By the end of the story below, you'll know the significance of this picture.This morning, Peter, Lucy and I got to meet some of our new neighbors. The hard way.
We were getting ready to go for a walk, without the stroller (it's locked in the garage...another story!), so I had to strap Peter into the Baby Bjorn, put the leash on Lucy, grab my cell phone, grab a plastic bag (for Lucy, you know) and head out the door. Except that as soon as the door slammed shut behind me, I realized I was missing something. You see, we have one of those locks on our apartment door that even if it's locked, you can still open it from the inside, but once you're out it's still locked. I quickly rummaged through the pocket on my favorite gray hooded sweatshirt (I'm sure you've all seen me wear it a million times)...phone, plastic bag. Leash in my hand. Peter strapped to my front. NO KEYS!!!!!
So there I was with baby and dog, locked out of the apartment but still in the building. Luke has our other key...but since he started his first day of school today (yay, Luke!), and was nowhere near or able to leave even if he was nearby, we were sort of on our own. I started knocking on neighbors' doors one after another until I found a man named Pat at home. He lives across the hall in 202 and was on the phone when he came to the door. He said that he's gotten locked out before and just climbed onto the balcony (we live on the second floor) and walked into his sliding door. That sounded great, except where on earth was I going to get a ladder? I couldn't get into our garage!!! He didn't have one, was busy and on the phone, so I said, "Thanks." and left.
The next door I knocked on was 204. No answer. So I turned around and knocked on 203. The door opened and there was a very pregnant lady standing in the doorway! She and her husband used to be the caretakers, so she thought she knew of a way to get back into my apartment. No luck. But she did have a ladder in her garage. Not a tall one, but a ladder nonetheless. So we traipsed outside to the garage, got the ladder, dodged the sprinklers (Peter got hit and didn't like it very much) and set it up below our balcony. Too short...but since I'm tall......Lisa (I thought we should introduce ourselves) offered to hold Peter while I climbed up the ladder. Just as I was working up the courage to do such a thing (I'm kind of a whimp when it comes to heights), neighbor Pat from 202 walked around the side of the building and offered to climb up. Fortunately he's pretty strong as he was only able to grab the balcony and then he had to pull himself up the rest of the way! Fwew...he didn't fall and die. :) He went in, got my keys, Lisa and I put the ladder away, Lucy, Peter and I went for a walk, came back and now I need to bake some cookies. I hope Pat and Lisa like chocolate chip!
