I knew it would happen

I knew it would happen eventually. I'm just way too forgetful, and I know that about myself. So when I locked my keys in my office on Friday, I wasn't too surprised. I've actually locked myself out of a lot of places. In my last apartment, I probably locked myself out of my apartment and car at least 5 times in the two years I lived there. The first time was in the first 10 minutes of the Super Bowl. My landlord's father was not happy about opening the apartment up for me! Everyone always told me, "Corrie, you need a spare key!" And I had one! The spare for my apartment was in my car, and the spare for my car was in my apartment. I even had separate key rings for my house keys and car keys. But every few months I'd get stupid and accidentally forget both pairs of keys in the house and then I was in trouble. My problem solving skills, however, then had a chance to be sharpened. I didn't want to call someone every time I locked myself out, so I learned how to break in. It was scary how easy it was to break into that apartment, but I learned (for safety's sake, I won't tell you how. My friend lives there now and I don't want to put her in danger!).

So when I discovered I had locked my keys in the office (and there is no spare key), I figured it was time to dust off the old problem-solving skills and give it another go. The first thing I brought out were the screwdrivers, thinking I could take off the plates for the hinges on the door. Sadly, the plates were not accessible. Fortunately, the hinges were. So I went back to my room and got a hammer and chisel (actually I think it was a putty knife, but whatever) and an old credit card (just in case). Dad, I think you kind of laughed at me when I said I wanted a toolbox a few years ago. Just so you know, I have used that thing dozens of times, and it definitely came in handy today. Thanks! I used the hammer and the putty knife to get the pins out of the hinges, then i wedged the putty knife in the top part of the door as I shook the bottom part to get the door off its hinges. It took some time and it wasn't easy, but I got it! I tore the door up a little in the process (sorry, James C.), but I did it! I was pretty proud of myself.

Oh, in other news, I'm thinking I'm going to run a 5k in June. My friend Kim asked me if I wanted to do it and I laughed at her because everyone knows that I'm not a runner. Not in any way, shape, or form. But then I was thinking about it yesterday when I went to the gym and I thought, "I wonder how long I could run for." So I punched 30 minutes in on the treadmill and decided to run until I couldn't anymore. And I ran the whole 30 minutes! That was totally crazy for me, because I'm not sure I've ever willingly done that before. I've run longer than that in boot camp, but Jana was always right next to me and I was worried that if I stopped I'd get yelled at. Plus, I wanted to stop every second of the way. I was really okay with not stopping yesterday. Maybe it was because I told myself that it was okay to stop if I wanted to. Maybe just the freedom of knowing I could do what I wanted gave me the desire to push myself. I don't know, but it was pretty exciting! Anyway, I only ran at a 5, which is a 12-minute mile. Laugh if you will at my slowness, I don't care. But I went 2.5 miles in that 30 minutes, and I've also never run 2.5 miles before (at least not willingly). So that's pretty cool, too.

Tomorrow's my weigh-in, and it's been a rough week food-wise. It started off well, but I was suckered in by Chinese food, frozen yogurt and pretzels. I'm not so sure how the scale is going to like me. I think I'll go to the gym one more time today before facing the numbers tomorrow. I'm so close... 6 pounds! I think I'll do something special when I get to my goal weight. Stay tuned for more details on that.