Why, yes, I *am* an idiot.

[mamadeb]

I blew off Pa-kua (which was dumb by itself) and decided I'd go out for a bite to eat and do some grocery shopping - jonbaker is at the OU conference about Pareve and it seemed like the seem to do.

So, about 3:00, I put on my scarf and my jacket and coat and waltzed down the steps and out the door, carefully locking it behind me.

Leaving my purse on the floor of my living room...which I realized as I walked to my front gate.

I rang my landlady's bell, since I'd only need to get in the front door - it's a two-family. No answer. I rang it again. No answer. There was a car in her driveway, but no one was home.

Panic. Panic. It's cold. I have no keys. I have no money. Panic. Panic. All I have is my PDA and my bus pass. No cell phone, because Jonathan has it. No credit cards. I'm hungry. I'm cold. Panic. And then I remember. I have my PDA. And on m PDA, under password protection, is my credit card information.

And the local places all know me.

So I walked to one such place - actually, where I'd been heading anyway - and get a somewhat bigger meal than I normally do, and it's not busy, and he knows me, so he just keyed in the number. I sat there for about an hour and half, reading from my PDA and eating slowly, and making faces at a pair of twin two year old boys.

Then I went home, praying that I could get in, and there was a second car in the driveway and she let me in, and I am *so* grateful.

But I'm still an idiot.

Comments

[ex-pumagrrl389.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think you're an idiot. At least not more than me.
I managed to forget my office keys on my desk one day - and I was to be alone in the office the next day. Of course I couldn't get in.

[kressel.livejournal.com]

Oooh! What cute little kitties!

Debbie, that could happen to anybody.

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Eh. you're human. We have all done that (or something equally silly) at least once. And at least you had your PDA and the info you needed so you could stay somewhere warmer than the street.

[chrysantza.livejournal.com]

Definitely not an idiot. Just a human. :D I think all of us who have keys and a dwelling have locked ourselves out at one time or another, usually at the most inconvenient times/seasons.

[majilique.livejournal.com]

No, not an idiot!!! It happenes to all of us, one time or another. I had a thing for forgetting my carkeys in the car. I started wearing a second set of keys that are on me at all times.

Glad you were able to stay warm and eventually get back in the house.

Take care of yourself.

HUGZ

[sorchar.livejournal.com]

Hurray for local places who know you!

not an idiot

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

Being afraid of doing exactly that is why I won't have an apartment door that self-locks - if I have to have a key with me to lock it when I leave then I should have the same key with me to unlock it when I get home. The only times this has failed me have been when I've left at the same time as someone else and they locked with their key, and G & I often do one lock each when we leave together which solves that problem.

(The other solution I've got is a set of keys at my folks', which is close enough to walk to, and usually has someone home at the hours I'd be coming home).

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

friend of mine did the same thing a couple of years ago, and had to break into her own apartment. which was a one-shot opportunity, because the next thing she did was correct the circumstances that made her apartment so easy to break into in the first place. :-)

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

No, I second or third or whatever it is, you are not an idiot.

I've done it, locked the keys in and me out. Once upon when I still lived in Long Branch, NJ with my father and stepmother. They were away for the weekend. Almost as soon as the door slammed I knew what I had done. So I went over to my stepmother's folks, who I thought had a key to the place. Nope.

But they did have a dinner knife I could borrow that let me back in with alarming ease.

That's way I like the locks I've lived with in the city since that time. You have to have the key with you in order to lock the door on the way out. One can't forget the keys then. Of course, I have still gotten home late at night (specially when I was Nina Bogin's roommate) and left the keys in the apartment door on the way in. Even a time or two down on LBI when I went into my folks' house. But they had an outer storm door that hid the door knob and that was where the lock was.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Joining the chorus of "not an idiot."

It seems to have been the day for it. A couple of people I know locked themselves out on Sunday.

Good that your local shops know you. It's good to live in that sort of neighborhood.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* Been there! It's a long story, but it ends with a locksmith charging us a very reasonable amount of money - $25 or $35, I think - to let us into our own house...

[hakainokami.livejournal.com]

Once in the dorms I came back from grocery shopping, and didn't go out till the next morning because I couldn't find my keys,as that was when my across the hall neighbors knocked to let me know my keys where sitting in the outside lock, and had I ment to do that?