Locked In

This weekend David and I traveled to Pocatello so he could take the LSAT for Law School. We decided to get a hotel Friday night, that way he could get as much sleep as possible. This morning, we woke up and I dropped him off for the test. I then went back to the hotel and napped. When I woke up, I figured it would be a good idea to shower and get ready for the day; a seemingly harmless thing to do, right? Well out of habit, when I’m alone I always lock the bathroom door. Pretty normal, I thought anyway. After my shower I twist the lock on the door and it just keeps turning. I realize that I must not be doing something right because the door would not open. So I tried it again and no dice. That door would not unlock. The thought crossed my mind that this would be like me, to not figure out how to unlock a door! How embarrassing! So I just laughed and tried again, but to no avail. At this point I was starting to think that it wasn’t just me, that something was wrong. I was locked in the bathroom.


I sat down and the first thing I thought was: “What would Bear Grills do?” Haha! I looked up and saw the door hinges. I grabbed my razor and pried out the pins. I felt so proud of myself that I figured a way to get out! That feeling was soon crushed when I realized I still could not get that door open. I tried pulling the hinges but they wouldn’t budge, I stood on top of the toilet and tried to pull the towel bar at the top but no luck, and I also tried putting my fingers under the door but they wouldn’t fit. I was not officially at a loss of what to do.

I began banging and banging on the walls of the bathroom that faced the hallway and the room next to me, but I never heard anyone. So I sat down again and waited. While deep in thought about my current predicament I heard the faint sound of a vacuum. The cleaning ladies! It sounded like they were in the room on the opposite side of mine so I knew they would be coming soon. However, I soon remembered we had put the “Do not disturb” sign on the door handle this morning. But assuming the people next door to me had already checked out they would have to clean that room. Sure enough I heard people inside the room next to me. I started pounding on the wall saying that I needed help. I finally heard people say “okay,” so I stopped. I heard them leave that room and use their key to open my door. It didn’t work because I had used the dead bolt. Shoot.

What seemed like forever later the phone in the room started ringing; at least now they knew something was going on in my room. After the phone someone came and knocked on the door, but I guess they couldn’t hear me because they left and the phone rang again. Finally someone else knocked on the door and they heard me! They called maintenance who didn’t know where the key to unlock the deadbolt was, but eventually he found it. I was so happy when they got into my room! The maintenance guy couldn’t get the door unlocked either so he had to get other tools to take of the door knob. Once he got the door knob off the lock was still in place and it took quite a while to get the lock unstuck. Eventually he got it and the door fell over since I had taken out the pins. There I was in a towel facing the maintenance guy and two cleaning ladies.

I ended up being locked in that bathroom for an hour and a half! What are the chances? The whole time I kept thinking about my cell phone that was like three feet outside the bathroom! The next time I am alone in a hotel room I will not go into the bathroom without taking my cell phone with me!