The crimson room

Today I was going to write about how I have spent 65 of the last 72 hours at work, or blue ray beating HD-DVD, or how downtown Winston Salem made me feel white for the first time since I moved to the area. But those will have to wait, because a much more interesting story came up last night when I was locked both in and out of my office.

To understand the unique situation I was in you have to understand how the security works in my office. Everyone who works there is given a key card (I always thought it was pretty cool, like in a video game). That key card opens the gate to the parking deck, the outside doors when they are locked at night and on the weekends, and all of the doors on your company's floor(s). This means you can take the elevator to any floor and be confronted by 6 locked doors in the elevator area. Mullen, the ad agency I work for, leases the 5th and 6th floor. I work on the 6th floor, with all of the other creatives. My office is the only one that is kept locked because of all the valuable equipment inside. I actually don't have my own key, I use one from my boss's office everytime I need one.

Well, as a video editor, I spend most of my time at work sitting down in front of a computer screen. I can't sit comfortably with a cell phone, keys and wallet in my pocket, though. So I take these things out a lot and place them on desk. Well, last night was a marathon editing night so at 11:30pm I got up to fill my water cup. I walked out the door closest to my office that lead to the elevator area, preparing to cut through to the break room like I always do. Well I took about 2 steps when I reached to my pocket and noticed that both pockets were empty. The door behind me had already closed.

My wallet (which contained my keycard), my keys, my jacket, and my cellphone were all in my office on my desk. I was totally boned. I couldn't call anyone from work because all the numbers were in my cell phone. I couldn't drive home and wait for morning because I couldn't get out of the parking deck without my card, or even start my car without my keys. I couldn't call a cab because I had no wallet and no money. I couldn't even walk the 7 miles home because my jacket was in my office and I probably would have frozen to death before I got there. Not to mention, if at any point I changed my mind I wouldn't have been able to get back into the building. I either had to get back into my office or sleep in the lobby of the building.

I took the elevator to the second floor, where the lobby is. On my way down, I noted that I was probably the only person in the office that late on a Sunday. Even security only worked Monday morning to Friday night. When I reached the bottom I walked over to the security desk and rummaged around. I was looking for a master keycard or a phone number, anything that could help me out. I found nothing, but a scary looking box that if I knew how to operate it I could probably disable all of the door locks, but since I didn't if I touched it that night would end with me having a comfy cot in a holding cell.

The security desk having failed me, I went into the construction on the second floor. I figured with all the construction going on, they probably hadn't key carded every stairwell yet. After some searching and a lot of stepping of steel beams on the floor, I found a stairwell that I knew wasn't a standard one that Mullenites used to go between the fifth and sixth floors (both of which are locked by electronic locks).

I climbed the stairs to the fifth floor where I tried the door. It opened, but my celebration was too early, I climbed up to the sixth floor and tried the door, it was locked, but by a key lock and not an electronic one. This is when I began to feel like I was in on of those irritating flash games that stick you in a locked room with no hints and very few clues on how to get out.

But the fifth floor opened up new possibilities to me. I first circled the floor looking for someone who might have left a keycard out and calling out to see if anyone was still working and could let me upstairs. No luck. Then, I circled the floor again, checking all of the inner doors to see if there was another stairwell with no keycard access. Apparently I had either found the only one, or the only unlocked one. So I made my way to the service elevator, which refused to go anywhere but floor 2.

I started to panic, then. As close as floor 5 put me to my office, it was still out of reach. I briefly thought of trying to get into the ceiling and climbing up a vent or something outrageous, but the ceilings are 15 feet high, even standing on a desk I wouldn't be able to graze the ceiling with the tips of my fingers. Nearly defeated, I began wandering again, looking for a stray keycard and trying to thing of alternatives. As I was thinking, my mind strayed back to the locked stairwell door on the sixth floor. I remembered that it was a key lock and while thinking about that out of the corner of my eye, I glanced a tray full of paperclips. So I took 2 paperclips from the tray and a letter opener and walked back up the stairs. I picked the lock and rejoiced. I ran to my office and picked up my wallet which has yet to leave my person since.