Second Video Blog Entry
Locked Out of the Apartment
“It’s important to learn from the past, but not to be hard on yourself about past actions to the point of not being able to function in the current moment. ”
Written Transcript: [Philadelphia] Hello loyal viewers! Patrizio Murdocca here, Chief Web Developer at Drover Rideshare. Today, I want to talk about when life throws you curveballs. I am coming to you live from Philadelphia, at the UPenn campus. I'm up here spending the week with my buddy Dave who is doing an internship at Wharton, and we only get a chance to see each other once a year, so I decided to come up and visit him in Philly.
Our room situation is that he is subletting an apartment from this guy who goes to UPenn. And, he only has one set of keys to the room. Now, since Dave has been at his internship during the day, I have had the keys during the day. Yesterday was the first day that I really went out to explore the city. I went out to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (which is an incredible, incredible museum with a fantastic collection). So, I am getting ready to head out, and call an Uber (because Drover isn't in Philly... Jeff should get on that). I rushed out of the apartment -- with the keys -- lock the door, and jump in the Uber. I'm on my way.
I have a good convo with the driver, get dropped off at the museum, have a wonderful time at the museum, great day, and come back in time to meet Dave at the library at 5pm. We walk back to his apartment, and realize neither of us has the key! So, for the next four hours, we undergo the incredibly frustrating ordeal, as I am sure some of you have experienced, of not having your keys.
There were two doors we needed to get in. The first was the front door to the whole house. We thankfully were able to get one of the other guys living in the house to meet us after about half an hour and let us in the actual house. Once we got in the actual house, we still didn't have a spare key to Dave's room! No one had a spare key -- not the other guys in the house, nor the apartment managing company. From there, we think, how hard can it be to pick a lock?!
“From there, we think, how hard can it be to pick a lock?”
Picking a lock is very hard! We tried, though. We tried using a butter knife, a credit card, and even bobby pins with a YouTube video. I even ran to CVS (which was like a mile away) so that we could follow a YouTube video on picking a lock with bobby pins.... None of those methods worked. Apparently, while I had ran to CVS, Dave had called a professional locksmith to get a quote. He didn't ask them to show up, however, because their price was exorbitant.
Now, I didn't know that Dave made this call to the locksmith. After our other ideas failed, we call the apartment company again and they inform us that there is a maintenance guy that could come on site and break the lock for $35. We figured that was our best bet, so we went with it. I didn't have $35 cash because NO ONE carries cash anymore, so I go to another store, buy something and get cash back. By the time I get back, I see a guy parked out front and think, "great, this is the maintenance guy!"... but then, a second car showed up! The second guy says "Hi, I am Brian, the apartment company called me and asked me to show up". Dave and I look at each other and just thing "wow, uh oh"....
I sent Dave off to get into the room with Brian -- who was a great guy -- and I deal with the other locksmith guy. He is going on and on about how he was called to pick the lock and how he needs to get paid just for showing up, even if he doesn't touch the lock. I explained to him (respectfully) that we didn't actually ask anyone to show up, but just asked for a quote, and that two broke college kids can't fork over $45 for just showing up and doing nothing. He finally went on his way.
Brian, the right maintenance guy, really comes in clutch. The apartment company didn't have a spare to Dave's room, so Brian just takes a hammer and goes in and destroys the door knob and lock. At this point, its been three hours, and we are in the room but without a functioning lock on the door. Dave and I then took an Uber to Home Depot, bought a lock, and installed it... which I am very proud of. Once we installed the lock, the question became, where are the keys?! After realizing they weren't in the room, I finally remembered that I had left them in the original Uber I took to the museum in the morning!
Thankfully, Uber has a very good lost item service, and I was able to get the keys back from the Uber driver. Had I remembered that the keys were in the Uber before calling the locksmith, that would have saved some time and money, but with that said, I didn't remember that until I actually saw that the keys weren't in the room.
That was my curveball last night! The whole thing took about four hours to sort out and install the new lock. With that said, it was a good experience, and I'm glad I had Dave there so I didn't have to deal with that on my own. Hopefully, when I'm married some day and my wife and I are locked out of our apartment, I will be able to keep my cool.
Circling back to how this is relevant to life/Drover -- I think it is important to keep positive in the moment and realize that you shouldn't beat yourself up for your mistakes. I made the huge mistake of leaving Dave's keys in an Uber... but in the end, it was really an interesting experience, and I think Dave and I definitely grew closer as friends haha!
The important thing is that you keep your head up, and deal with the situation you are faced with, without dwelling too much on the past. It's important to learn from the past, but not to be hard on yourself about past actions to the point of not being able to function in the current moment.
Thanks for watching! Hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth of July!
Author's Note
Thank you so much for watching/reading our first Drover Video Blog! All Drover video blogs are currently recorded from my cell phone camera (Nexus 6, not iPhone in case you were wondering). Moreover, I will record all of the video blogs in real, natural environments where ever I am! This first entry was recorded at the beach near my home in Venice, Florida. Finally, all Drover video blogs are unscripted, I write the transcript afterwards.
Not all blogs henceforth will include a video, but it is my intention to create as many as possible! My goal in running this video blog is to connect with on a deeper level with as many people as possible. Hope you like it, and feel free to comment your thoughts on the ideas presented -- even if you don't agree! I would love to hear your feedback and have your participation.
My next video blog will be recorded live in another beautiful, natural environment! Come back soon!
---
Patrizio Murdocca is Chief Web Developer at Drover Rideshare, a student at Vanderbilt University, and President of Interfaced Ministries (www.interfacedministries.org).
