Aiding and Abetting

So - there was some drama last night.
Which at this point in the afternoon, is rather entertaining -- at the time, not so much.
So with humblest apologies to Nate and Martine for what I am sure was a few moments of panic -- I present you with my entry into the criminal world.

So last night -- I went to bed at the normal time. Martine had called about 9/9:15 to let me know that she still wasn't feeling hot -- she sounded like crap -- and wouldn't be working out.
No worries. Set alarm, go to bed.
Fast forward to 2:53 AM -- my phone rings.
Not a lot wakes me up -- I am pretty trained to my cell phone and alarm. That is about it.
But with everything going on lately -- a call at 3AM made the heart drop for a minute.
Then I looked at the caller ID -- it was a Minneapolis number.
My first thought
"Someone is drunk dialing the wrong number and they are going to REGRET it"

So, I answer. Keep in mind my voice is somewhere between Kathleen Turner and a 80 year old with a carton and a 5th of Jack Daniels a day habit.

"Hello??"

"Meghan, its Mike McHenry" -says the voice in one of thickest Minnesota accents I know.
"The whole network is down, been down for an hour and a half -- we need to get hold of Nate and he is not answering his phone. Brice is in front of his house and he is not answering the door either".

-- Side note: our business requires 24x7 monitoring, so someone is always on call. When the "WHOLE" network goes down, this is bad. VERY bad. Thus their need for Nate.

Mike continues "Do you know the home number to their house? We need to get hold of him"

Of course, the house phone was disconnected eons ago. I tell Mike this.
We decide that I am going to try calling Martine's cell and then I will call Brice and see if he has had any luck.
Call Martine's cell -- right to voicemail.
Call Nate's cell -- 4 rings, to voicemail.

Call Brice --

"Hello"

"Brice, its Meghan"

"Hey Meghan, what are you doing calling?"

And I think to myself, 'Well we don't hang out anymore, we should talke more so I thought I would call at 3 AM and we could catch up --- '
"Mike called me. Any luck with the door?"

"No -- are you sure they are even home?"

This is how out of it they are --

"Yes they are home. They must be Ny-Quil'd out or something".

Keep in mind Martine is a light sleeper. The fact that no one has answered the door at this point is nothing short of amazing.

So Brice and I chat for a minute or two more about how to raise the apparent dead sleeping not 20 feet and a floor above him.

And then I do the only thing that I can think of at 3AM -- suggest Brice open the garage door and see if that doesn't rouse them out of bed.
-- Probably in a panic, but get them out of bed anyway --

So, I give him the code to the door.
-- Which I am fairly confident has already been changed, NOT to be shared with me again! --

He opens it. We wait a minute or two.
Next thing he says to me is....
"Um, Ok. I can't believe I am doing this. They don't have guns do they?"
He goes into the house.
I pray for two things:
well, three really
1) The door opening has woken them up and someone is coming downstairs.
2) They are not completely panicked about the fact that their garage door is opening in the middle of the night.
3) They are not naked.

At this point, we hang up.
And thus -- I have become a criminal.
breaking and entering.
Woo me.

I call Mike back. He lets me know that Brice and Nate are talking. I toss and turn for about 30 minutes feeling pretty bad about what we had to do and finally fall back asleep somewhere around 3:40 ish.

Find out this morning that Brice not only went into the house, but Martine's dad was staying the night as well.
Chaos.
Sent a SERIOUSLY sorry email to Martine this morning.
Hope she doesn't hate me.

And now, the word is spreading around the office about Brice and I. Offers have been made to break into other homes to really test our abilities.
I have humbly declined.
My one foray into the criminal world is complete.

And -- for those of you following the story -- the network was restored about the time I fell asleep. So, Nate worked his magic in short order.

This is my life.
Good times.