A Lesson Learned

So, what a day this turned out to be. It started out wonderfully, with a play date with our new neighbors, Bente and her son, Henric. Lydia and I went over from 10-11 and had a very nice time. Then the day headed south. As I was getting Lydia's sippy cup ready, the doorbell to our gate rang. I answered the door to find a Czech man determined to communicate something with me. I was trying to understand him and explain that I only speak English when, with Lydia in my arms, I shut the door to keep Nellie inside. Yes... I shut the door. The SELF-LOCKING door. This would be bad enough, but I quickly and simlutaneously realized that (1) I did not have a key... (2) I did not have my cell phone... (3) Lydia and I did not have shoes or coats on and it was drizzling... (4) Brandon is in Germany for meetings today, tonight and tomorrow morning... (5) I can't communicate with anyone around as to what my predicament is... AND (6) Our property is surrounded by a fence with a gate that requires a key to open from the inside as well as the outside!!! Yes, imagine the sinking feeling in my stomach when I realized I was locked outside of my house, but INSIDE my yard! (I now know how Nellie feels every day!) After a few minutes of shock/panic, I was fortunate to see that our landlord happened to be next door inspecting the neighbor's terrace. I motioned her to come over; thankfully she was able to open the gate, but did not have a key to our house. She walked with Lydia and I back to Bente's house (still with no shoes on; still in the drizzling rain) as she explained that she has a key in her safe at home -- 45 minutes away. So, Lydia and I resumed our playdate with Henric. Although this was all happening precisely at Lydia's naptime, she couldn't have been more of an angel. She didn't cry once even though instead of taking 1-1/2 hours for the landlord to get back, it took 3 hours. Needless to say, I got to know my neighbor pretty well today! If I hadn't met her last weekend, we would've definately been introduced today. I felt like such an intruder; she fed me lunch, let Lydia take a nap in her son's bed (when she finally crashed at 4:00), and was very kind about the disruption to her day. So, I'm planning to hide a key to both the house AND the gate somewhere outside. And from now on, I'll always wear my shoes when I step outside.

Whew. It's now 8:00 at night. Lydia is sleeping, and I think I'll sit down with a frozen pizza and a movie. Good night.