On the 10th floor. I’d gone up for my daily ritual bask on the roofless 11th floor of our building’s parking structure. There’s a special corner there that has a gorgeous view of the city. I rarely look at the view though. Instead, I sit in the corner with my knees bent or my legs crossed. I close my eyes and tilt my head to the sky in worship. Then I let my mind wander to wherever it needs to be. Sometimes I half fall asleep and feel my head sway in a doze, so I wake up and make shapes out of the clouds to re-orient myself. Today I saw what I’m sure looked like a happy, laughing dragon. Those moments in the sun are the best part of my work day.
On my way back down to the office, the power went off and the lift jerked to a stop. I don’t really remember how I felt. Was I scared? Panicky? Calm and calculated? I really have no idea. I remember thinking I should breathe slowly so that I don’t run out of oxygen. And I recall trying to peep through the closed lift doors to see if I was on a solid plane or in between floors. Turns out I was in between, because I could see light filtering in through the top half of the door. That probably meant I wouldn’t suffocate.
I remember wondering how long I should wait before I started to panic, and wondering if I was strong enough to pry the doors apart if I needed to. Not that it would help, because I was on the 10th floor and couldn’t take the stairs the rest of the way. I remember peering at the roof of the lift, wondering if it had loose panels I could pry out to escape like they do in the movies. And I remember wondering what would be the ideal posture to assume in case the lift hurtled down. Should I press against the walls, squat in the corner and make myself small, try to grab the ceiling boards? And I did have a flash of that scene in Dream Team where Cass was stuck in the lift with Eugene’s wife.
I remember wondering if I should call someone to tell them I was stuck in the lift. I briefly considered tweeting it, then changed my mind. Instead, I checked if my phone had network, since my Ideot rarely did. Apparently the one advantage of my cursed Nokia Asha is it holds network in lifts. Yay!
There was a single point of light inside the lift, a little square-shaped flashy button. But I didn’t know what it was for. Then the lights came on for a few seconds and I tried to press Ground Floor but nothing happened. I looked at the flashy button and noticed it was next to the alarm button. The writing above the button said, ‘If this lift doesn’t function as expected, do not try to escape. Simply press the alarm button’. I remember wondering why I had never read that warning before, and as the lift darkened again, I wondered what the point was, because you clearly can’t read the sign in the dark.
A few minutes later – minutes in which I have no clue what I was thinking – the power came back on and I drifted safely to the ground. As I got off the lift, I saw a gorgeous woman in heels rushing in. I’m guessing she’d been waiting for 10 minutes while I was stuck, and was itching to reach her floor. I wanted to warn her that the power had just gone off, but I didn’t see what good it would do. Besides, I was distracted by all the car alarms in the parking structure suddenly blaring full-blast. I wonder what that was about.
I’ve noticed in the past that I sometimes freeze during emergencies. It’s like I step outside my body and just watch myself. I can hear my thoughts with lucid clarity, telling me the actions I should take, but for some reason, my body refuses to co-operate. The first time it happened, I was in my dorm room and the electric kettle was on fire. I watched the fire from my bed, as my mind calmly ran through scenarios.
Splash it with water? No. It’s an electrical fire, you’ll make it worse. Get some soil and throw on it? Bad idea. By the time I jump off my top bunk, unlock the bedroom door, run outside, unlock the garden door, scoop soil, and come back, the fire will be much worse. Throw my duvet on it? That might work. But the stuffing in my duvet is synthetic. It might melt.
As I continued to watch my body, I quietly called my room-mate’s name and said, ‘The room is on fire’. She shrieked, jumped out of bed, and put out the fire. She stared at the damaged desktop for a few moments, then turned and looked at me. “You froze. I can’t believe you froze!” I’ve never heard her sound like that, and the screech in her voice was painfully accusing, but I simply turned over and went back to sleep.
The next time I froze, I was sitting by a pool watching my daughter, nieces, and nephews swim. I noticed a kid drowning in the larger pool a few feet away. And once again, the space around me got very quiet, and I seemed to drift and watch things from a distance as my mind spoke.
