Nothing like starting the New Year with a strong kick! On a brisk evening in Downtown Cleveland, three young ladies who were dressed like high end escorts hopped into an Uber after a night of celebrating the New Year. After we approached our home, we walked up to the door to realize that not only I, but my sister Michelle did not carry our keys with us. But that’s okay, because we always enter the garage on a regular basis. My sister who is rocking some serious stilettos scuffed through the snow towards the garage, while our friend Tonya and I waited for her at the front door. For some strange reason, Michelle was taking an oddly long time to get into the house but I just assumed it was because she was struggling with walking. We did spend a night of dancing for four hours (which I am paying for because I still have aches in my legs).

After a few moments, I hear Michelle’s footsteps heading towards us, it was Michelle with some serious disappointment displaying on her face.

“The garage door won’t open,” she said.

It’s currently 2:53 am, and now we are trying to contact anyone we know who can help us during this dilemma but everyone is asleep. The more the phone calls that went straight to voicemail, the colder it felt outside. If you didn’t know, we are currently experiencing a polar vortex in Cleveland and rocking cute outfits, heels and definitely not warm enough jackets that can protect us in this weather. Everyone’s phones were dying because we were using social media uploading photos all night (don’t act like you weren’t doing the same thing); we simply did not know what to do.

Every window, every door is locked—which is good! Our house is secured but at this moment I really wanted for a miracle of a door to open. We are looking through the window and could see our keys, and blankets…it just looked so warm.

I decided to call my friend Michelle B who lives nearby, praying she’s the one person in Cleveland who did not fall asleep right after the ball dropped. Thanks to our lucky stars, Michelle B was awake and allowed us to stay at her place until we were able to find a solution. Now we have a new issue, how are we getting to her place? We are all wearing nonsensible shoes and snow and ice currently cover the sidewalks. We called for an Uber but there are barely any cars on the road, after 15 minutes we were able to connect with a car for a 3 minute ride around the block.

We arrived to Michelle B’s place with her welcoming us with a bottle of red wine. Talk about a good friend.

We are frozen.

We are stressed.

We are frustrated.

I called about 4-5 emergency 24-hour locksmiths, despite the name none of them are available. We called the police, but this is Cleveland they do have bigger fish to fry. After all our fail attempts, we decided it’s already close to 4 am; we should try to get some rest and begin planning again in the morning.

Through the grace of God, a neighbor finally returned our phone calls and heads to our home to see what’s wrong with our garage. “The Browns may have lost every game this season but today, they got a win,” he said. As he’s a security guard for the team and the hand warmers they use for the games helped melt our frozen garage door. THANK YOU CLEVELAND BROWNS! Never thought I’d utter those words.

By 4:50 am, we were able to get back home. I’ve never been more excited to reunite with my bed (and I love my bed). The second I got to my room, I put on leggings, sweatpants, thick socks, a sweater, a snuggie, an extra blanket on top of my comforter. I was making up for several hours of nearly frost bite.

My body didn’t fully go back to its normal body temperature until 8 in the morning.

Through all the frustration, at least we got a good story to start the New Year, but I really wish this incident happened in the summer or just a warmer month. But there’s no other people I’d want to go through all the stress than, my sis, Tonya and Michelle B. It’s great to have wonderful women in your life.