How I Almost Died on My 28th Birthday*

*Title of post could be an exaggeration-- I didn't stick around long enough to find out.

This post has nothing to do with the fact that I woke up at 6:30 today to find a power outage and my thermometer telling me it was 18.4 degrees.  (Thank you, Austin Energy).  I was lucky and the power came back on just as I was considering the pros and cons of cuddling with a bottle in bed to warm it up before the baby woke up.

I am totally and completely afraid of all elevators manufactured after approximately 1988. I could get on an elevator and ride up 78 stories as long as it was a new elevator.  But the old ones all seem to have a mind of their own, and I always seem to be in them when they malfunction.

A history, if you will-

1. I once arrived at law school at 6:50am, preparing to go to the library when it opened at 7.  I got on the elevator (alone) and rode up to the second floor.  When the doors opened, I was eye level with the third floor.  The doors closed again, and when they re-opened, the elevator was about 1 foot higher than the floor itself.  I pushed my way through the doors as they tried to close again, not sure that the third time would really be the charm here.

2. The elevators at the AG's office were so frequently in disrepair that they actually kept an "out of service" sign inside each of the elevators.  The elevator would often just stop, wide open, on a floor and choose not to work for a couple of days.  At least twice I would get in, press the floor I needed, and was dropped of on another floor for no apparent reason.  All of this was punctuated by the fact that no one replaced any of the 9 20-watt light bulbs in the elevators until only one remained lit, so most of these adventures took place in almost pitch blackness.  The elevators were so bad that I actually instituted a personal rule that I never got into the elevator having to go to the bathroom or hungry.

3. I was in Philadelphia on work and got into an elevator on the 56th floor, rode down, felt the belt pop, and it went back up several floors, stopped, and finally returned to the ground where it let us out.  There were about 6 other people in the elevator at the time, and I'm pretty sure I pushed them all aside to get out once we got to solid land.

So we agree I have a justified fear of elevators, yes?

Anyway, today I went to my birthday party YWA board meeting, and brought the baby with me in the stroller. Once the meeting was over at 8 I packed up and hustled out because the baby was supposed to eat at 7:30 and I knew I was pushing my luck.  I said my goodbyes and got on the elevator, briefly thinking "I wish at least one other person was in here with us."  Famous. Last. Words. Thoughts.

I got on at the second floor and pushed "1."  And then I felt that tell-tale "pop."  As you can see from my vast elevator incident repertoire listed above, I knew that wasn't good.  I tried to tell myself there was nothing to worry about.  The elevator started its descent.  We reached the bottom.  AND NOTHING HAPPENED.  I try to convince myself to relax- sometimes it just takes a second longer than I think it should for the doors to open.  BUT THEY DIDN'T OPEN. 

Suddenly I'm having 15 thoughts at once.  How do I protect Drew?  If the doors open, I'm going to push him out onto whatever floor the doors open to, but will I have time to get out, too?  What if the doors don't open level with a floor, how will I get him out then? 

Now the elevator jerks back to life.

I start hearing voices and realize that we are headed back towards where we came from.  I'm considering screaming to everyone that we have a situation on our hands.  As I consider that possibility the elevator stopped and the doors opened and I came FLYING out of that elevator with the baby, apparently with a look on my face that let everyone know something had gone horribly wrong. 

I stood outside that elevator for about 10 more minutes while I distributed my stuff among everyone so we could take the stroller down the stairs, and those doors never opened again, despite pushing the button to call the elevator.

So my 28th birthday started out with a little more drama (and likely grey hairs) that was expected.  Now if the "Blizzard of the Century" would just move along....

I DO have a life outside of the baby and the house!

Sometimes I still get out and do some cool stuff.... it's rare, but certainly worth mentioning on the blog when it happens.

Last Friday, the lovely Ashley Gladden accompanied me to the 6th annual Young Women's Alliance fashion show, "Fashion Evolution."  My dear, sweet husband came with me last year when the event was held in a bar on dirty 6th and the models did somersaults down the runway, but since this year it was held at the Driskill and Wilhelminia models were wearing the clothes, I figured it was a better girls night out.  I was so right.

The event raises money for the Young Women's Alliance Foundation, for which I am the VP of Foundation Giving.  Which means the money that Maren Curtis brought in with the event, I get to give away.  Tough gig, but someone has to do it!

I was truly amazed at caliber of this event.  Passed appetizers!  Signature cocktail!  Shopping!  Designers!  It was a great night.  The highlight (for me) was that one of our scholarship recipients for the year was featured and brought on stage after having been dressed by the amazing Rachelle Briton.

Isn't she lovely?  And smart.  And just an all around great girl.  And her name is Lindsey.  But I didn't pick her alone, so there was no naming discrimination here!

The Road Goes On Forever

And the painting never ends.......

LOVE all the changes in the new house. Expected to want/need to paint the walls. Didn't think about how much time (and precision) it takes to paint all the new trim work. And it is so much less rewarding!!!

Rob was out of town this weekend, so I decided I was going to get a lot accomplished. Baby Callegari agreed the first day, but then decided I had done too much and I should really just laze around on Sunday. Good compromise, I think. I am in LOVE with my new dining room/breakfast room. It just looks so much better. Both Rob and I remarked we would rather spend time in there than the living room right now. I guess this means I better get Holly started on the living room! I need to post some new pictures, but I always tend to blog from work where I don't have any pictures handy.

In other news, all activities are wrapping up for the end of the year. Tonight I have my Junior League Provisional End-of-Year Celebration. Hard to believe it was about 18 months ago that I was listening to the spiel about joining. It was a really fun experience, and I look forward to next year. My placement will be with Con Mi Madre, which was started by a JLA member many years ago. Excited about seeing what I can do with that organization.

The Young Women's Alliance Membership Appreciation Party is Wednesday, which is always a good time. Sad I won't be able to use my drink tickets this year, but it will be worth it. YWA board stuff will slowly start picking up in June, but it should be a slow start. I may actually get some house stuff done in June!

We find out the sex of the bambino on June 23. It seems so far away, but then again I feel like I JUST had an appointment where I heard that beautiful heartbeat, and my next appointment is a week from today. Time is flying, and my clothes are starting to get too tight. I'm ready for this stage to be over-- right now I feel like I just look a little fat and not pregnant. I'm ready to get to that obviously pregnant stage!

Well, that's all I have to report right now. Looking forward to a great 16th week!