DAY 22 - ESCAPE ROOM IN REVERSE

I didn't have my phone on me, so apologies for the photo quality.

We had been planning to do an escape room for quite some time and finally we were able to schedule a date that worked for everyone. As a manager, it's really important to me that we set time aside to do team building. I try to suggest some type of team building activity at least once a month. Building a strong foundation based on communication can make for successful outcomes. And I like to show my appreciation for my team members because without them, none of our projects would be as far along as they are today.

This day ended up going the complete opposite direction when I got home. It started out with me working with my team to solve puzzles in order to escape a room. Then I came home to find myself locked out of my apartment and trying to find a way inside. What a sh*tty coincidence lol.

Our front door lock jammed up and neither my key nor Hue's key worked. We called the maintenance guy to come over, but we had to wait about an hour before he arrived. Upon arrival, he was perplexed when none of his master keys worked. Mind you, it was already close to 10pm, in a very nice neighborhood in Belmont Shore, and the three of us were in the dark trying to open a door to an apartment. Also, the three of us are not your typical looking resident (I think Hue and I are the only minority people in the entire street), so our actions seemed suspicious.

Thank goodness Hue had been working out like crazy these past few weeks [SWOLE] because he was able to parkour his way onto the second story ledge, pull himself up, and enter our apartment through one of the open windows. Sure enough, as luck would have it, a random couple walking down the street spotted him.

CONCERNED CITIZEN: "HEY!!! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING???!!"

ME: "We live here and we're locked out of our apartment."

CONCERNED CITIZEN: "Okay, just making sure. I'm just looking out for the best interest of the residents."

Good thing I just recently had my driver's license renewed to reflect our current address, in case it really came down to proving we were telling the truth. I guess it makes me feel safe that people look out for one another here.

Hue opened the door and after the maintenance guy inspected the lock, it was determined that it needed to be replaced. So the following day, I was stuck at home waiting for him to arrive and fix it. The lock situation didn't get resolved until close to 4pm, which pretty much blew off the entire day - and a vacation day on top of that [UGH].

I had never been locked out of my apartment to this extent before, so my unexpected new thing today happened to be that. Ta-da.

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DAY 22 - Locked out of Apartment [COMPLETE]

• My thoughts?

• Yea that...sucked.

• Would I do it again?

• I hope this never happens again.

• Do you think someone tried to break into your apartment?

• Honestly, I have no idea. But why else would the lock malfunction out of no where? I had suspected that maybe the ocean air caused some blockage, but that wouldn't explain how the WD-40 didn't fix the issue.

• What did I learn?

• Sometimes you can't always prepare for situations; however, you can keep calm and work your way to resolve it.