smash a window or call a locksmith?

so i had a friend stay from out of town and when they left, they thought they would double secure my door by using my provided key AND push that little round button on the side of the door in to lock the door handle.

what my friends didn't know was that i have never had a key for that lock.

ugh.  but it was a good intention.

so i get home at 9pm, put my key in the lock and unlock my door, push down the door handle, only to find it won't actually go down and that it's locked.

i live on the second floor, and my porch door is locked, and all the other windows are latched and locked.  i have a door off my bedroom to a tiny balcony that i climb up to, and hope that 'maybe i didn't lock it' and of course i knew very well that i had, but trying to stay positive, i thought that.

of course it was locked. and now i was on a balcony with no way to get down. so, i had a choice of either calling my locksmith and getting billed at least 100+ bucks for an emergency call and then probably having to replace a lock, OR break a glass pane in the door and do a reach through and unlock the door and pay for the glass / window repair on an old door that may not be easy to repair. gotta love the unknown.

oddly, when trying to break a glass pane, you actually have to be pretty aggressive.  so smashing i went. it freaked out my cats and pleased that i saw a couple neighbor lights go on, and one checking to see what was going on. a nice comfort that neighbors do care.

so i got in, cleaned up the glass, covered the open pane and took a breath knowing i would find out what the cost would be in the AM.

in the morning, i took measurements and stopped by the neighborhood glass shop.  i told him the situation and asked what the repair would be.  he then asked if i was 'handy' because i could probably do it myself.  i said, yes as 6 years of art school should mean something, and spent 8 bucks for a new piece of glass and instructions of how to carefully take off the wood moulding and replace the glass pane.

and ya know what?  i did just that. 

now, i hope none of you are now realizing you can break into my place because i have taught my cats to attack anyone other than myself coming through that balcony door.  and when you have a cat named hannibal, you don't want to mess with him!