All in the name of The Office season premier

So, to those of you who follow The Office, you can fully understand the importance of Thursday nights. This past Thursday night was particularly important as it was the season premier. My roommate and I had been searching for a place to watch for awhile now. We don't have a television, and my Office host from last year moved away. We struck a deal with one apartment nearby who said that we could watch at their apartment and everything seemed set. Awhile later, a good friend (who shall remain nameless) gave us a standing invitation and said he planned to host an office party each week. Thrilled that our tv hunting days were behind us, we put our worries to rest.

Fast forward to Tuesday of last week. We discovered that said friend was going out of town on Thursday night (i immediately questioned his loyalties) but said that his roommates should be around. His trip seemed necessary, albeit poorly timed. Thursday night we called his roommates, who were all away from home. We called the back-up apartment. They were all away from home. (Office fans indeed!!) It was crunch time so we called another friend who lives a subway ride away and asked if her apartment would be watching. She confirmed that they were and invited us over. Again we felt our worries calmed.

Just before 9:00pm we arrived at her apartment. Her roommate opened the door and was startled. We wondered why until we entered the living room which was full of well dressed people who, were not anticipating an evening with Jim and Pam, but were having a dinner party. We were clearly unexpected/uninvited guests and felt a little stupid. I spotted one of friend's roommates, Yancey, among the crowd. I said jokingly, "We don't want to intrude, we'll just take Yancey's keys and be on our way." I was really just testing the waters since I don't know Yancey very well. He didn't seem to have a problem with two random girls taking his keys and being in his apartment without anyone else at home. So we did it.

Having secured his keys we literally ran down the stairs, out of the building, to the subway. Small delay as we waited for the train to take us up two stops. We rushed off the train and up the stairs. It was a dead run up the street to Yancey's apartment. I was a few steps ahead of my roommate and as we passed, all the old men in the streets kept asking what was going on. It wasn't until later that I realized that it must have looked like a chase of some sort. Imagine two white girls, dressed in teacher clothes, running down the streets in Harlem after dark. It must have been interesting (I was only thinking of the office).

After several attempts to open the front door of someone else's apartment, we realized it was the wrong one and went over a few building's to Yancey's apartment. When we got inside, about 15 minutes into the show, we found the apartment empty. We made ourselves quite at home and watched. The next day we found that you can watch online for free. Do I think our struggle to watch it live was in vain? Three words: absolutely I don't.