RA Stories…The Amazing “Houdini”

As a first year RA, it apparent that training prepares one for a lot. However, I must say it never prepared me for what I faced within my first month as an RA.

Like most wings, there tends to be at least one resident that provides you with an array of interesting and overly exaggerated situations that you had never imagined. I have most definitely got one of those bundles of joy and for the purposes of this story we’ll call her “Houdini”. One evening “Houdini” was at the front desk showing others in the hall how she could climb through the chairs (you know the little hole between the back of the chair and the part you sit on) forwards and backwards, on her stomach and on her back. You know, just a little gymnastics show or something of that nature. Well, the big chair worked just fine, but then her showmanship and creativity augmented into the idea of doing it with a chair that had a much smaller space to climb through. The space looked quite small in deed… but hmmm…this did not stop the Amazing “Houdini”. She proceeded to climb through.

Well, that is where I come into the story. A couple of guys come knocking on my door…but they are laughing so hard I could barely understand what they were trying to tell me. Eventually the story about “Houdini’s acrobatic feats were told, along with the story of her defeat. As you can probably imagine, our little “Houdini” was stuck in the chair.

So, as any good RA would do, I grabbed my camera and an allen’s wrench. I went to the lobby where it appeared as if half the hall was present, but no “Houdini”. Easily enough though, the snickering people pointed to our lounge where she had run to hide with this big chair stuck around her waist.

I entered the lounge where “Houdini” was running around. She finally calmed down and I used my tool and took the chair apart to get her out. Prior to the “extraction”, I kicked everyone else out of the lounge that had come to see what the big commotion was, and worked with just her and me. This ended up being an especially good idea since her coat was stuck on a piece that we had to remove, thus requiring the removal of her coat, and since all she had on was a bra underneath, it was not exactly everyone’s business, yah know?

After the “extraction” and just as I thought I had the whole story put together, I find out that there was a little more to the story. Being the great and helpful students of the hall, one in particular decided to try and help “Houdini” before the guys had come to get me. She had the bright idea of pulling the chair up to get it off, but we all know that if something is stuck on a girl’s waist, you’re probably not going to get off by going to higher parts of the body. Mmm hmmm, you got it, she still pulled and in fact got the chair stuck on Houdini’s ribs.

A few pictures and a little bit of mechanical talent later, “Houdini” was free and her little feat soon became the news of the hall.