Friday, March 11, 2005

Trapped!

As I usually do after working out, I went into my room to grab some clothes and a towel. In order to get to my clothes in my closet, I closed the door to my room, as I normally would. Little did I know that by closing my door, I was trapping myself in my room.

My room is in the basement of my house and the only way in or out of my room is the door. In an emergency I could probably fit out of the little window that is at the top of west wall, but it'd be a tight squeeze. Well when I closed my door, apparently something in the doorknob mechanism broke so that the bar that slides back and forth into the wall, making it so your door stays shut when it's shut, was stuck in the out position holding my door closed. I had no way to get out and I wasn't going to take apart my window and crawl out through there into the snow and stuff that had accumulated in the window well.

Being the quick thinker I am, I used my cell phone to call my house... that I was in... yeah, it felt weird doing it too. Thank God my little brother wasn't on the phone like he is 90% of the time. It's seriously gotten to the point that whenever I want to use the phone or I know someone is going to call, I have to track him down in the house and tell him to get off. I'm starting to wonder how much of a hold his girlfriend has over him.

Anyways, I called and my dad picked up. When I told him it was me, he was a little confused, as I figured he would be. I told him about my situation so he came down to try and help me get out. First he tried the door from his side, but turning the knob didn't move the bar at all. Something was busted on the inside so he got his tools and removed the doorknob. Now you'd think it would be a simple maneuver to just stick a screwdriver, or even your fingers for that matter, into the space where the doorknob used to be and pry the bar out. No way. This thing was jammed in there like nobody's business. There was only one way to get me out--take the door off of its hinges.

The only problem with that plan is the hinges were on my side of the door and I really didn't have any tools just sitting around in my room. Luckily I found a pocketknife that I used to pry two of the three bolts out of the hinges with. The final bolt was not going to come out, no matter what I tried. My dad then sent my brother with a hammer and hole punch outside to bring them to my window so I could pound that sucker out of there. After I did, you'd think the door would just come right out. Well, it didn't.

The way the hinges worked, the part on the door and the part on the wall overlapped, making it so that they couldn't slide by each other very easily. By this time about a half hour or so and I was pretty rank from not having showered yet. Since I wanted out and there didn't seem to be any other option, my dad gentley kicked the door into my room, freeing me from my prison.

Looking back, I wish I would have waited to close my door until this morning after my shower. No one would have been home and I could have called in to work and told them I was locked in my room and couldn't come in. Then again, I'd eventually have to go to the bathroom...

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