scaring the neighbors.

there's this guy who lives in our building, i believe the floor below us, and it just so happens that almost every time we, or missy herself, bumps into him in the elevator, its under the circumstances where she's taken by surprise, and either gasps, screams, or jumps when he appears. (we startle extremely easily, in case we've never mentioned it before) so our joke is that this guy thinks she's totally nuts, since he's the quiet sort and just sort of nods and looks away when she does her little startle thing, or at times, big startle thing, and when i'm there during her startle thing we both wind up laughing hysterically afterwards, so he never speaks to us otherwise. this will come into play later on in the story.

so, yesterday evening i had just finished cleaning my apartment and was getting ready to attend a family fun night with missy and dad at the yankee game. our dad was picking us up to drive us to the stadium, and was dropping miscellaneous items off for us first (good porter chauffeur father he is!). when he called to tell me he was outside my apartment he also mentioned that he was going to 'send up' the bag of towels he brought for us in the elevator, and i could just grab them when they appeared at my floor (after lugging our laundry up three flights of stairs to our old apartment almost every other sunday night for two years, the man is thrilled we live in an elevator building and as witnessed in this story, utilizes it in any manner possible). he would then go find a parking spot and come up to my abode and wait until missy arrived home from work and we could leave for the game. simple enough.

at the time that i took this phone call i was in the middle of changing into something less suitable for vacuuming/more suitable for an athletic event outing, and as my buzzer rang, signifying that a giant garbage bag of towels was coming up to visit me, i happened to be in just a bra and a pair of old, hole-y sweatpants. as i had about 30 seconds to run out and grab the towels, i contemplated doing so in my current ensemble.

in the end, as i heard the elevator ding at my floor, i grabbed a tshirt and was throwing it on as i burst out of my apartment and dove for the elevator, so i could hold the door and grab my laundry.

we all know what happens next. as my door slams shut behind me, i realize that i just locked myself out of my apartment. in sweatpants with a giant hole in the backside area, and barefoot (but blessfully, by about 3 seconds, with a shirt on).

after a fit of laughter over my current state of disaster, i panic that if my father does not come immediately up to my apartment (he had our keys with him yesterday, thank goodness) and instead just opts to sit in the car after he parks it, i will have to sit in the hall until missy comes home. thinking there had to be a safer bet, i decide to go downstairs and outside in the hopes of flagging the man down as he's circling 31st street.

and i indeed manage to do so, after a few minutes of loitering, barefoot, on the middle of a main street outside of my apartment. so my genius plan did work (concerned father pulls up, rushes out of car and inquires why i am outside without any shoes on; later he confides he was worried i lost my mind) but not before aforementioned neighbor arrives home from work. as he passes me to enter the building, i say hello, he smiles at me, and i burst into laughter, knowing what he must be thinking about the disheveled sister of the weird elevator screamer.

at this point, we've given up all hope of him thinking we're anything close to normal. we're kind of just hoping he doesn't try to have us evicted.