Thursday, January 22, 2009

Elevator Etiquette


Since having Mason, I have been introduced to a new demographic, the "elevator riders". This is a group of people that I rarely encountered. My parents told me as a young child that I did not need to ride the elevator since God had given me good legs that would allow me to climb stairs. (My husband heard the same statement from his parents.) I am not saying that I was not envious of those people that rode the really cool elevator with the glass back. I would see them descending from the second floor to the first and wish I could do the same. No telling how many millions of times my brother and I begged to ride the elevator (and on occassion we did ride in the really cool mall elevator). However, 9 times out of 10 we walked. Now, I totally understand why my parents said what they said and I'm sure before long I will be saying the same thing!
The elevator should only be used by those people who genuinely need to use the elevator. Every time my husband and/or I go to the mall with Mason we frequently discover that we need to get to another floor. We search for the closest elevator and patiently wait in line. First of all, while we are waiting, we are never alone. Very rarely are those people who waiting with us incapable of walking the stairs. As soon as the door opens, the person/people waiting with us push ahead of us to the opening doors and encounter people who are trying to exit the elevator. That results in the pushy person backing up (without looking) and often nearly backing into our stroller. Once the majority of the people are off the elevator, the pushy person/people are again pushing their way into the elevator. They seem to be oblivious to the fact that they should be holding the door open for us. As we push the stroller inside, they often shoot us a look of disgust because the stroller doesn't provide enough room for them to stand in the dead center of the elevator. Once inside we start our ascent or descent to find the same thing when we reach our destination...as the doors begin to open, there is someone waiting on the other side trying to push their way inside while our pushy "friend" is trying to get out. We have yet to encounter anyone who stands back to let the mommy with the stroller go first.
So, next time you have the choice between stairs or elevator, please choose the stairs. It won't be long and we will be walking the stairs too!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Snow Day!


Today was Mason's first snow day! He was not too thrilled by his newest experience. I don't know if it was the cold...or the brightness...or wearing a billion layers, but he was much happier back inside. In fact, he'd rather spend the day sitting by the fire. Is he my boy or what?
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