There Is No Dana, Only Zuul

Other people carry some keys on a key chain. I have an ever-growing wad of keys attached to a series of interlocked rings. I am always the person other people give their keys to. I'm also the person who ends up being responsible for opening and/or closing various offices. I suppose I should see this as a compliment: people must think I am trustworthy or something. Still, when I need a warm up to pick up my keys, it seems a little bit silly. At one point, I had 13 keys to carry: 4 keys for my own apartment (front door, apartment door, deadlock, and mailbox), 3 keys for Finbar's apartment (front door, apartment door, and deadlock), 2 keys for Finbar's parents' house, 1 key for my parents' house, 2 car keys (door and trunk), and a key for the public interest society office. However, it also happens that I had three mystery keys on the chain that I was afraid to get rid of because I couldn't remember what they were for, so really I had 16 keys on the chain.

Breaking up with Finbar meant that I got to make a serious dent in the key collection. I removed all of the keys for his place and his parents' place and threw them away, and then, in the spirit of out with the garbage, I threw out the mystery keys, too. I reveled in the nearly anorexic condition of my keychain for a while, enjoying the sensation of being able to put my keys in my pocket.

That didn't last long at all: I quickly gained two more keys from Ash. Of course, I'd also moved to a place with only two keys, so I suppose that was a wash. Then we got a locked cabinet for the public interest society office, so that added another key. And I had to put Hulio's keys on the chain (instead of just keeping them in my kitchen, just in case she locked herself out or something) when she was out of town for work and I stopped at her place every day or so to get her mail and make sure nothing was, you know, on fire or leaking or anything like that. And suddenly I had a wad of keys again.

Then I graduated and gave back my keys to the public interest society office. And Hulio moved back to Our Hometown, so I gave back her keys, too. I've been getting used to my svelte keychain. My little Icelandic flag keychain broke off, so I've been trying to decide about what I should get next. I'd like something small that makes me smile when I see it. Everytime I picked up my keys, my old keychain made me think about how it felt to have a dream come true. That's a hard act to follow.

Yesterday, I got a key to the office so that I could come in to do tutoring before the official office hours.

On the one hand, it sure is convenient not to have to come up with someplace else to work when the office is closed. On the other hand, the keys keep multiplying! How did I become the Keymaster for the whole universe? How long until I end up with 36 keys on my ring, necessitating the use of a large ring clipped to my belt loop like the high school janitor?