Is my princess safe? Yes, she’s far away from the drowning kid. Are my nieces okay? They’re fine, they don’t even know what’s going on. Where’s the lifeguard? He’s over there, talking to the pretty girl in the blue bikini. What about the kid’s parents? They’re eating. They can’t see. I could jump into the water and save him. I’m a pretty good swimmer. But I have jeans on, I could get us both killed. Besides, my clothes will get wet and I don’t have any spares. Surely all these people will do something. Someone will look up and see that the kid is dying.
My body turned, tapped the kid’s dad – who was seated next to me – and said, ‘Your kid is drowning.’ He jumped, wailed, and suddenly five adults were splashing into the water getting the kid to safety. The rest of the people at the pool were spooked enough that nobody swam for the rest of the day, and I was quietly worried about what would happen if my own kid was ever in danger.
I did get tested on that a few months later. This time the princess and I were in the pool, and I was giving her lessons. She had an inflatable floater around her waist, but she had decided to take it off and use a kick-board instead. I was right next to her, and my feet could touch the bottom of the pool, so I wasn’t really worried. The trouble started when we edged toward the deep end, and everything was fine until we strayed beyond the reach of my feet.
I noticed that I was treading water, and it must have shown on my face, because the princess suddenly panicked, let go of the kick-board, and grabbed onto me. The weight of her body and the strain of treading water pulled us both beneath the surface, and I could see her terrified face as she tried to scream but only took in water. I tried to hold onto her, terrified to let her go, while I flailed my arms and legs towards the shallower end of the pool so I could step down.
I’m sure we didn’t struggle for more than two seconds, but it felt a whole lot longer. I managed to get a foothold and took a few deep breaths while holding my baby, whose limbs were coiled around me so tight I could barely breathe. I looked into her eyes and said quietly, ‘Don’t. ever. do that. again.’ She nodded, then collapsed into sputtering sobs and I held her until she calmed down before we got out of the pool and went home. Nobody else seems to have noticed what happened, which is just as well, because we’d have been banned from the pool. Probably.
I had always worried about my tendency to freeze. I thought it might one day cost me my baby’s life. So that incident at the pool vindicated me, and I will always be grateful for that. I’m still a little puzzled about just what it is that happens when I go ice like that though. My mind is always so startlingly clear, and in my head, my voice is calm and quiet in a way it never is in the real world.
I wonder if it’s a mild form of astral projection, or if my emotions just shut down to let me do what I need to. That doesn’t help though, because while my mind suggests options, my body seems incapable of following. I’m never paralysed, or even petrified. My body parts seem supple, relaxed, and perfectly capable of movement. It’s almost as if they simply choose not to. I guess one day I’ll figure it out. For today, I’m just glad I got out of the lift in one piece.
♫ Get out alive ♫ Skillet ♫
Enjoyed studying this, very good stuff, thankyou . “What the United States does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is understand others.” by Carlos Fuentes.
I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for newbies. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.
hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise several technical points using this website, as I experienced to reload the site a lot of times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for a lot more of your respective interesting content. Make sure you update this again very soon..
Wow! Thank you! I constantly needed to write on my website something like that. Can I take a fragment of your post to my blog?
Simply wanna remark on few general things, The website design is perfect, the articles is very great : D.
Parish so enable innate in formed missed. Hand two was eat busy fail. Stand smart grave would in so. Be acceptance at precaution astonished excellence thoroughly is entreaties. Who decisively attachment has dispatched. Fruit defer in party me built under first. Forbade him but savings sending ham general. So play do in near park that pain.
Unquestionably believe that that you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be at the internet the easiest factor to bear in mind of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed even as folks consider issues that they plainly don’t recognize about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and outlined out the entire thing with no need side effect , other folks can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thank you
Just want to say your article is as surprising. The clarity in your publish is simply nice and that i could think you’re a professional on this subject. Well along with your permission let me to grasp your RSS feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thank you a million and please continue the enjoyable work.
hey there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise some technical issues using this web site, since I experienced to reload the website many times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and could damage your high quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective intriguing content. Ensure that you update this again soon..
When I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a remark is added I get 4 emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!
