I work on the second floor of my building, and on most occasions I take the stairs to and from my office rather than the elevators. There are a few exceptions to this however. If I'm carrying coffee, I take the elevator. The stairwell doors are heavy and strongly spring loaded- I've smacked myself with them enough times to know that trying to deal with them with my hands full of breakfast and hot coffee is just a bad idea. If I'm wearing my new boots, with the high-and-still-somewhat-wobbly heels, I'll take the stairs up but not down because I'm afraid of falling on my face.

The last few days I've been dealing with a knee sore enough that it's kept me from the gym (hate!) and given that I want it to recover so I can start going to the gym again, I've given myself a break from taking the stairs.

Yesterday I got into the elevator with a group of three people that seemed to work in the same office, and they were talking about Anna Nicole Smith. The conversation went like this:

Person 1 (African American man, early to mid 40s): Yeah, they say if she hadn't overdosed she probably would have died anyway from a blood infection.
Person 2 (African American woman, maybe in her mid 30s): Yeah. It's sad. But you know what, I always used to get her mixed up with Pamela Anderson.
Person 3 (caucasian woman, late 50s): I don't know who that is.
P1: Pamela Anderson?
P3: Yes, who is she?
P2: You know, she was married to... Kid Rock.

That last line was said just after I exited the elevator, before the door closed. Before she said Kid Rock I was expecting her to say Tommy Lee, since that marriage/relationship was a lot longer. I said to myself "She probably doesn't know who Kid Rock is either."

About an hour later, I was still not really awake and so I headed down to the cafe in the building to get a cup of coffee. Being on the second floor, a lot of people will try to get off of the elevator before they realize that it is not the lobby, and have sort of an "Huh? OH." reaction, and step back again. Now, working on the second floor, I routinely only push one of two buttons, the L, or the 2. I have no need of any other buttons. Occasionally (more often than I care to admit actually) I will hit the L button even though I'm already in the lobby, or I'll hit the 2 button when I'm already on the second floor. This causes the doors to close and then immediately reopen while I stand inside looking stupid.

But yesterday, I got on the elevator in search of a nice big cup of coffee. I get in, I push the button, and the elevator starts to move. The doors open, and I step out. Faced with a beige wall and a darkish elevator lobby. I say "Huh? OH." and step back into the elevator, because the third floor is completely not helpful to me, in any way shape or form. There is no coffee for me there, there is no work for me to do there. Somehow, I had gotten on the elevator and pushed the 3 (which is right above L) and not noticed that yes, the elevator was moving, but it was going *up*. I stepped back in, pressed L, and finally made my way to the coffee.