Let me start by saying that I have been doing an overnight job since Wednesday. My little buddy and I have played and snuggled all night without any problems for almost 5 days. We weathered a bad thunderstorm, we watched TV, we read magazines, we filled a kong with peanut butter, it was a good time. Last night was my last night sleeping there. I was exhausted and hoped for a good night of sleep. I did not get that.
I will preface this by saying that I sleep on the couch. I am one of those people that needs to sleep with the TV on (I know I shouldn't), but especially in a strange house. Most people's guest bedrooms do not have a TV, so I usually end up on a couch, which is fine with me. So anyway, at about 2:30 a.m. I am awoken by loud quick knocking at the front door. I thought I was imagining it, but I looked at the dog who woke up as well. He proceeded to bark, and in my haze I see someone at the front door! I couldn't make out much, except for a red shirt, big hair, and 2 hands cupped. They have a leaded glass front door, but if you look close enough you can see right in. That is what this person was doing! I picked my head up, laid back down and tried not to move. I must have fallen asleep again for a few minutes because I woke up to the same thing soon after! I am then saying to myself, "If they stay at this door I'm calling the cops." At this point I am just awake and peripherally watching the door and the front window for the next 2 hours. I kept seeing people walk by, but no more knocking. Finally, both the dog and I fell back asleep and we woke up at 6:30 am. Not much sleep. I'm groggy and laying around until about 7 at which point I need the bathroom. I figure my little man does too, so I ask if he wants to go out back and he runs to the door. I walk out back with him and shut the door behind me so that the flies don't come in. He does his business, I pick it up, I go to open the door and it's locked. Fuuuuucccckkkk!!!
So let me paint you a picture. I am stuck with a dog at 7am in a back patio area with NOTHING on me. No phone, no keys, no ideas. So I try to push the door open, no luck. There are fly bags held up by wire hangers, so I grab a hanger and see if I can pick the lock. Again, no luck. I stand on a chair to check other yards and there is NO ONE. There is a back door that leads to an ally and then to the street. I leave the dog in the yard, pull open the "door" to the street which was nailed shut, and hurry home. There is no one around at all, and my worst case scenario is waiting outside my house until Mike goes to work. Luckily I run into my neighbor/client right away and she lends me her phone. I get Mike to open the door for me so that we can brainstorm and I can check to see if I have any phone numbers available of people who may have a spare key. Nope! Everything is on my phone. We got a ride back over to the clients house by my neighbors husband thinking we are either calling a locksmith or breaking the door. The best I could do was e-mail the owners sister and ask her to call Mike's cell if she had a key. She called, but had no key. I was about to have Mike break the back door and just pay for repairs. There is no locksmith that will come before 8am!
Now we are back in the patio area. I learned an important lesson. When you have a fly trap bag, you do not set it down on a table. They can get out that way, and fly goo comes out. Then it smells like rotting death and there are black flies EVERYWHERE. The dog is barking, I'm swatting flies and trying to get the bag hung back up so that they can go back in and Mike is trying to figure out a way into the house. Standing there with the flies and the smell and the barking dog before 8am was awful, and he said he felt like he was in a level of hell. Agreed! But we needed to get in. There were 2 windows in the back off the 2nd floor landing. One big and one tiny. Mike climbs up onto the wall, then the landing/roof to see if either of the windows are open. Of course the big one won't open, but the tiny one will. Having quite a broad upper body, there was no way that he was fitting though. So it was my turn to climb into the wall, then the landing. I have no upper body strength (plus I was in shorts and flip flops), so Mike had to pull me up and drag me by my arms onto the landing.
If you can't picture this, I have a 90's reference for you. Remember the 90210 episode where Brandon and Dylan were hiking and one of them slips and almost drops off the mountain? And whichever one is not falling pulls the other one up by the arms? It was like that. Then I had to squeeze myself through the window, diagonally. I had to get my front half in, and Mike had to grab my legs while lifting my bottom half sideways so that I could get through this narrow opening. It worked! I ran downstairs to unlock the door while he climbed down. Crisis averted...sort of. I was mentally shaken and physically bruised and scratched. He made it to work on time and I had to start my day. I called the owner to explain what had happened and come to find out there is a spare key hidden out back!! Figures. Moral of the story is even when you are exhausted and lacking sleep, always make sure the door is unlocked when you go out back. On a side note, Mike is my hero.
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| During the storm |
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| kisses |
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| anticipating kisses |
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| Snuggles |
