Don't always expect the expected.

I stepped onto a typical elevator yesterday - the kind you'd expect to find in a typical 18-story building.

Packed with people. A few stiff suits (including mine). A couple of brief cases. And very little wiggle room.

The 10-floor ride down to the lobby was also what you'd expect. All quiet besides the hum of the elevator. Someone clears their throat. Another digs through a purse looking for car keys. Everybody watching the floor numbers flash by as if we didn't know which floor would come next. A cell phone rings but the call goes to voice mail - thank you, sir, for not answering and forcing us all to listen to a one-sided conversation.

We were halfway down when I noticed the little 7-year old girl standing quietly in the corner behind her mom.

Just as I noticed her, the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened to the lobby. From her corner, the little girl exclaimed in great relief, "Yea! It opened!"

Those of us in stiff suits couldn't help but burst out in laughter.

I walked away thinking: (1) Was she really worried that the doors may not open? (2) I never thought about the possibility that the doors wouldn't open even though there is no guarantee that they would. (3) How did Tom Hanks get out of that elevator in You've Got Mail?