wrong car?” “Nah, she’ll figure it out – it won’t open.” “Oh wait, no, she’s going to put her stuff in.” “Should we tell her to stop?”)

I opened the trunk of the car and threw a bag in. I reached for my other bag and as I turned, my mind dully registered that the items in the trunk did not look familiar to me as those from the previous day. Looking at the car again, I saw that it was not amazing!T’s car at all. Feeling the blush rising on my cheeks, I grab my bag and shut the car again. Amazing!T and amazing!S are now in the doorway laughing their asses off and pointing to where the car actually is.

The real problem? I still don’t remember exactly what amazing!T’s car looks like….