Oh the silliness of late night working...

Sometimes I like the peace and quiet of my classroom when all the students have gone, so I will return to the science building to get some work done in a place where I can concentrate a little more.  Last night, after most of the students had left, I went up to my classroom to get through some planning for the next few weeks.  I think it was probably around 6:00 pm or so... still light out.  I was playing my music, singing along... I could hear some people downstairs... keys jingled.  A man yelled something, but the building is so large and empty, his voice was echoing and I could not understand what he was saying.  I actually thought it was a friend of mine, who works on the first floor of the science building, yelling things out a window, in his large, deeper voice, which is sometimes unintelligible when he is yelling...I did not really think anything of it and went back to what I was working on.

  

Au contrare - It turns out that the deep, booming voice was not Derek, as I was to find out about an hour later...

After packing up, I go down the stairs with my stack of papers which still needs to be graded, I notice the sunset is still shedding pale light from behind the mountain... I step down to the door to walk out. 

Locked. 

Awesome.

I try the second door on the first floor.  Locked too.  I was locked in the science building.... 

One would have thought, that the security guard who is locking up a building for the evening at 7 pm, would at least walk up to the third floor (as he later claimed he walked up to the second) to make sure no one was up there.  I had all the lights on in the hall, and my classroom, and my office... would it really have been such an inconvenience to walk up 20 more stairs to the top floor of the building?  I would have thought that would have been a better idea instead of just yelling something up the stairs of a stone building? (Turns out it was also in Bulgarian, a language I am still trying to learn how to speak and understand, so the echo/mumbling really did not help in my language recognition)

So, what to do when one is locked in your own place of work?  Call someone to your rescue.  I did contemplate jumping from one of the first floor windows, but they are too high up in the hall for me to easily get to.... And then the window would have been open with no way for me to shut it.  So plan B, call someone who has the ability to open the door :)  Luckily my friend Andy came to my rescue;  he and Erin found the new guard on duty (who was in the door of the neighboring building, a mere 30 feet away...apparently he did not notice me turn all the lights on in the stairwell...)  Our favorite "friendly" guard (as he is ever so chatty) came to my rescue to let me out.  What a wonderful feeling....  It was a night with a few pretty good laughs, and an awkward moment when I realized I was locked in my own building. 

No harm done... I just hope that the next time I am there late, the guards come up to the next floor to check if anyone is there.  If anything, it makes for quite the amusing story :)

Also...

...Just wanted to say that I had a wonderful birthday a few weeks ago.  Thank you to all who sent their love, wishes, and cards.  :) It was a very nice and relaxing day, and one which I actually had off from work, which was fun!  (We had the entrance exam the day before on Sunday, so they gave us an extra day in exchange for coming in to work). 

A Little More Debt Free

As a pre spring break activity, a few of us girls decided to go to see the film, "Confessions of a Shopaholic".  If you have not heard of this film, based upon a book series, the basic gist is that it is a light-hearted film, sprinkled with some romantic interest, between this young woman MASSIVELY in credit card debt... way more than I could ever fathom... and is running away from the debt collectors, all the while trying to make her way up in the magazine world by writing for a financial magazine.  A shopaholic, massively in debt, telling other people via magazine column how to manage their finances.  Talk about a bit of irony here.  Anyway, one lighthearted movie later, where the heroine manages to pay off all her debt with a bit of sacrifice, it got this little one thinking that perhaps it was time for me to pay off the rest that I owed on my VISA.  

Now, I had debt nowhere NEAR the extent that this character in the movie.  Mine had just accumulated over the past few years, as I was living in Charlottesville, paying for things which I "needed" at the time, which I could not have necessarily paid off completely at that moment, as well as things which were actually necessary but that I still could not have paid for in cash... Because I had needed that cash to pay for my credit card the next month.... I now see what a vicious cycle it all is.  I have no regrets... except that this has gone on for way too long. 

Personal take-home message of the movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic: Do not end up like her.

Action taken to avoid said fate:  I paid off my entire bill for last month, a total, which although not as high as it once was, totaled over $1,500 (but no more than 2, I promise-  I will keep the actual figure between me and VISA).

Result of this action is that I feel weird.  It is a good weird, and one I am still getting used to.  But is it an odd feeling like some sort of negative security blanket is now gone.  I do not know if that even makes sense, because generally security blankets are a positive force in one's life.  However, it is the best I can do.  However, all in all, I am now debt free.  And the current purchases which have been made, I know that I will pay off the entire sum in full, and will have ample left over to pay my student loans (that will not go away for another 11 years) and have some change to add to my savings. 

It is a good feeling.... and is one that was inspired by a silly little chick flick movie before spring break.