The strangest thing happened to me today. For work, I was helping out at a clinic in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Or, as I like to say Wauke$ha. I only wish that my name had an "s" in it. "Joy$" doesn't quite work out.
Side note: I was considering going as Ke$ha for halloween, but I was afraid people might see me and think I wonder why that girl with gross hair didn't dress up.
Anyway, at this clinic, I was circulating between three areas: 2 areas on the third floor and one on the fourth. Now some people may have taken the stairs when ambulating from the 3rd to 4th floor, but I am not one of those people.
So I'm getting onto the elevator on floor 3 and here's where I'm going to start recording details that I usually wouldn't notice: The elevators are near a corner. 2 other smiley people are in the elevator already when I enter. One male and one female, standing near the back. I'm standing near the buttons, I press floor 4, and the doors begin to close.
Suddenly, around the corner comes running a little boy, probably no more than 3 years old. His mother is trailing him by a few steps, and he's running, arms outstretched, smiling. He's running straight into the elevator, through the closing doors. And it was like things sped up and slowed down at the same time. Before any thought crossed my mind, I was quickly squatting down and my hand was shooting through the door to the little boy's chest and pushing him backwards. I pushed him with the exact right force: he got out of the doorway, but didn't fall over. His mom caught him, and called out "thank you." And the 3 of us in the elevator all watched the doors close (their motion sensors clearly unaffected by my hand or the boy), and then looked at each other and said phrases such as "Oh my gosh, I almost had a heart attack"
The weirdest thing about it all is, I'm the opposite of smooth. I often hit people with my bag when walking down the aisle of an airplane. I drop things. Constantly. I run into walls like it's my job. But in that moment, when I couldn't even think straight, somehow, my hand just knew exactly what to do. Hundreds of neurons must have fired in my brain for that action to be possible, but everything happened so quickly.
Anyway, I'm convinced that I did a terrible job of re-telling that story...but I wanted to record it here since it was such a strange moment.
Since I'm finally in the office for a whole week straight - I should hopefully have more time to post this week :) I know I've been slacking in October!
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