A Bad Day at Work

So you know how just about everyone has good days, bad days, and "normal" days at work? Well...this was one of those bad days, but the thing is, it had absolutely nothing to do with work! I was just in the wrong place at the very wrong time, that place happened to be at work, and that time happened to be during work hours. Here's what happened in short: I got trapped in our elevator for like 30 minutes by myself! Here's the longer version: I work at UT Southwestern in Dallas, which is an absolutely huge complex. It is really an everyday, many times per day occurrence to ride in an elevator because there are so many buildings that I go to daily and each building has like a billion floors. I had already been in an elevator about 5 times today before lunch, just to give you an idea. So, I was up on the 10th floor talking to our Admin department, and got in the elevator to go back to my lab on the 2nd floor. The elevator did not stop at the 2nd floor, but went straight down to the 1st floor. I was like...this is odd...so I just pushed my button again and thought that it would just go up to the 2nd floor. It did not. Nor did the doors proceed to open on the 1st floor. So I pushed the "open doors" button. Still no open doors. Now I'm totally freaking out and pushing all of the buttons! Still no open doors. Of course, I'm crying like a little baby by now, pushing all of the buttons, banging on the walls, and screaming for someone, anyone. Oh, by the way, it's just about impossible to use my own brute force to pry the elevator doors open from the inside, but I can honestly say that I tried! Then I found the alarm button and was truly annoying to any innocent by-standers who hadn't heard me previously. Amazingly, nobody ever stopped...how RUDE. So I melted to the ground to sob in my extreme fear of closed spaces, and managed to find the elevator phone and I called the police. The person on the line asked if I was ok...I was like NO! I'm trapped in an elevator all by my lonesome, nobody knows I'm here except you, I hate tight spaces, and I'm having a lovely panic attack. Did I mention that I don't have my asthma inhaler with me mainly because I never expected to need it in this particular elevator? He says to calm down...easy for him to say! He's not the trapped one! Get the doors open, man! So I guess the police and maintenance people came as quickly as the could, and I give them credit for that, but I'm a firm believer now that we need a system that will allow for a more promt response in these situations. The maintenace people arrive and start making lots of noise, which makes me thing that even they are having trouble opening the doors. Here comes some more of that panic attack...then I hear one of them ON TOP of the elevator...fantastic! When they finally pry the doors open, I'm still a sobbing mess on the floor thinking that I'm never going to get out. The maintenance man who opened the doors for me is my new hero!
After my traumatic experience, I had to immediately use my asthma inhaler (which speeds up my heartrate and makes me shaky) and even had to go home to use my nebulizer, which makes me an even more shaky, grumpy mess on top of the great mood I'm already in. As if that wasn't enough...I parked in a different place when I got back to work (in order to avoid having to use the elevators in the parking garage) and managed to get a parking ticket. That was the lovely cherry atop my day.
Needless to say, I'm very happy to be safe and sound at home with my husband and my fuzzy kids tonight. Work's not looking so good for tomorrow...:)