My birthday...or, How I managed to get stuck in an elevator this morning and miss a portion of my class...

Of course, something like that must happen to me. I've always felt that I'd die on my birthday or something...like that would be the ultimate irony/circularity... Anyway, I figure things like this will continue happening to me until I've braved every single possible disaster...car wrecks, drownings, almost falling off cliffs, stuck in an elevator, earthquakes, fires...what else is left? Hurricane, tornadoes...gun battles...Nature, man, whatever...do your worst! Okay, okay...that's not a challenge. I'm already enough of a klutz.

Well anyway, I got into my box-like elevator, that is about the size and dimension of a coffin (perfect, right?)...And, as we near the ground floor...I shifted the weight of my backpack...and that's where the fun began. The elevator plummeted downwards in about 2-3 seconds between, um...I think the basement floor and an underground floor or something...

I actually didn't feel anything when this happened. Nothing other than a sort of resignedness...of course something like this would happen. It always does. So, I took it as a matter of course...

I randomly pressed on elevator buttons, and none of them worked. So I just repeatedly pressed the alarm. I was happy I wasn't claustrophobic... I thought...wouldn't it be weird if no one heard the alarm? ... After about 5 minutes of pressing the alarm, the concierge guy heard me, and he came out, called the repair ppl. So now it was a nice wait...

At least the light in the elevator stayed on. I called my program director and told him that I was stuck in the elevator, and hope he'd excuse me for being late to class...

Then I settled into a crouched position to read some Rousseau...yes, I can still be a nerd while stuck in an elevator. What else could I do? I contemplated giving a call to the United States...but quickly decided against it...it's just too expensive for everyone involved. Plus, the oxygen supply didn't seem to be running out anytime soon...

Anyway, the repairman came after about 30 minutes, and opened the door, which was, at the time, only partly showing in the elevator (the top 1/4)...and then closed it again and told me not to move. Then he started hauling the elevator up into it's rightful position...with me in it. Joy.

Finally it got back to it's place and then plummeted back down and then back up. I was finally out of there. And late for class.

Oddly enough the experience really didn't affect me at all. And, when I got to my school building, I decided to be the masochistic I am, and take the elevator. When I returned home, I also took the elevator. Perhaps to prove something, to myself, or G-d knows who. But, whatever.