SO MANY KEYS!!!!!!!

I moved into my own apartment a week ago, and everytime I go to unlock the door this image of Bugs Bunny pops into my head. The image is of Elmer Fud locked in a room with some sort of explosive only to find that his rival, Bugs, has the key to unlock it on the other side. Bugs, being the "stinker" he is, stands by the door with a key ring with numerous keys on it saying something to the affect of "Let's see... This one goes to the front door, this one goes to the garage, this one goes to the car..." and by the time he gets to the key that unlocks the door, Elmer has already been blown up. Poor Elmer. :'(

What's funny about that is when I was little I always mimicked Bugs doing that; except now I really have to do that on a daily basis! When I was a wee lass, I always wondered how in the world my mom and dad -- well any adult really -- knew which key was which on their set of keys without having to really think about it. Now that I'm older, I've learned, when you use something over and over, such as a key, you begin to become familiar with the device. It seems in the past year alone my keychain has gained like 5 pounds -- which it probably hasn't, but exaggerating is fun regardless.

On my sweet necklace-like keychain I have: My car key, my mom's house key, my former residence's key (my cousin's let me keep it so I could do my laundry), my key to the office, and now my apartment and the mailbox key. Six keys! I know it's nothing to compared to a janitor's key ring, but for me it's a lot of freakin' keys!

I started wondering where does the life cycle of acquiring keys being? My life cycle o' keys, began with the key to the house, so my sister Randi and I could get into the house after school each day. We didn't usually each have a house key, Mom just left it in a secret hiding spot where only we knew where it was. But as we got older we each got our own house key. My next key was my car key to my 1995 red Dodge Neon. It was a pretty cool key because the plastic part on top glowed in the dark. I didn't have anymore keys until I was 18, when I moved to out of the house, and I got a set of apartment keys. By then I had a new car, so I had a new key (to a newer Neon! Gotta love 'em! haha!), so that brought me up to four.

I eventually moved back from Springfield, so I was minus a few keys for a while. Then my boss at the restaurant I worked at gave me keys to the restaurant so I could close it up at night; once again my keychain put on a few ounces. I quit that job and gave the keys back, and started working at the paper at my current position. Although I was new I had to have a key because at the time we ran a Sunday paper, so editorial staff would come in on the weekends to make the Sunday paper on Saturday morning. Thankfully, I don't have to get up on Saturday morning anymore to go to work, but I still have my key.

I guess what this little tid-bit of adult life has come to me with ease. I don't usually confuse my keys with one another, although I am trying to get used to my new key. Unlike some people, I don't cheat and get different colored keys for each place -- I just know. However my key to Mom's house is tie-dyed looking, but Mom bought it not me. My car key is pretty obvious, it's the biggest one, and the mailbox key is the littlest. Neither of them confuse me, but sometimes in the dark I try unlocking something with the wrong key. As a safety precaution I have been making sure to have my key ready to use when I'm leaving work and walking up to my place. (Note to everyone: It's best to have your car and/or house keys out ready to use them rather than fumble around trying to find them, this gives bad people an advantage on you if they wanted to inflict some sort of pain on you!)

So, anyway, enough about keys! I wrote this because I was thinking the other day how I never thought I'd ever in a million years know one key from the next. Turns out, it's not so much work after all! WHO KNEW?! It does tickle me when I think about how I used to imitate Bugs Bunny though. This adult thing isn't so complicated after all! ...Or is it? DUN DUN DUN!

Until next time!

Peace.

Chassedi