Windy City Open Sept15th - 17th 2006

Now the elevators in the Purple Hotel are quite old and shaky. As we pick up 4 more passengers our ride quickly comes to a dead stall somewhere between the first and second floor. Its hot in there and I'm a touch claustrophobic as well. We pick up the phone that is present to contact someone in case this happens but its DEAD! We hit the buzzer that is present to alert someone if your stuck in the elevator and that DOESN'T WORK either!

At this point everyone scrambles for their cellphones, but you guess it we are in a dead zone. At this point, Im thinking of those 3 afforementioned cocktails and the pressure already building in my bladder. With no way to alert anyone of our predicament we could be stuck awhile. This could be bad, its 90plus degrees in there, I have to use the bathroom, and we are certainly going to forfeit our match.

The next thing I know a couple of the guys start to disassemble to elevator ceiling with all the speed and dexterity of a Nascar pit crew. With in a minute or two all of the glass panels are removed with only 2 of them dropping directly on my head. Ouch!

The next thing I know this 6foot 5inch Korean guy raised one eyebrow and LEAPS out of the trap door! When I say leap I mean he dissapeared up the 8 foot hole in one movement. For a minute I swore I saw webs shoot from his wrist just before he jumped. Spiderman then proceeds to pry open the second floor elevator door with a rod procured from the ceiling structure.

They boost me out first and we proceed to pull everyone to saftey up the elevator shaft. One after one we emerged from the grimey hole looking like third world refuges. A look of relief crossed each soot covered face as they were delievered to the sanctuary of the stained carpeting that adorned the hallway. Any second I expected to see Sally Struthers appear and start serving rice and soup.

Instead of Sally, I see a hotel employee with a radio come walking down the hallway. Unbelievably we walks into the other elevator and proceeds to take off without even saying a word. I ask him if they knew the elevator was broken and guests were escaping from the elevator shaft. He responds "I dont know that" and the elevator door starts to close. I quickly put my foot in the elevator to stop the doors from shutting and suggested that he step out and take a look. He REFUSED! He doesn't call anyone, ask if everyone is okay, nothing, nada, ZIP! To say I was upset would be even more of an understatement then calling Terry and Andy Jenkins a tester match.