The Gate

Let me give some proper background information before getting to the point of my story:
My apartment is located down an alley off of a main road. At night, a gate is closed and locked up to keep out any unwanted visitors. This gate is locked by midnight, every night. Since I come home later than that on many occasions, I must resort to scaling the gate and squeezing myself through the very narrow space at the top. In fact, it is quite a miraculous feat if I do say so myself. I have impressed many passerby (or scared them) when they see me climbing this 9 foot gate. The other night I had taken my sandals off and was ready to make the ascent, when some guy who lives in my apartment comes up behind me, and says, "Um, why don't you just use a key?" Naturally I was both shocked and embarrassed and nearly broke my ankle falling backwards. This guy had a KEY? I had stubbornly assumed that the gate climbing was to become a part of my daily life. The prospect of being able to unlock the gate and not dangle 9 feet above the ground in order to get to my apartment was truly life altering. So the next morning I ran into my landlord, and let him know that I was in desperate need of a key. He, of course, was completely shocked that I had not yet had a key and that I had been climbing the fence. He apologized profusely for not making sure I had key, and left right away to go make a copy for me. So, leaving my apartment with new key in hand to meet up with friends later that evening, I confidently walked out door, very excited at the new, and normal, way of getting back into my apartment. A friend of mine drove me home around 2 am, and I was going on and on about how my life would be different that I didn't have to climb that fence anymore, that I had a key, that I had power! So, as I'm chatting away about how great having this key was while jamming it into the lock, I barely noticed that it was too big. Apparently, the guy who made the copy of the key didn't do a very good job, and here I was again, facing the gate with my apartment on the other side. My Vietnamese friend started to get very worried when I prepared myself for the climb (slipping my bag under the gap in the bottom along with my shoes). By the time I cleared the top and made my way back to the ground, he was completely astonished at this feat (apparently Vietnamese women don't climb too many fences...) and just stood there gaping. I walked back to my apartment so dismayed that I had to climb the fence, yet again, when I was so sure my climbing days were over! Needless to say, I called my landlord today and let him know my key didn't work. After more heavy apologies, he said he would make a new key and try it out himself to be sure it worked. I have been waiting for him to deliver it for about 5 hours now....

I'm hoping it gets here soon, before I break a leg trying to get to my bed