You would do this

Seeing as it’s about time for student teaching and classes to start up, I made my way down to Salem yesterday to move into the house we are renting.  All I could think about on my drive down was this cute yellow house I have been dying to get into.  By the time I got to Salem, it was about 9pm and getting dark.  I turned onto the street where our beloved yellow house resides and I began smiling from ear to ear.  I got to the top of the hill, which I knew meant I was finally at our house, I pulled into the driveway, grabbed the first suitcase that fell out of the car when I opened the door, and waltzed my way to the front door.

Before I had left, I wrote down the key box code on my hand to make sure I wouldn’t get locked out.  As I walked/waltzed/flopped my way to the front door, I look down on my hand, pleased that the code is still present and visible.  I open the screen door to get to the key box, but it didn’t seem to be there anymore.  I wondered where it would have been moved to, so I used the light of my cell phone to search the premises for this essential key (no pun intended) to my entrance. 

Now I begin to panic.  How am I going to get in?  Why would they take away the key box when they had just sent me the email telling me the code?  As I got myself into this panicked frenzy, I realized there were lights on in the house.  “Hmm, that’s funny.  I thought I was the first to move in.”

Then I noticed the furniture in the front living room (which I was seeing because I had my face pressed up to the window) was different than I had remembered. 

This is when I realize I am at the wrong house.  Completely humiliated, I grab my hefty suitcase, my purse, and run for my car.  I remember getting into my car and saying under my breath, “you would do this, Jill!”  Apparently, I turned into the driveway one house too soon. 

I sat for a long time trying to tie this into something Biblical… like how heaven awaits us but we’ll get there on the first try, or how we need to pay attention to the details, or how we have to stay focused until the very end, or something along those lines.  But then I realized this is just a funny story.  If it teaches you any lesson, let it be this: write down the house number to the house you’re moving into before you get there.