Sleeping with Crackheads....almost

I knew as soon as I closed the door that my keys weren't in my pocket. It didn't help that the superintendant of the building was out of town on vacation for a few weeks and didn't leave the keys to anyone. So here I am with my friend and her two-year-old and one of her friends who came up to visit for the day from Jersey. We were on our way to the astro-turf park down the street from me to try to drain the kid so that we could get him to bed at a reasonable hour for once this week. He had just slept for two solid hours from 4-6:00 and we knew that he needed to blow off some of that energy in order to sleep at night.

But I didn't have my keys!!! I ran back upstairs and stole one of my out-of-town neighbor's pamphlets that was under the door that explained that the super was out of town and call these numbers if you need something. I called the lease company's hotline and as soon as they asked me what city I live in I realized that there was no way that I was going to get in anytime soon. Saturday night (everything's closed on Sunday), 4th of July weekend (technicians and locksmiths are at barbeques drinking beer and nothing is open on Monday), and I have out of town guests. Ay dios mio. Well, no point in ruining a perfectly nice weekend evening, so we headed to the park anyway and played some soccer and baseball.

After the park and some ice cream, we still hadn't heard from anyone, so I gave the emergency hotline a second call and we decided to go visit Paul and Cathy, since they live close by and can provide a place to sleep if it came down to that. After a few of us ordered some sushi for dinner, it dawned on me that I live on the second floor. Drawing deep on my experience with Paul and his landlord and all the tools they have (like hand-carts), I asked if they had a ladder. Paul ran downstairs and sure enough, there was a ladder. Since it was 11:00pm by this point and Nina and Marcus were exhausted, I powered down my last few pieces of raw fish and Paul and I went downstairs to grab the ladder.

He lives about three blocks away from me, so it gave me time to map out my entry and exit strategy for my apartment. To add some fun to the adventure, NYPD has been scouting the area lately for someone known as the spider-man rapist who raped a few woman about two blocks away from my apartment by rapelling down from the roof into open windows. We each had some extra change in our pockets in case we got arrested and plowed forward with our plan. When we got to my apartment, there were lots of people on my street walking around (figures - normally my street is dead). I thought I'd let the folks loitering across the street that I was going into my apartment and they were cool and said that they wouldn't call the cops. Paul hoisted the ladder and I ran up, opened my window, grabbed my latest rent payment receipt (for proof of residence), and ran downstairs. Oh yea, and I grabbed my keys :o). The plan worked perfectly and we were golden. Ironic enough, there was a fender bender on my street corner and there were a few cops there writing up a report. Whew, that was a close one.

So, we got to come home and sleep that night, although it was a late one. I think every night this past weekend Nina and I said that we were going to get Marcus in bed early because he hadn't been getting as much as normal. But of course that never happened. The only day when that was a problem was Tuesday when they had to go to the airport and Marcus wouldn't wake up until Nina picked him up and put his clothes on. He was a great kid, though, and I miss him already.

Tuesday night after work I came home and felt the loneliness I always feel when my guests first leave. The only evidence that they left that they were here was the futon that was folded out still. Nina didn't sign my visitors log, so I made her take it with her, fill it out, and send it back to me so that I can have a memento. As I thought about it, I realized some things about this experience. A few months back, Alan's girlfriend (who wants to have kids and settle down asap) asked me when I thought I would want to settle down. Her and I have lots of discussions about families and kids and stuff like that for whatever reason, probably because we differ in amusing ways. After journaling through my catalogue of places I want to live and things that I want to accomplish, I threw out the age 32 or 33. She took a mental note of that and commented about that. But now I sort of wonder. I've come to realize that I definitely enjoyed the "family life" atmosphere at my apartment for the past week and I think that if the right opportunity presented itself, I could settle down at this age.

A guy at my work made an interesting point when he said that your attitude can change when you're put into unexpected situations. He said that he never thought about having pets before and one day he tripped on a kitten in his front yard. When he showed the kitten to his girlfriend, the kitten immediately went into their house and settled in and as the kitten grew up and became a part of the family he realized how a pet like that can add a lot to your life and how much he enjoyed having one. There are definitely parallels with my case since I didn't know what to expect with having a kid in my life for a week and I always thought that I wouldn't want kids around, at least for a few more years. I always got along with kids when I was in high school and younger, but then college life came around and I enjoyed my single, quiet lifestyle and was always annoyed when Mom would have kids around when I came home to visit.

So that's that. There are some pictures on my website. In other news, I got a new laptop for work and that's been keeping me occuppied getting it up to snuff and configured. Other than that, just trying to get settled back in after a busy week and weekend! By the way, the "emergency technician" still hasn't called about me being locked out :o| .

J. Riley, aspiring author, father, and geek :o)