When I first moved in, I don’t know why but I didn’t even realize that I have the option of leaving my bedroom door unlocked. It just never occurred to me, this being the first time I’ve lived out of my mom’s house. I just assumed that people in college leave their doors locked. After a week or two, Joyce started asking if we could leave the door unlocked; for things like going to the restroom or just going downstairs to the kitchen or common room. I thought that was a great idea that I felt silly not having thought of it myself. So, we’ve been keeping the door unlocked, but locking it when we leave for class or leave the house.
It was pretty difficult at first to get up early in the morning for classes like 8am History of the American Music Theatre, where I sit in a lecture-hall-like theatre that seats maybe 300 – and it’s FULL – and sit and listen to a man talk about Music Theatre and watch a powerpoint for two hours. This is the first class I have EVER fallen asleep in. And I’m a little embarrassed to say I sometimes more than nod off in almost every class!
Anyway, Mr. Beckstrom, bless his heart, offered to give me a wake-up call every morning to give me a kick start. For awhile it worked! I wanted to maybe join the UCI Rowing Crew next quarter and found out they practice from 6-8am every morning and thought if I can get up early every morning, there might be a chance that I could be on the Crew! I don’t know why, but I’ve always wanted to be on a Crew and I thought this could be the time! So, I had Mr. B call me at 6:30am. I would wake up to my alarm at 6:20am, start “waking up,” then actually get up when he called and walk outside my room and sometimes right outside the second-floor patio door. Well, the reason I am telling you this is because I knew to leave my keys on the shelf of my desk and every morning I would grab my keys as I walked out the door while on the phone. It became so second nature, that I knew if the keys were not there I shouldn’t leave. (They would have been in my purse or somet.)
I love my roommate. Joyce. She’s fun and we’re pretty similar, except for the fact that she’s popular and was an actual, real-life Miss Congeniality. Well, Joyce has a bit of a problem with locking herself out of our room. I think she’s locked herself out about four times already. The first quarter isn’t even over yet. But it’s fine. I just feel bad when I’m not there to let her in. The first three lock outs are free; after that the service starts charging. This last time she locked herself out, I was on the other side of campus in rehearsal for my a cappella group, so I decided I will not lock the door anymore. Problem solved.
Joyce went home for the weekend and left yesterday afternoonish. So, when I got home I figured it would be fine to lock the door now. But I have neglected to put my keys on my desk shelf for so long that I didn’t remember to take them with me. Don’t worry, I didn’t get locked out… yet.
Having said goodbye to Joyce and knowing that I’ve yet to lock myself out, I was pretty confident that it wouldn’t be an issue. Well, it was because I woke up at 5am because I couldn’t sleep and kept having hypnagogic dreams again – annoying as heck! – and decided to go to the restroom, come back and use the “Speed Sleep” relaxation track on my iPod touch. It always helps me get to sleep when my mind is racing a million and one miles an hour. And, actually, this had been the one night that I decided it was too warm in the room to wear pajamas. … So, I put some shorts on and left the room.
When I returned to my room, I found, to my horror, I was locked out! 5am, sports bra and shorts, everyone in the house asleep, needing to meet a friend who is taking me to the train station at 7am, no phone, and no keys. I can’t tell you how happy I am I put clothes on!! No “the bathroom’s just down the hall.” Yeah, well, it’s no longer “just down the hall” when you are locked out and have to walk to the rec center at 5am.
So, I waited. I knew if I fell asleep, I wouldn’t wake up in time to meet my friend Abbey who was taking me to the train station. So, I went downstairs, played some Super Smash Brothers on the PlayStation3 the guys have downstairs, came upstairs, spent a good half hour trying to pick my lock with two bobby pins – I need to learn to do that by the way – went back downstairs, stared at the tv for a few minutes, went back upstairs, tried to pick the lock again, prayed a little that I would magically know how to pick the lock, and waited til about 6:40am before I knocked on someone’s door to ask to borrow their phone to call the lock out service. I didn’t want to wake anyone up, but it had to be done.
The guy who answered sounded like he had just woken up! Oh no! They’re going to take forever! But he said he was on his way and there I sat at the front door thinking, “Crap, what if I was supposed to say I was locked out of my room, not just locked out.” And of course, as always, my intuition was correct, so he went back and got my room key. Turns out when you lock yourself out after hours, it’s $20. Ugh… Story of my life! Others make mistakes and they get a break (3 free), I do well at not messing up, mess up once when it really matters (needing to meet someone early in the morning) and I have to pay. Ugh. The guy said if I just waited an hour, it would be free. Go figure. If I wasn’t going home, I would have just slept on the couch wrapped in a blanket til someone woke me up and asked why I was sleeping out in the common room. But I didn’t have that luxury.
Thankfully, I got into my room at 7:05am, got dressed, was packed last night (thank you for teaching me that, Mom), and met Abbey, drove to the station and got there with six or seven minutes of waiting time to spare. Thank you, God.
Now I’m on the train, writing this, listening to an episode of Alias and getting ready to fall asleep or finish reading the 7th Harry Potter book in time to watch the first movie next Thursday evening! Woot! Harry Potter!
Well, more of my day later, when more of the day actually happens. :D
