Homeless for a day

Ok, so I was only homeless for a few hours, but still. How it happened: yesterday the sun finally made an appearance and I bundled up my little girl to take advantage of the cold sunshine. I didn’t bother locking the door for I knew we’d stay close to home. While we were out, however, the owner of our apartments stopped by to collect from us the tenant rent checks (we are the on-site managers.) She assumed the unlocked door and quiet apartment meant we were napping in the back room and therefore kindly locked the door behind her when she left.

After 45 minutes I could tell Paige had had enough and need some warmth, sustenance, and sleep (you can see where this is going.) We walked home, tried the door, and in in a split second the whole scenario was obvious. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Did I mention I needed to use the restroom? I called the owner, but she was hosting a political party across town and couldn’t get away. No big deal, I’ll take Paige on a walk and if we get too cold I have plenty of friends on our block where I can wait until Dave comes home – in 3 ½ hours (I had left him a message, but I knew he was in clinic with patients.)

I called all 7 women. Not one of them answered the phone. On a second try I managed to reach one friend, only to learn she was out of the state. By this time the wind had picked up, and my hand was hurting from the exposure while using the phone, and little Paige’s head was bobbing and she struggled to keep walking. I scooped her up and headed home to warm up in the hallway of our apartment; she fell asleep on my shoulder. 10 minutes later we were arrived and I slumped against our door and sat down. Paige was so tired she just slept in my lap. After 25 minutes my neighbor came home and brought us into her apartment. Paige slept on the couch and we were able to wait out the last 25 minutes in comfort. One good thing came of this: I couldn’t make dinner so we had to go out to eat!

May I just say I am grateful to have a place to call home?