A Laugh for You (at my expense)

So, it started with a trip to Santiago. This week I spend some time with the poopers (more on that later). Sharls is out of town on business, and I stayed at her apartment with her roommate, Steph and the tweems. Since I obviously wasn't going to be doing any driving around Santiago, I didn't have any keys to the apartment. This never posed a real problem until, yesterday...



The boy's "Nana," Teresa was coming to pick them up last night to keep them for a couple days, and she was so very kindly going to take me to the bus station so I could go back to Puerto Plata. Well, seeing as though I didn't have keys, I brilliantly thought: "Oh yea, I should go out the back and lock everything up behind me!" (So responsible).

After the boys and all their stuff were out the front door and I locked it, I started out the back. There is a kitchen door to a little utility area enclosed by a gate. I pushed the little lock on the kitchen door behind me, closed it, and turned around to see...the iron gate-- deadbolted shut. Did I have a key for this gate? Of course not!

First thought that went through my mind: "Did I really just do this? I can't believe I just did this. Yes, this really happened."

Second thought that went through my mind: the story of when my dad and my uncle Kevin locked my uncle Jay in between two hotel doors, but I digress.

Yes, I definitely locked myself OUT of the apartment but IN from the outside. The area in which I was enclosed is pictured above (at least there was a toilet!). Once Teresa came around back to see what was taking me so long, she said, "Well, we have to laugh about this..." Let me just add to this story that Steph, Sharla's roommate, was on a little beach trip until the next day. A neighbor, Chris, and his wife were very helpful through the whole ordeal, but I had just met them and was in the middle of one of the stupidest acts of my life (don't mention any others, dad).

I tried a bunch of little McGyver manuevers with a credit card and a bobby pin for about an hour or so, and made a bunch of phone calls for another hour. We decided that worst case scenario, I would stay there for the night until Steph got back. Problem: when Steph called we found out she wasn't coming back from her trip until tomorrow night. The possibilities ranged from her sending the keys on the next bus to me breaking off the doorknob. She was so sweet and apologetic (like it was even her fault at all) and told me I should just break off the doorknob since it only costs about 300 pesos. When I finally got a hold of Sharls on Skype chat, she said I should break the doorknob to get back into the apartment-- there was a spare gate key inside somewhere. Finally, per Sharla's advice, I jammed a flathead screwdriver into the knob and voila! FREEDOM! It smelled so lovely. Obviously I had to blog about this. As you can see, when I took the pictures, I left the kitchen door open because of my paranoia that it would spontaneously shut and lock me up again. The good news is: the children are safe. Their apartment is very secure.

By the end of it all, I spent one more night in the apartment since it was too late to catch a bus, and now I am home again!

I realize that I blogged with the risk of being humiliated by my friends and family, but it's ok, because you have to love me.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!