Stuck in the elevator

It's been 9 years (actually will be 9 on Friday) that I've worked here at the software company (previously prefaced with "boring 'ol"). I've heard stories of people getting stuck in the elevators here for hours. Tall tales I thought until all of that changed this past Friday...

I got on the elevator with a colleague on the 1st floor to go up to the 6th floor. As the elevator travelled up, it stopped on 2 to let two people off. Then, going from 2-4 it seemed like it totally skipped floor 3. Everything shook, and we made it to the 4th floor without diving into the basement. Well, the smart person; my colleague got off the elevator then and there. No way was she staying on, and she needed to stop on 4 anyway. So, Ravi (who thought the darn thing was going down instead of up) jumped on the elevator with me and said, "I'll take the ride, I have to go down though". Yea, well what a ride he took (hey you dirty people... this is a kid friendly blog, I'm talking about the damn elevator ride!!! Get your sick minds out of the gutter.)

The elevator started going up and then stopped, jumped, lights flashed, screeched to a halt and then we were stuck. Ravi jumped for the emergency bell and I opened that phone looking box to see if we could call for help. Well, have you ever opened that phone looking box before on an elevator? There's no phone in there! It's just a red box with a button. How do you call someone with one button?! So I push the button, it doesn't tell you to stop pushing it but then this guy comes through from security and says, "security, can I help you?". Now what do we do... we're talking into a red box with a button.. where do you talk into? I start talking holding the button. Don't know if the guy hears me. He responds though saying someone is on their way. We wait, and wait... about 10 mins later someone outside says - "we're here to get you out". Nice!

They start manually moving the elevator up and down and then they try to open the doors. The guys sounds like he's trying to pry them open but nothing is working. The lights go out and then he tries to pry open the doors again. It doesn't budge. Well, a few minutes later something happens and the alarm bell sounds for about 3 minutes. That allows them to open the doors. We're about 4 feet above the 5th floor and our heads are in the 6th floor. I'm guessing that they want us to get out and jump down... now with heals on an a laptop in my hands, it's not a very easy task. So, they finally help me down, then Ravi gets down. There are about 20 people in the atrium looking at us clapping. I guess we did something spectacular so I bow and wave and walk off to the staircase.

For the rest of the day and the following 3 days I decide that I will not be taking the elevator anymore. Well, I gave that all up today because my damn feet hurt and Livvy hasn't slept through the night for the entire week so I'm exhausted. Yea, so much for giving up the elevator. At least it was a good story though...

-s