hi! i've been thinking about this lately: situations which you may often time imagine yourself stumbling into, and simultaneously imagining solutions to these presently non-existent predicaments. they could range from dropping your keys (or any other important possession) down your sink drain, or finding yourself lost in a desert after your airplane has crashed and burned, leaving you one of the miraculous survivors. what do you do? have you ever thought about a plan of action before such action was imperative? have you ever actually experienced a situation in which your necessary conduct to alleviate it had already been calculated and refined?
my most recent example is this:
i live on the third floor of an apartment building. there is a front door, naturally, and then a porch that slightly extends from the building, and the railings are about three or so feet away from the bordering wall surrounding the staircase. time and time again i imagined balancing on the 6-inch wide ledge of the wall opening from the staircase, and climbing onto the balcony. it looked easy enough, though a little treacherous being on the 3rd floor! so, sure enough, one evening i had walked out of the door with my significant other as he was taking out the garbage, assuming (as we were dressed and shoe'd to go somewhere) that we would leave after dumping the trash - turns out, he didn't have his keys, and i closed the door (which automatically locks) behind us. he looked at me distressed and defeated, and after my "oh shit" moment, i knew what i had to do.
it was raining, which was ironic enough considering i live in a desert. but, slippery solutions are even harder to grab onto, though it didn't stop me from trying. i gathered myself onto the 6-inch platform and got as close to our railings as i could, before asking my disbelieving partner to grab onto my foot/leg, as i wedged it into the railing across from our front door, hoping to anchor my foot while i reached for the slick railing to our patio. after grabbing hold of the topmost railing and sort of angling my arms to rest against the insides of the metal, i pulled my body toward the door of the patio, relinquishing my foot from its snug, safe haven and dangling my legs three stories before wiggling onto the patio, dirtying my pants a bit.
after walking out the front door again with a pair of keys in hand, my boyfriend and i got to the car and drove to the grocery store, him still sort of in shock that he didn't have to spend a night miserable and hopeless until the office opened up, allowing us to borrow a spare key, and me grinning that my plans had gone exactly as i'd imagined them.
has anything like this ever happened to you? what specific situations are you presently prepared for, should they arise? i think about things like this all the time - not out of paranoia necessarily, but mere curiosity, as the world is a hugely unpredictable place!
my most recent example is this:
i live on the third floor of an apartment building. there is a front door, naturally, and then a porch that slightly extends from the building, and the railings are about three or so feet away from the bordering wall surrounding the staircase. time and time again i imagined balancing on the 6-inch wide ledge of the wall opening from the staircase, and climbing onto the balcony. it looked easy enough, though a little treacherous being on the 3rd floor! so, sure enough, one evening i had walked out of the door with my significant other as he was taking out the garbage, assuming (as we were dressed and shoe'd to go somewhere) that we would leave after dumping the trash - turns out, he didn't have his keys, and i closed the door (which automatically locks) behind us. he looked at me distressed and defeated, and after my "oh shit" moment, i knew what i had to do.
it was raining, which was ironic enough considering i live in a desert. but, slippery solutions are even harder to grab onto, though it didn't stop me from trying. i gathered myself onto the 6-inch platform and got as close to our railings as i could, before asking my disbelieving partner to grab onto my foot/leg, as i wedged it into the railing across from our front door, hoping to anchor my foot while i reached for the slick railing to our patio. after grabbing hold of the topmost railing and sort of angling my arms to rest against the insides of the metal, i pulled my body toward the door of the patio, relinquishing my foot from its snug, safe haven and dangling my legs three stories before wiggling onto the patio, dirtying my pants a bit.
after walking out the front door again with a pair of keys in hand, my boyfriend and i got to the car and drove to the grocery store, him still sort of in shock that he didn't have to spend a night miserable and hopeless until the office opened up, allowing us to borrow a spare key, and me grinning that my plans had gone exactly as i'd imagined them.
has anything like this ever happened to you? what specific situations are you presently prepared for, should they arise? i think about things like this all the time - not out of paranoia necessarily, but mere curiosity, as the world is a hugely unpredictable place!
