Stuck

Every time I walk onto an elevator I begin to panic inside. My fear of small enclosed spaces is real. I hate it, but I have always been that way. I have to take deep breaths and tell myself "it will only be a few moments before you are walking out of this thing." That's what I thought yesterday when I crammed into an elevator with 8 people plus a stroller at the Donatello hotel in SF. We were on the 14th floor heading down to the lobby. "Brooke, do you still get claustrophobic when you are on elevators?" "YES Sam, I do," I replied in a rude tone. Then Greg, Evan's dad, began telling a story about a time when he got stuck in an elevator with a woman who panicked. As he was telling the story our elevator stopped at the 5th floor. He kept talking. The doors never opened and we did not move. We all soon realized that we too were STUCK.

Everyone reacted differently, but I immediately dropped to the floor and ripped off my jacket. I was trying really hard not to burst out into tears. I began saying over and over "Please push the emergency button!" Being trapped in an elevator with engineers such as my husband and his father meant that they were going to try and fix the problem first. "Lets see hmmm...if I push this button and this button maybe it will start up again." We did end up pushing the help/emergency button. Then Greg ended up prying the door open. I was genuinely impressed and thankful I might add. We were between floors but close enough to the 5th floor that we could jump down. We all made it out just fine. We even lifted the stroller down. What a weird thing...it is as if talking about it made it come true.