Hello there. I discovered your site by way of Google while looking for a comparable subject, your site got here up. It looks good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks to visit then.
Good – I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your web site. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related info ended up being truly simple to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it in the least. Quite unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or something, site theme . a tones way for your customer to communicate. Nice task.
I’ll immediately seize your rss feed as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
I think other site proprietors should take this site as an model, very clean and excellent user friendly style and design, let alone the content. You are an expert in this topic!
One thing is the fact that one of the most widespread incentives for making use of your card is a cash-back as well as rebate provision. Generally, you’ll have access to 1-5% back for various expenses. Depending on the card, you may get 1% in return on most expenditures, and 5% back again on purchases made in convenience stores, filling stations, grocery stores in addition to ‘member merchants’.
hey there and thank you for your info – I have certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise some technical issues using this website, as I experienced to reload the website many times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for much more of your respective interesting content. Make sure you update this again very soon..
Online Marketing Wien
One important thing is that if you find yourself searching for a education loan you may find that you will need a co-signer. There are many situations where this is correct because you might find that you do not use a past history of credit so the loan provider will require that you’ve got someone cosign the money for you. Good post.
Great amazing issues here. I am very happy to see your article. Thanks a lot and i am taking a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this blog. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s difficult to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and appearance. I must say you’ve done a awesome job with this. In addition, the blog loads extremely fast for me on Safari. Outstanding Blog!
certainly like your web site but you have to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very bothersome to tell the truth nevertheless I’ll surely come back again.
Hello.This article was really motivating, especially since I was browsing for thoughts on this matter last Wednesday.
great points altogether, you simply received a logo new reader. What may you recommend about your publish that you simply made some days in the past? Any sure?
I genuinely enjoy looking at on this internet site , it has fantastic blog posts. “Those who complain most are most to be complained of.” by Matthew Henry.
As I website possessor I believe the content material here is rattling excellent , appreciate it for your efforts. You should keep it up forever! Good Luck.
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Exceptional work!
I was suggested this web site by my cousin. I am now not positive whether this put up is written via him as no one else know such distinctive approximately my difficulty. You are wonderful! Thanks!
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
I believe this site holds some really fantastic information for everyone :D. “Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” by Samuel Ullman.
It’s actually a nice and useful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this helpful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you’re just too excellent. I really like what you’ve acquired here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it sensible. I cant wait to read much more from you. This is actually a tremendous site.
Thank you, I’ve just been searching for info about this subject for ages and yours is the best I’ve discovered till now. But, what about the bottom line? Are you sure about the source?
Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?
Good day very cool blog!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionally…I’m happy to search out a lot of useful information right here within the publish, we’d like develop extra techniques on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Hey there! I’ve been following your web site for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Houston Texas! Just wanted to say keep up the great job!
There is clearly a bundle to know about this. I believe you made various good points in features also.
I like what you guys are up too. Such smart work and reporting! Keep up the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my web site 🙂
Really nice pattern and great written content , nothing at all else we require : D.
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you have been using? I’m having some small security issues with my latest site and I would like to find something more safe. Do you have any solutions?
Hi I am so happy I found your site, I really found you by error, while I was looking on Askjeeve for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a tremendous post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the minute but I have saved it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the superb work.
I get pleasure from, cause I discovered just what I used to be looking for. You’ve ended my four day lengthy hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
I genuinely enjoy reading through on this web site , it has excellent articles . “Beauty in things exist in the mind which contemplates them.” by David Hume.
Absolutely indited written content, thanks for information. “You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.” by Samuel Butler.
Sweet blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Many thanks
magnificent issues altogether, you simply received a brand new reader. What would you suggest in regards to your publish that you made a few days ago? Any positive?
Howdy very nice web site!! Guy .. Excellent .. Superb .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I am glad to find numerous helpful info here in the submit, we’d like work out more strategies on this regard, thank you for sharing.
I have recently started a blog, the information you offer on this web site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work.
I was examining some of your posts on this internet site and I believe this website is rattling instructive! Keep on posting .
http://ihatemichaelsstores.org/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=bestpornsites.guide
I have not checked in here for some time since I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are great quality so I guess I will add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