I was up in Connecticut this weekend for a memorial gathering for my recently deceased brother. And being subliminally distraught or whatever (i.e., I tend to push things down) I left my apartment keys somewhere up there — either in the Wilton/Georgetown cottage I stayed in last night or the rental car. So I got back to the Brooklyn pad this evening and no keys. But I got into the building anyway and went up on the roof and climbed down the fire escapes and tried the windows — no dice. So I went over to the only hotel in the neighborhood and was told it’s $59 and change for four hours. A hooker hotel — great. So to get eight hours sleep I need to wait until 11 pm to check in and pay $120 to stay in a total dump.

11:30 pm Update: I got in! 100 minutes ago I left a note for the second-floor neighbors, saying that I needed to use their fire escape to place a step ladder on in order to climb up and into my kitchen window, which is always kept open. They called around 10:55 pm and said come on over. I borrowed a step ladder from the guy managing a 24-hour market three doors down. I carried the ladder into the neighbor’s apartment and onto their fire escape, but it wasn’t quite tall enough. So the guy in the 2nd-floor apartment rummaged around and found a wooden fruit crate. I put the crate on top of the step ladder and, with the guy holding the base of the ladder, carefully stepped up and lifted myself up and in. Success! Good-neighbor values, ingenuity…a perfect New York story. All is well.