Beware the rogue air freshener...

Eric and Kat were here over the weekend (Kat, it was great to meet you! :)) so it was fun to hang out with them. I mentioned in one of my comments below that Eric is a Chicago police officer, but I should’ve been more specific – he’s actually a DETECTIVE, and I feel like I should mention that because he worked hard to get to that point. And I should also mention that out of four thousand officers who took the detective exam, Eric scored higher than 3,983 of them. Not too shabby… :)

So, as an obviously intelligent police detective, it is Eric’s job to pay attention to details. To review the evidence and piece together the clues. To always know what’s going on and to be aware of his surroundings. To remember his keys when he leaves them in a dresser drawer. (No, wait – that last one might be wrong…)

Yes, Eric flew all the way back to Chicago yesterday while his keys rested comfortably in a drawer at my parents’ house in Austin. I’m not sure when he realized they were missing – was it while he was in-flight, somewhere over Missouri, perhaps? Or was it some time after he landed? I’m not sure if he left his car at the airport or took a cab, but if his car was in the parking garage, then it certainly dawned on him by the time he attempted to drive home. Fortunately, he had a spare key to his car – but his apartment is another story. I guess he had to ask a maintenance man to open the door for him.

But have no fear, Eric – your keys are winging their way toward you on a FedEx plane, and will absolutely, positively, be there overnight. In the meantime, however, I suppose if Eric wants to leave his apartment, he’ll either have to ask maintenance to lock up for him, or he’ll have to leave the door unlocked. Which shouldn’t be a problem, since Eric’s apartment door is guarded by a rather aggressive automatic air freshener. It’s perched atop the doorjamb, close to the ceiling, and spurts out puffs of freshener at random times, presumably so everyone who happens to be in the hallway can enjoy sweet-scented air. The strange thing is, last time I was up there for a visit, I didn’t see any more of those air fresheners around. And the door to Eric’s apartment is sort of around a corner, away from the main hallway. Even stranger is the fact that any time Eric approaches, the air freshener spits another puff of air in his direction. It’s gotten to the point that Eric is extremely suspicious and paranoid about the air freshener, and when I was visiting, every time we returned to the apartment, he would look up at it with narrowed, distrustful eyes and say, “It just did it again! Did you hear it? It did it again!” I think some day he may just pull out his gun and shoot the thing…

But wait until you get your keys, Eric – in the meantime, the crazy air freshener will scare away any would-be burglars… Not that there’s much to “burgle” in Eric’s apartment… Dibs on the futon! :)