Odd Habits

I did something tonight that inspired this blog post. I made myself laugh out loud. Don’t get me wrong, that happens on an everyday basis, but this one was particularly special. You see, we live in a dormitory. I just so happen to live on the sixth floor. And while there are abundant windows and things throughout the entire building, at night our building tends to be very dark. This is because all of the lights in the hallways and stairwells are sound-wave censored. This means that if I stand at the bottom of the stairwell and let a high-pitched and resounding “bop” escape from my vocal chords, all of the lights in the entire stairwell would turn on…for a whole 15 seconds.

Everyone has a different style to turning on the lights. There is a man on my hallway somewhere who has taken up the sound of “hacking a loogie” as his method of turning on lights [at least…that’s what I tell myself he’s doing]. Each of the girls have created their own sound, and Michael plays ‘ninja’ every time he climbs the stairs, as to see if he can sneak past the detectors.

I’ve recently gotten into the habit of slapping my thigh as I climb the stairs. It makes sound, it gets the job done, and it’s not obnoxious. If for some reason or another I don’t produce enough sound to turn on the light, I’ll usually add a little extra force to the next step that I take, instead making me sound like a grumpy and disappointed adolescent.

Alls that to say, I found myself wandering back from the teaching building tonight, alone, and in a shadowy corner.

I slapped my thigh. 

I slapped it again. 

I then stomped my foot. 

Twice.

I couldn’t figure out why my path was still dark.

Brilliant, Kayla. In case you were wondering, China still has yet to install motion-censored lights along dark and shady sidewalks. Try as you might to cause a commotion and produce light, it’s just not going to happen.

Imagine what the word would be if we could have motion-censored lights at our disposal. No child would ever be scared to adventure through the forest, or to look in their closet. Disney princesses would be way more self-sufficient women and wouldn’t need their Prince Charming to come save them from evil forces. There would be no excuse for falling into holes or stepping in puddles. The list goes on and on…

I laughed. I hope you did too.