Let me tell you how I spent my day even if Meffi thinks it's terribly embarrassing and contemplates moving in with someone more decent.
I got up, I packed up stuff, I ate and drank something, I talked on the phone, I loomed, I did laundry and then ... let me try to bring some order into the story ... and try to blind out the vuvuzela people outside *eyeroll*
I said I loomed. That's true, but after I was almost done I ran out of beads and took it as a sign to change the design slightly. I felt a strange relief and satisfaction cutting up the middle part.
After ripping up the cuff, I continued with the laundry. I gathered the towels from the different rooms and because sometimes I tend to get distracted easily I decided to unload and reload the dishwasher first. Then there were the empty cat food containers that I had rinsed out to make them ready for the recycling bag (in this area we have yellow bags). The bag was almost full, so I tied it up and went to put it out in the hallway.
Maybe I should mention that I like to dress very casual at home, meaning I wore a long t-shirt and was barefoot, after all I didn't plan any longer trips.
I put the bag out through the door and it fell right into the middle of the hallway. Holding the door knob
tightly I bent down to pick it back up, my hand slipped off the knob (don't ask, I have no idea why) and
there I stood in the hallway and heard a soft click from the door. Let me remind you again that I was wearing a t-shirt
and not much more. So I went downstairs to the neighbors to call my
family and let them know I needed a key. Four neighbors and none of them in. I'll have to remember to tell them how disappointed I was in them.
After hitting my head on the wall a few times which unfortunately didn't change anything about the situation I tried to
think of the best solution. It was absolutely impossible for me to go
outside without having masses of people chasing me with pitchforks and
torches after a short while. I had no idea how long my neighbors would be gone, I mean they could have spent all day somewhere else. So the best shot was to hang out of the
window (that doesn't open all the way) and yell at some unsuspecting
stranger hoping he or she would carry a cell phone.
Our street is
pretty quiet. Amazingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon. It took more
than 20 minutes in which I was freezing my feet and my tuchus off (our
hallway is nice and cool even when it is hot outside) until a gentleman walked by on my side of the street. The window I looked out of
goes out to the neighbor's parking spot, so you can only see a very small
part of the street.
I yelled at him "Sorry, could you please help me
and do me a favor?" He walked to the window giving me a strange look
for absolutely no reason at all. It's not that unusual to be yelled at
by a lady with a bad hair day. I asked him if he carried a cell phone
because I had locked myself out and was not in the gear to be seen on
the street and really needed to call my family. He smiled, reached up
and gave me his phone.
I called my mother who of course wanted to
know details when all I wanted was a key. She
asked me why I waited for 20 minutes before calling. Of course usually I
don't carry a key when I get stuck in the hallway, unplanned, wearing almost
nothing (sorry for the image, but really, it was a big shirt, just not suitable for outside), but always a cell phone. She thought. Obviously. I told her
that I was on someone else's phone and that I needed a key. Now!
I gave
the phone back to the nice gentleman (I hope he had some success telling that story at home) and told him that he saved me and
how grateful I was. He winked at me saying that things like that
happen. Yeah, right, but why to me?
10 to 15 minutes later my sister arrived and said with a grin what a good thing it was the neighbors had books out in the hallway (reminder for myself ... do NOT try to read that one book again, boy, it was boring).
Another reminder to myself ... if you are not smart enough to carry your key, at least take beads and wire with you and deposit a pair of pliers in the hallway, so you can entertain yourself in some useful way.
Wanna know something funny? The last 20 times I put something out in the hallway I always carried a key and the door never got shut. I wonder if the snickering behind the door was just in my head. Was it in my head, Ponder? Was it?
