Nightmare on the 13th Floor

Y'all know how much Elliot loves elevators. Most of the time, it's Thomas who takes him on adventures to ride elevators all over town on Saturday mornings (most recently, they checked out all the elevators on the Reed College campus). But I do my fair share of elevator riding, as well. Before Elliot's obsession began, I usually took the stairs. I'm not at all fond of elevators. They make me slightly dizzy, and I don't like being enclosed, especially in close proximity to strangers. But I've had to look my fear of elevators in the face for the sake of my fabulously quirky son. And, apparently, I'm working out that fear in my dreams.

Over the past few months, I've been having a recurring nightmare. I haven't had one of these since I was a kid. And it's not exactly a nightmare, since it's scary but not too scary, and it always turns out ok. In my dream, I'm in an elevator with various companions (none of which has ever been Elliot). Most recently it was Tess, but it has also been my best friend from elementary school who I haven't seen in a couple of decades. Go figure.

In every dream, the elevator ride seems to be taking much too long, and then the elevator detaches from the building and falls slowly through the air. It always manages to land safely - once in a field of snow, and most recently in the Willamette River (with a gorgeous aerial view of Portland on the way down). The elevator almost always lands with the doors on top and open, the passengers' heads peeking out. And even though I always land safely, the dreams are still disconcerting. I don't think you'd be able to pay me or lure me with any sort of temptation into one of those elevators on the outside of a building with glass all around.

But I do have a new appreciation of elevators, thanks to Elliot's fascination with them. And if ever I'm out and about somewhere with an elevator, Elliot expects that I will take a picture of it for him on my phone to show him when I come back home. We now have a heck of a lot of pictures like the ones below from my trip to Seattle with Tess this past October. They are shots, respectively, of the inside of the elevator at our hotel and the elevators at the large downtown Seattle Old Navy store.

Some kids may be glued to the TV watching Sponge Bob or Barney, but my little guy likes to sit at the computer and look at pictures of elevator control panels on Google Images. I'm in negotiations now with a local elevator repair company to get him a real elevator panel for Christmas, ripped out of some building or another. Stay tuned!

And not to be left out, here is how I found Miss Idgie earlier this week when I turned back around from making my own lunch.

And finally, I want to share with you this super cool picture that Tess took recently of Erin, Grayson, and Willow at the Orcas Island skate park.


Now I'm off to call the guy at the elevator company to see what he turned up! Woo hoo!