Comedy of Errors

Jamie is going to Six Flags today with his friend Spencer. He almost didn't get to go. Spencer was over at our house last night to play with Jamie and eat dinner with us. Spencer reminded Jamie they were going to Six Flags today. Jamie realized he had no clue where his season pass was. So the hunt began, with no luck. We couldn't find his season pass ANYWHERE! We turned every room in the house upside down looking for the durn thing, to no avail. It was simply nowhere to be found.

Finally, Jamie remembered that he last saw it on the reclining couch. I was looking through the coupon book that came with the pass, then handed the pass and coupon book to him and told him to put them in a safe place. Then I got up off the couch and did homework (this was a week or so ago). After I got up off the couch, I had no idea what he had done with them. This is a recurring theme in our house. Jamie has something he's supposed to put away, he wanders around the house with it in his hands, then he lays it down somewhere when his attention is grabbed by something else, and promptly forgets about it.

He finally remembered last night that he had slipped the pass inside the coupon book, then MAY have put the coupon book back down on the couch. We reclined the side we usually sit on, and sure enough, there was the coupon book. But still no pass. We figured the pass must have fallen out into the bowels of the reclining mechanism. But nobody could get to the mechanism! In their infinite wisdom, the furniture company had put a material "bottom" on the underside of the couch. This meant, of course, that things dropped inside the couch would not go straight down to the floor where one could actually retrieve them. To further complicate things, the middle of this reclining couch is a console for storage. The way the bottom is fashioned means that NOTHING that slips under the console is retrievable. Guess where the pass wound up?

By this time, Spencer's mom Julie had come over to aid in the search and pick up Spencer. We finally wound up having to tilt up the couch, with Julie, the boys and I all tipping it back to reach the underside. Then Julie had to use my utility knife to slit the material from the bottom of the couch underneath the console. The pass promptly fell to the floor. It only took us three hours total to find the durn thing.

Now, I bet you're wondering why I didn't just have Jamie go to guest services at Six Flags for a replacement pass. See, I was trying to make this a teaching lesson on the importance of taking care of your stuff and putting it where it belongs (nevermind the fact that I still haven't learned this lesson. Do as I say, not as I do). I believe Jamie's terror at the idea of not being able to go to the park with his friends helped teach him this lesson; unfortunately, it also threw out my back. Those reclining couches are very heavy, even with help.