ok, sooooo…
September 20, 2010
I'm in the car on my way home from SWPPA, in Arlington, Texas. What an amazing trip, i love the area, got to see so many of my favorite friends, colleagues and vendors. The Texas peeps are always so hospitable;-)
But, there was this elevator…it was slightly after midnight and i was by myself on my way up to our room at the Sheraton Arlington~ on the 9th floor after a snack and a drink with some friends…somehow passed the 9th floor and went all the way to the top, the 19th floor. But, i pushed the 9th floor button. So…i punch the 9 button and boom…the elevator falls a couple or three feet! so…i try to open the door…nope. i push it again. nothing. A little worried, i decide to push the call button, it buzzed very loud and i sat and waited a minute for an operator or something like that. Nothing…so i keep pushing the button…still no response. I noticed another box opposite from the call button that USED to house a phone. REMEMBER THOSE? landlines? anyway, i said IT USED TO HOUSE A PHONE, so needless to say the phone that was supposed to be inside the "emergency phone" was missing! wow! so i push the call button again and again AND try opening the doors a few more times. THEN, boom! it falls again! Probably about the same distance judging from the height i was rescued at by the fire department about forty minutes later;-) At this point i panic. ok, so panic can mean many different things to so many different people. For me panic involves frantic screaming so i start hollering for some help, kicking the doors as hard as i can AND holding down that handy "call" button (which i found out was functioning and rings straight to the front desk!) Funny how nobody heard it for over twenty minutes!
FINALLY~ a very nice woman and her husband come to the elevator hallway on the 18th floor and proceed to help me. They called security (totally helpless BTW) and the sweetest lady stuck her fingers in thru the door and stayed with me for over FORTY minuted until the fire dept came! I found out the next day that she has bruised fingertips! Thank you so much Janine, you are an angel and i am so sorry that the hotel treated you so rudely that night! Can you stand it? they really treated her rudely after she put herself out their for one of the hotels guests…a total stranger.
So at this point it really doesn't sound so tragic and i have left a few things out due to some specifics that are totally humiliating but i have to tell you what happens next…as Janinie was holding her fingers in the crack of the door and i had my hands in it as well i asked for someone to help me pry the door open (all i could see was a small crack of light from the hallway and her fingertips) Then, the secutiy guard says, "ma'am, do NOT try to pry that door oopen, this elevator could fall at 800 feet per second!" Looking back now, i know that statement makes no possible sense but honesly, all i heard was, "that elevator could fall." So that is when the histerics set in and in seconds i was truly a basket case~ ask everybody who stayed all the way down to the 9th floor! Apparantly voices travel very well in an elevator shaft and let me tell you unlike in the movies, there is no little trap door up on top!
Sooo…after much out~of~controll crying and one hour, the fire department gets me out! Whew. I won't go on to bash the hotel at this point but i will say that they have no idea how to treat someone in this situation. Instead i want to take a minute and express how excited i am to be fine and heading home to my family, i don't even care that my four year old gave herself a mullet just a couple hours after i left home friday;-) Instead i can't wait to just grab her and her little mullet into my arms and squeeze her like crazy! I can't wait to hold my sassy soon-to-be 13 year old daughter and tell her how much i love her. My boys are going to get some extra love and affection and some extra home cookin' this week. I might even let them keep their rooms messy and clothes on the floor all week long ;-) The dogs (5 of them) will get leftovers every night and then there's my sweet husband who stayed on the phone with someone in the hallway and listened to me scream, curse and whine. I am running in the door and jumping into his arms and holding on indefinately. Needless to say I am feeling like the luckiest girl tonight as we drive 9 hours home to Kansas…as they say, "there's no place like home."
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