Another one of my fears realized

I have a few irrational fears. Grates for example. Stepping on cracks. Another: elevators. Nearly every time I step onto an elevator my palms get a little sweaty, and if it's a long elevator ride, my heart starts to thump. I don't know what it is about elevators, but something about being suspended by a cable utterly freaks me out.

So, tonight, my fear became a reality for me. I was riding the elevator up to the 4th floor where I live. Jolly old good time, I was exhausted, I'd been working all day, and it was close to 9 pm. All of a sudden, it lurches to a stop shy of the floor I'm going to. Cue panic. I start hyperventilating, just waiting to crash to my doom. I get my wits about me and sound the alarm and call the people. The stupid intercom wasn't working properly so I couldn't really hear the nice elevator lady's instructions. I start crying and hyperventilating a little more, then I start shedding my clothes because I realize I'm having a panic attack and being hot and in constricting clothes makes it worse. I call Tim, and a crowd gathers outside. I can hear voices calling to me and yell back that I'm fine, no worries, just a little stuck. I talk to the nice lady some more and follow her instructions. Miraculously, what feels like an eternity later, the elevator begins to move again and takes me down to the floor I started on. When I tell her it's moving again and the door is opening, she tells me to get out, quick! Since some of my clothes and my bags and other random assortments of things I was carrying are on the floor now, I scramble to pick them all up and practically fall out of the elevator. I'm sure I was quite the sight, being all hysterical and disheveled.

From now on, I'm taking the stairs. I hope stairs don't = pre-term labor.