No, I'll Take the Stairs - Thank You

I wouldn't say that I am the type of person who worries or is afraid of too many things. Sure, I will jump at the thought of a spider and the sight of any bug with more than 6 legs beings tears to my eyes; but generally speaking I'm not a person who lives in fear of the swine flus of the world or about picking my half eaten apple up off the ground in the train station or that the next time I fly I may be sitting next to a terrorist. However, I am quickly discovering that I am the girl who has a fairly serious fear of dying in an elevator related accident.

I don't know if it's because I used to work in a building that was more than 1000 feet tall, or that I've heard countless times that Car 1 is stuck between the 73rd and 74th floor or that I've seen Otis Elevator men climb into the shafts hundreds of feet above the ground to fix a cable; but somedays I wake up convinced that I am going to kick the bucket by being crushed in an elevator shaft.

I know, I know what you're thinking - the chances of me actually being one of the 30 or so people a year that are offed in the United States due to an elevator related accident is highly unlikely. But every two or three weeks I have a terrible dream that I am either, A: stepping into the elevator only to find that there is not a floor beneath me and I fall several hundred feet to my death, B: the elevator gets stuck in between the ground and the top of the building, but nobody knows it and I end up trying to escape only to fall once again to my death, or C: I step into a crowded elevator and am leaning against the door, when suddenly the walls disapear and I am crushed by a passing elevator during my descent.

Irrational? Most likely, but this morning I awoke in a pool of my own sweat and my heart jumping out of my chest, unable to get back to sleep. I realize that elevators make millions of succesful trips up and down each day throughout every major city in the world, but during those 40 or so times a month when I am zooming up and down the shafts, I can hear a tiny little voice in my head reading the headilne, "20 Something MN Girl Dies While Taking Elevator Up 10 Floors."

Guarenteed, for the next 48 hours, you can bet that I will be taking the stairs.