today was the big day at work--we moved. it was a true casual friday as we were all in jeans and t-shirts. i would've worn my gym clothes but i figured i needed the protection jeans could offer. it almost rained on us but we were lucky and didn't have to deal with that. we moved everything ourselves. we didn't hire any movers. four guys came out to help from our corporate office and that was a tremendous help. i can't stress enough how much that helped. normally when i move i'm used to doing most of the work since it's usually just girls moving and i tend to be the strongest one. with the office move, i was the only female so i was fortunate that the guys did most of the back-breaking work. and boy, do we have some heavy furniture! they look like wooden desks but you'd swear they're made out of concrete. of course, at the end people don't give a shit when you move. they just drop stuff and leave. our office crew will have to put most of it back together and set everything up, which will be a pain. in fact, the corporate guys were in such a hurry to get out of there that they left behind some of the tools they brought with them. the way they were treating the items, i'd say that at times they were like the three stooges. i would never hire them to move my things.

at the end of the day, all i wanted to do was rest. i had already changed clothes and was getting comfy in bed, watching tv or something, when my cell phone rang. i would've just let it ring but i figured i better see who it was. it was my mom so i answered and the first thing she tells me is it's an emergency call. she went shopping, the store closed, and somehow she's locked in their parking lot. they locked the gate on her! this could only happen to my mother, the asian lucille ball. i asked her to look around and see if there was any way she could get out and i would pick her up. she said she looked around and there's no way she can get out. she asked me to bring a ladder to get her out. i wasn't really sure how that would help--i just couldn't picture the store and the parking lot at the moment. i went online to the store's website and called but only got a machine. no phone number to speak to someone direct or for security or anything. damn. my mom said she had already talked to the police and that the store's security would come by around midnight and if they didn't, then the police would break the lock and let her out. it was about 9pm and i couldn't let her sit there for hours so i said i'll get a ladder and be right over.

i went to the garage and got the ladder and spent the next 20 minutes or so trying to get the damn thing in the car! my car's trunk is decent size but to fit anything long in is a pain in the ass--oh how i miss the mini van for being able to transport anything. i was able to get it in my car but only by sacrificing room for passengers. if i was gonna drive and take twiddle thumbs with me to assist in getting my mom out of there, then there'd be no room for my mom to come back. this isn't gonna work. let's try twiddle thumbs's car. so we tried putting the ladder in twiddle thumbs's car and the same thing, only worse. i had forgotten how long my car is and that hers is short. the ladder didn't even fit. back to my car! fuck it, squeeze that ladder back in there. my mom got herself into it, she's just gonna have to ride back in the trunk!

we get there and try to figure out the best way to place the ladder. as we were doing this, twiddle thumbs kept asking if there was any opening at all in the parking lot. the other side was far away and dark and i asked my mom if she had looked there and she said it's closed. we kept eyeing the parking lot and my mom insisted there was no way out so i settled upon the ladder idea. there was a light pole with a large concrete base close to the fence. i figured we would place the ladder as close as possible to the fence (i couldn't put it directly next to the fence as there was a curb in the way) and i would be at the top of the ladder and try to swing my mom over the fence after she climbs up on the light pole's base. just as we were getting ready to do this, my mom got a phone call. while she was distracted, twiddle thumbs told me to go around myself and find out if there's an opening. sure enough, there was. i walked to the lot next door which was a gas station under construction. there was a fence around it but also a pretty big gap that i walked right in without any trouble. i walked around the gas station to the bushes that border the store's parking lot and walked right onto the lot. i ran over to my mom's car and she thought i had climbed the ladder. nope, i walked right in. let me walk you out. but wait, the ladder! we got it over the fence and put it in my mom's car just to store it there. there's no way one could drive with that ladder in her car. she'll just have to go tomorrow with her boyfriend to retrieve the ladder and her car. then as if in a scene from a movie, i grab my mom's hand and run to freedom. no, it wasn't like that. but it should've been!