you know, they say that the first thing to go with age is … uh … what was it? this weekend, while visiting a friend in the quad cities, I picked up a twist-tie off the coffee table and held it up. I inspected it, telling my friend, “I remember taking this off of something…gosh, what was it?” after a few minutes, I remembered that the twist-tie had been wrapped around an ethernet cable we’d taken out ten or fifteen minutes earlier so that I could plug the laptop into his ethernet router. then, tonight, I picked up a movie to take over to my friend’s house to watch. I picked up Troy, as it was released on DVD this week. just moments before pulling into my friend’s driveway, I realized that I’d seen the movie in the theater back in May. finally, I came home after the movie, just after 1am, the rain coming down heavily enough that I had to ford a few small creeks on springfield avenue to reach my apartment building. I rushed inside and set my things down before heading back outside to call for the little boy. I’d let him out earlier in the evening because he’s going through a difficult time with hormones and whatnot, and he needs to have the opportunity to meet the girls in the neighborhood. as soon as I stepped out of my building, hearing the door slam behind me, I placed my hand on the left-side back pocket of my jeans. no keys. the door remains locked at all times. I went to the car, which I never lock, and retrieved my umbrella, and began to call for the little boy. after a moment, I realized it was silly to try to find him, because I wouldn’t really be able to get him inside. I pointed this irrationality out to myself aloud before returning to my car to find tools for breaking into my own building. I found a small swiss army knife, a paperclip, a pair of sunglasses, and a pen. (yes, I was a fan of MacGyver as a child). I tried the swiss army knife first, to no avail. the blade was too short to reach the latch. all the while, I’m standing with my umbrella sort of resting on my head and my mini-mag flashlight balanced in my mouth. next up, paperclip. I bent it around and tried to wedge it behind the latch to pry it open. again, no luck. I decided to walk around the building for a moment, inspecting all of the windows of the warehouse attached to the back of the storefront downstairs from my apartment. many of the windows are broken, perhaps one would offer easy access so that I could make my way into the building and get back into the apartment. no luck. the warehouse is apparently filled with a surplus of spare lumber, and each of the windows is well-blocked by stacks of wood. I returned to the door. I took the sunglasses from my pants pocket and removed one of the earpieces. the second year running that my stocking-stuffer sunglasses from mom at christmas haven’t lasted the month of january. I did manage to get a picture of myself in both pairs, though…but better luck next year on having glasses in february. anyway, I bent the earpiece into a small loop and fidgeted with the latch some more. the umbrella wobbled back and forth on my head, pouring water alternately on my toes and my back. finally I accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to reach the other side of the door without getting a little wet. I closed the umbrella and stuffed it, along with all the rain it was holding, into my other back pocket. I fidgeted with the door some more, and just as I was beginning to lose hope and divert my attention, Bingo! the latch slid out and I pulled the door open! I made my way up the stairs to my apartment, victorious and soaked. I took off the sopping clothes and hung them wherever they might dry and slipped into my dry detox scrub pants. the little girl was happy to get all of tonight’s attention, given the absent little boy, but I trust that he’s resourceful enough to find a dry spot somewhere in the neighborhood to pass the night. and if not, wasn’t he trying to get himself a little wet in the first place?