Thanks to the Stranger

Thanks to the stranger who kept me calm as Elias, Ezra, he, and myself watched in slow motion as my keys fell out of my hand, bounced and glided ever so effortlessly down the elevator shaft at school at 4:10. They fell down where the doors open and close. I looked at him, panicky and said, "What do I do?" He told me, "Go up to G and find the security guards there. Tell them what happened." That was enough to snap me out of my frozen world (this building has security guards?) and into action.

Normally, not the best of circumstances, but not really all that bad. Unfortunately, this happened yesterday. Yesterday, at 4:10, Matt was at the airport waiting to take a flight to Florida for work. He has the only spare set of keys. Yesterday, I made a dog vet appointment for 5:00. I left work at 3:00, raced home, got Sumo, raced to school, locked all my possessions and Sumo in the car to run upstairs and "quickly" get the kids so we could make it to the vet on time. Yesterday, the only guy who had access to that elevator shaft left at 4:00. Yesterday, the vet's phone number, my phone and my wallet were locked in the car, and my keys were somewhere in the dark abyss of the elevators.

Talk about a bad day. Luckily, we found security, found the Operations Center (this building has an Operations Center?), and met Angela who was extremely helpful. She didn't laugh when I couldn't tell her which elevators it was ("The ones the go up to the school"...now I know these are the North elevators), or when I told her I was going to take the kids back up to school while we waited for them to find my keys, but that I would have to call her from up there because, "I don't know the school's number. It's in my car." She was very concerned that I might have to pay the $300 bill because they had to call the guy in after he had left for the day. At that point, I think they could have charged me $1000.

The kids and I went up to the school, Ezra got to eat, Elias got to play, I called Matt and he canceled the dog appointment, and in about an hour they had my keys. Next time you are out and see someone about to lose it, please do your best to be THAT guy. The one who is calming and helpful. The one who clearly says what to do to help solve the immediate problem at hand. The one who acts like a true human being. And may I suggest, don't get your keys out of your pocket until you are in the parking lot.