Waking up a half past ten, my eyes flicked open in panic upon learning the bad news from the digital clock near my head. Stumbling hurriedly out of bed and flinging some clothes on, I knew I would have to seriously rush if I was to make into work on time. Although it’s so close to the house that I could practically walk it, it seemed as though every minute was speeding past in a matter of seconds. With the clocks conspiring to make me late on my first day back on the job, my mind was still filled with sleep sand that I couldn’t quite see through the haze. I need to brush my teeth! Why hasn’t the coffee been made yet? Where were my socks??

Of course, I have more than one pair of socks… It just didn’t occur to me that there was a second option. Wearing only one knee-high, striped sock with my disheveled ensemble and rat’s nest of hair, I would have passed as the village idiot far better than someone on their way to work at a restaurant. Now bordering on panic, drawers of shirts and pants and even stationery were torn out of their dressers, ravaged and taken apart, and yet the match to my sock was no where to be found. Realizing how ridiculous this was as the coffee began to kick in, I hastily graped a mismatched sock to cover my bare foot, and gave up on the hunt.

Running out the door with my heart pounding, it’s surprising that I even found the car in the garage. One leg in the vehicle, it was then that something in the bushes caught my eye. Perhaps it was just a stroke of madness thanks to an overheating brain, but something about it beckoned to me. As I walked closer, I could hardly believe what I had found…

Indeed, my missing sock wasn’t just stuck inside some old sweater or languishing underneath the bed, but it had taken on a whole new life as a nest! Dumbfounded, I could only laugh at the insanity of it all.

And since this sweet blue bird seemed so comfortable in her self-made home, there was no way I would reclaim my missing garment… I went into work that day wearing two very different socks, and was even happy knowing that the mate was with this well-meaning thief, too.