Big Mistake.

On Saturdays, I don't really plan a dinner....usually everyone fends for themselves. Leftovers, scrambled eggs, something in the freezer, they all will do for "Suit Yourself Saturday".
Last night, as I was pulling out the frying  pan to make Sweet and Sour Tofu and Broccoli, Thing 2 was wondering what to have and whining about having to do it. (For the record, I offered to make her some Sweet and Sour Tofu, but she reacted like I'd offered her some Ebola virus for dinner.) I really didn't feel like making dinner myself, and half-jokingly said "why don't we go out to eat?" Thing 1 was working, the restaurant is just up the road, and Thing 2 has a rather alarming addiction to their Chicken Fingers and Fries, so once it was out of my mouth, I knew I'd have to follow up.
We put on some pants, (we were in our pajamas already. At 6 pm. Don't judge.) grabbed our purses and got in the car. We even got a parking spot right by the door. (This becomes relevant later.)

Thing 1 was delighted to see us. ("Oh, good", she said when she was us seated in her section, "I'm kind of busy and I can ignore you for a while.") She did eventually take our orders and serve us our food, all the while treating us with a minimum of courtesy, which was a pleasant break for her.

Thing 2 had her chicken fingers and fries, with a salad, and I opted for the Chicken Souvlaki with rice and Greek Salad. (I'm sure you will agree, a way better dinner than Sweet and Sour Tofu.)
Thing 1 offered Thing 2 some jello that had been "left out for a while, no one knows how long", and which was going to be thrown out so she could have it for free. The only thing Thing 2 likes better than chicken fingers and fries is free jello.

We enjoyed our dinner very much, and as we were leaving, we were talking and congratulating ourselves on having the good sense to abandon our previous plans and go out for dinner. The two of us walked towards our grey Chevy van, and hopped in.

As I went to put my purse in it's usual spot between the seats, I noticed that the junk-filled console that usually sits there was not there.....and when I looked behind me to see if it had somehow slid back towards the rear seat, it wasn't there either. And there was some paper I didn't recognize on the floor.....and a pink, sparkly article of clothing I'd never seen before......and how come the seats were down in the middle of the van?? As all this is running through my head, Thing 2 is still yaking away about our superior intelligence, when I blurt out "Wait a minute, is this our van?" Thing 2 looks at me like I've just started speaking Cantonese, and then looks around herself for a beat or two and then looks at me in horror and yells "NO!".

We sprung out of that van like it was on it's way to hell, and realized that OUR van was right beside this one, which was identical to ours. You never saw two women run so fast as the two of us, we jumped in that van like it was an Olympic event, and hightailed it out of that parking lot before anyone came out of the restaurant to accuse us of attempted theft and possible possession of illegal van.

After we stopped laughing long enough to form coherent sentances, Thing 2 said that she'd have figured it out sooner or later, "that other van smelled wrong".