The lift

Elevators can be awkward spaces to share with strangers, and my experience yesterday was no exception. Usually I'm a stairs kind of person. No, I swear. When I was little, I saw this episode of Our House where Wilford Brimley gets stuck on an elevator with an infant and some other guy, and it really traumatized me. In the event of the necessity to use an elevator, I used to lie to my parents and tell them that elevators gave me motion sickness, so I had to take the stairs. Well, I guess I have gotten over that fear, but in general elevators don't play into my day-to-day. But yesterday I had to go back and forth between the 2nd and basement floor of Gordy Hall, so I opted for the elevator. I got on with an awkward gentleman who started to get off while I was getting on, but then realized it was the wrong floor for him. He pushed the "close elevator door" button frantically. When he arrived to his floor, he proceeded to press said button AGAIN on his way OUT of the elevator while I was still in it. As the door closed, I saw him almost bump into several people on his way out of the building. On top of all this, I couldn't help but think of the placebo button.