Stupid Paper Trail

Two weekends ago I left San Francisco for a spontaneous one night trip to my hometown of Santa Rosa. While Santa Rosa is only an hour away by car, I use public transportation to get everywhere, so it took me longer than that. Early Friday morning, my dad called from Mexico, (he and my mom were at a funeral) and asked me if I was going to be going back home for the weekend. I told him no, I had too much work to do and had to be doing something Saturday for the school news website. 2 hours later, I learned that a very dear friend was going to be dancing for the last time before she moved. I contemplated for another hour, talked to a friend, and we then decided that I should go and say bye to my out of state college bound friend.
I phoned a friend in the east bay, and it turns out she was also going back to Santa Rosa for the weekend. That afternoon I took the free shuttle to the City of Daly City BART station. I paid my BART ticket with cash that I already had. Once in Berkeley, I took advantage and ate some pasta that my friend had. Once I got to the dance hall back in Santa Rosa, waiting to surprise my friend, I paid with more cash that I had saved up.
When I got home, I took mental notes of how everything was arranged: door angles, bedding, chair positions, drinks in the fridge. I slept in a sleeping bag so I wouldn’t ruin the bedding in my room. When morning came, I put the sleeping bag away exactly where it was. Left every door exactly how they were when I got there. And I even replaced the cold bottle of Juice Squeeze from the fridge with another that was still in the box (they wouldn’t pay attention to that much detail). Then I left home, and headed back to my apartment in San Francisco. Monday night I get a call from my parents asking how I am. They never mentioned anything about the house being disorganized or anything being out of place. Woot! I’m safe. Mission complete: Surprise my friend. And stay at home without my parents knowing…
Saturday morning my dad calls me to say how I was doing… I tell him I’m in Berkeley visiting my friend. He then asks me if I had gone home a week ago, while he was out of town. I told him, instinctively, no. He then says the checking account has been charged $9 at the Santa Rosa Carrows for the previous Friday night. Shoot! My plan has been foiled! Stupid paper trail. I had been too excited and emotional about seeing one of my very good friends go off to college that I had forgotten that I used my check card for my late dinner on that trip. Was my dad mad? No. He told me I didn’t have to lie or go behind his back to come back home for a weekend. I told him that lying or going around his back was not my intention. I simply was conducting an experiment that had worked for 5 days. Oh well. I guess next time I will just have to get cash of an ATM here in the city before making surprise trips. Until next time.