So — what would you do if you were stuck in an elevator for an hour, by yourself, without cell coverage? Last week, that’s exactly what happened to me.
After my adventures, I was curious. So, I asked my friends on social media what they would do if they were stuck in an elevator for an hour. Between Facebook and Twitter, I got almost 100 responses and confirmed at least one thing: I have funny friends.
I was a bit surprised (and maybe I shouldn’t have been) by the number of women friends who said they would have just taken a nap. Mamas, we are tired, aren’t we?! In fact, my friend Stevi said she would consider that hourlong nap a Mother’s Day gift. I wonder if there’s a way we could fit in more sleep without getting stuck in an elevator ...
Some of my friends would be much more productive than I. My friend Robin said she would “sit down, delete some of my 10,000 plus unread email messages, text my daughter and tell her that I needed her to pick up kids, and enjoy the peace and quiet since I don’t get a lot of that ... and if my phone didn’t have service I’d probably open my journal doc and get some journaling done.” She did add: “If my phone was dead, I’d just nap. I could use a nap.”
Dan said he would write a column, Melissa said she would outline her next book and Diane said she would “clean out my purse, trim my fingernails” — and then play games on her phone. Sarah said she would do yoga, Mike said situps or pushups, and Helen said she would do leg stretches, but only if there was no camera. Helen also said, “I’d probably chew on just a little bit of my purse — the strap or something — to see if there’d be any sustenance to it. You know, just in case.” See? Funny friends.
A number of friends said they would spend the hour reading. Suzanne said she would pull out the paperback she keeps in her purse, Geri said she’d jump into Madeleine Albright’s memoir and some very smart friends would pull up the books already downloaded on their phones. Oh. That thought that had not occurred to me, even though I also have a number of downloaded books.
Jackson, Rebecca, Rachel, Melissa, Aleisha and Alysha said they would sing. A lot. “Welcome to your very own exclusive concert hall,” said Alysha, while Aleisha said she would be “performing a one woman show of ‘Hamilton’” Melissa said she would sing all the Bon Jovi songs she knew, while Rachel said she would “sing and dance to all the HOURS and DAYS worth of downloaded Spotify songs!!!”
I must say that I was surprised that several friends said they would write out their wills. My friend Andy said, “It might be a good opportunity to write down what I’d want my loved ones to know if I never saw them again. It’s a safe place to reflect on that kind of gratitude and loving communication because statistically speaking you’re sure to be all right, but at the same time you’re trapped in a weird space and it’s not too hard to take your imagination there. It could be a powerful hour for reflection.” He is much more zen than I am, apparently, and when I said so, he responded that realistically, he probably would have scrolled through reels on his phone. I felt better.
Finally, to my friends who said that being stuck in an elevator for an hour was their worst nightmare and something they were scared to death of: I am so sorry. I’m glad it happened to me and not to you. Truly.
So how did I spend that hour? I wasted it playing word games on my phone.
(And in case any of you are wondering about a certain episode on “The Office,” when Dwight and Pam were stuck on an elevator, no, that was not an issue for me!)
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy and enjoys her funny, creative friends.