Goodbye Keys

So Wednesday I left my apartment around 6:40, went to my car, and realized I forgot my water bottle. I locked everything in my car, headed back into my apt, grabbed my water bottle, and locked my door....and locked my keys in my apt. As I stood in front of my locked door with just my water bottle, dorky CMS lanyard, and four flash drives I realized that I royally screwed myself. If I had locked myself in a desert I would be ok, because I had my water bottle, but nothing else! Panic set in very quickly. I had no phone, and only a water bottle. How in the world was I going to get to school!?

My first thought was that my PD lives in an apt below me, so despite the early morning I would go bang on her door...after banging on it for about 5 minutes I realized that a. she really probably couldn't help me and more importantly b. she was away at a conference! Panic struck again... I ran downstairs to the callbox and tried to call my roommate from it, and her phone was off.

So now for my last resort (well I tried a few more things before this, but they really aren't that interesting): I needed to find someone to help me. I decided at some point after running after the sounds of closing apt doors, that I would just wait in the parking garage, because if anyone was exiting the building it was most likely in a car. I was able to flag down a man in a big SUV and through tears explain to him what was going on. He immediately parked his car, and told me that we could try to break in (in retrospect this was probably a terrible idea, but I was in crisis mode). Well breaking in did not work (thank god) so then I borrowed his cell phone to call building services. They redirected me to a locksmith, and did you know that in an EMERGENCY you have to leave a message for a locksmith! Absolutely ridiculous! At this point I knew I was probably making this poor young man late for work, so I just looked up at him and asked, "what in the world should I do?" He offered to give me money for a cab and called a cab to the apt. building. I couldn't believe that this stranger was so willing to help me. I somehow made it to school 30 minutes early with two students at my door waiting for tutoring!

The moral of this story is that random acts of kindness still exist! My students loved hearing this story, and making fun of me about this for the rest of the week.