Careers: Cat Burglar
I just broke into a house I'm sitting.
I guess I didn't so much break in as take a circuitous route to get into the house. I am housesitting for a friend from work. I was supposed to start yesterday, but I forgot to bring my clothes and toothbrush, etc, to work yesterday, so I just went home at the end of the day. I didn't leave the office until after midnight, and I was too tired to deal with it and go back to her neighborhood after getting to mine. Plus when I got home, I realized I had left my wallet and keys in the office. Thank god for roommates! (How did I get home without my wallet? See previous entry re: cabs and cab vouchers.) It was all too much.
I'm also cat-sitting, but Karli specifically said that it was no big deal if I missed a day of feeding her. I guess that day was yesterday.
This morning I remembered to bring clothes for tomorrow, my overnight stuff, and everything. But when I got here (after midnight again), I couldn't make the door key work. I remembered standing with Karli in the doorway last week, when I came over for dinner and housesitting orientation. She said, "Now, this key is a copy of a copy, so it's a little difficult, but it works." And then she demonstrated. It clearly worked.
Nevertheless, I could not make the fucking thing work in the deadbolt tonight. After about five minutes of trying various combinations of pushing the key and pulling the door or vice versa, I decided to try and break in via the separate basement/garage/bike room entrance. (I would not describe most people as having a "bike room," but Karli and Jason have over 20 bikes. I don't completely understand why. They're not all fancy bikes - I think they have two fancy bikes. The rest are all over the map. I would assume Burning Man except that I know they haven't gone at least the past few years.)
Fortunately, it was the same key to get in there. There was a door in the back of the garage area. But, ancient lock, not the same key. I went around and explored the laundry room. Success! The door opened into the backyard. I climbed the stairs up to the back deck and tried my magic key again. It unlocked the doorknob, but didn't seem to work on the deadbolt. I perservered in trying to open it and wondered how long it would make sense to continue perservering, given the overwhelming evidence that that the key must eventually work, because there appeared to be only one key to all of the working locks on the entire house. Would 10 minutes be too long? Infinity? But then, in the third Christmas Miracle of the day, it worked. I got in and went and unlocked the front from the inside to retrieve my stuff from the porch. Am I going to have to do this whole thing again tomorrow?
The cat had watched the entire ordeal and seemed neither disturbed nor excited about any of it.
Now I have to finish my work. Booo. I need another Christmas Miracle, but four is too much to ask in one 24 hour period that is not even Christmas, at all.
I guess I didn't so much break in as take a circuitous route to get into the house. I am housesitting for a friend from work. I was supposed to start yesterday, but I forgot to bring my clothes and toothbrush, etc, to work yesterday, so I just went home at the end of the day. I didn't leave the office until after midnight, and I was too tired to deal with it and go back to her neighborhood after getting to mine. Plus when I got home, I realized I had left my wallet and keys in the office. Thank god for roommates! (How did I get home without my wallet? See previous entry re: cabs and cab vouchers.) It was all too much.
I'm also cat-sitting, but Karli specifically said that it was no big deal if I missed a day of feeding her. I guess that day was yesterday.
This morning I remembered to bring clothes for tomorrow, my overnight stuff, and everything. But when I got here (after midnight again), I couldn't make the door key work. I remembered standing with Karli in the doorway last week, when I came over for dinner and housesitting orientation. She said, "Now, this key is a copy of a copy, so it's a little difficult, but it works." And then she demonstrated. It clearly worked.
Nevertheless, I could not make the fucking thing work in the deadbolt tonight. After about five minutes of trying various combinations of pushing the key and pulling the door or vice versa, I decided to try and break in via the separate basement/garage/bike room entrance. (I would not describe most people as having a "bike room," but Karli and Jason have over 20 bikes. I don't completely understand why. They're not all fancy bikes - I think they have two fancy bikes. The rest are all over the map. I would assume Burning Man except that I know they haven't gone at least the past few years.)
Fortunately, it was the same key to get in there. There was a door in the back of the garage area. But, ancient lock, not the same key. I went around and explored the laundry room. Success! The door opened into the backyard. I climbed the stairs up to the back deck and tried my magic key again. It unlocked the doorknob, but didn't seem to work on the deadbolt. I perservered in trying to open it and wondered how long it would make sense to continue perservering, given the overwhelming evidence that that the key must eventually work, because there appeared to be only one key to all of the working locks on the entire house. Would 10 minutes be too long? Infinity? But then, in the third Christmas Miracle of the day, it worked. I got in and went and unlocked the front from the inside to retrieve my stuff from the porch. Am I going to have to do this whole thing again tomorrow?
The cat had watched the entire ordeal and seemed neither disturbed nor excited about any of it.
Now I have to finish my work. Booo. I need another Christmas Miracle, but four is too much to ask in one 24 hour period that is not even Christmas, at all.