she's no Hudini

Ok, this part I'm ashamed to admit, but I was just watching an episode of Hannah Montana (familiar to anyone with a daughter ages 6-12) and something reminded me of what I think has to be my all-time FAVORITE story:

A couple of years ago, my sister Lala was living with the man she would soon marry in a small, VEEEERRRRRY rustic cabin in the Boise foothills. He was a geologist and it was a sweet, intentionally simple life. They had no running water, no electricity and the place was surrounded by hundreds (if not thousands) of acres of BLM land, criss-crossed by miles upon miles of very popular mountain biking and hiking trails.

Every morning Lala would get ready for work, hop into her 4-wheel drive and began her commute to work, which involved driving down a twisty, muddy, trecherous road, at the bottom of which was a BLM gate. This particular day she was running late. She stopped to unlock the gate, pulled her truck through and hopped out to close and lock the gate with the padlock as always....and when she turned to hurry back to her truck, she realized she had inadvertantly "locked" herself to the gate with the padlock! Now, there was no one around for miles. Her truck was running nearby, with the key to the padlock attached to her keychain which was, of course, in the ignition. She had NO IDEA what to do. Amazingly enough, her cell-phone was attached to her belt. Now, I have no idea why, but she used her cell phone to call ME, even though I live in another state (god love her, she knew I would laugh my ass off, and she gave me that). "You won't believe what I've just done" she started. "What should I do?? Should I start yelling really loudly and hope that a mountain-biker comes along to get the keys out of my truck so that I can unlock this stupid padlock??" I listened patiently and then asked what (to me) seemed like a logical question: "Well, um, what are you wearing? What, exactly, is locked to the gate??" With that, she started laughing hysterically. Because what she had failed to realize, in her state of panic, was that the padlock had caught her CARDIGAN SWEATER. So all she had to do was take the sweater off, walk to her truck, get the keys and unlock HER SWEATER.

Oh, man. I am NEVER going to let her live that one down.