Locked Out

04 November 2016


Two months after the official move in day, I locked myself out of the apartment whilst going to retrieve the second round of groceries from the car. That moment when your muscle is just relaxing from pulling the door shut and you realize your key is on the other side had not happened to me in quite some time. I believe the last time was senior year of high school when I shut my car keys in my trunk. I was locked out of my dorm, by no fault of my own, on several occasions post-shower during freshman and sophomore year of college, but it is much funnier when the situation can be quickly and easily remedied.

But there I was on the front stoop with no option but to find out when Debbie would be home. In the meantime I did what any sensible person would do and pulled the large trashbins over to my window and climbed up. The window was still 5 feet up. Not to mention the screens are only removable from the inside. I circled the house, but there were only two options, wait for Debbie to get home or call my landlady after 5 o'clock on a Friday. Given that I could be waiting a while for my landlady anyways, I resolved to explore the town for 4 hours until Debbie could bail me out.

So began an exploration of a few of the many places I had seen in Fremont. Which began after a nice 20 minute downhill stroll because naturally my wallet with my bus pass was also locked in the house. Thankfully I was fully armed with my phone and my credit card because the first place I reached was a used book store. For sure I could spend forever in Barnes and Noble, but an average used book store I could at least peruse for an hour. This was not an average used book store, This was an average used book store with a cat. And not any cat, a beautiful tortoise shell cat. After about 1.5 hours of scanning and rescanning and pulling books off of shelves, I left with four books for $25:

The Endangered Species Road Trip: A Summer's Worth of DINGY MOTELS, POISON OAK, RAVENOUS INSECTS, and the RAREST SPECIES in North America by Cameron Macdonald

The travel section included one American road trip and this was it. Despite Cameron Macdonald actually being a Canadian embarking on an American road trip, I am 30 pages in and it is a wonderful read so far.
Baseball: The Early Years by Harold Seymour

After watching the Cubs break their 108 year drought last Wednesday night I picked this up as a must read.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I love the TV series and reading this might be hell, but I love knowing all the details so I will subject myself to hell.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

It seems a bit silly to have picked this up, but originally I thought I would read a book while I waited. I figured I could read this pretty fast given I've already read it and its a smooth read. I also wanted to read it again in a non-school setting so I could enjoy it 100%.


After petting the cat a bit more I set off again into the heart of Fremont. I'm not sure where I saw it but I was drawn into this mural that said "Fremont Mall, two floors." It turned out to be a store of antiques, collectibles, and all sorts of awesome stuff. I spent a half hour in there before they kicked me out at closing time.

It was now dinner time and I had to decide which of the many amazing restaurants I wanted to try. I opted for a thai restaurant because as I was passing multiple people were remarking how good the food is. The pad thai certainly did not dissapoint. In fact, the Jai Thai Pad Thai is now in the top spot for my "Best Pad Thai in Seattle" contest. Ignoring the judging eyes fixed on the girl who wore sweatpants out to dinner alone on a Friday night, I followed the waiter to a table in the corner. There I was able to enjoy dinner in peace while starting to read Mr. Canada's endangered species road trip.

By the time I finished dragging out dinner (don't worry nobody was waiting), it was time to go home. I was definitely read for some peace and quiet, but I thoroughly enjoyed my excursion to Fremont that would have otherwise been spent sitting on my arse with a brief cooking break.