No ceiling No glass

This is a part of the hole in my bedroom-

I got a call on Monday night about a leak at the house from my roommate – this is not a leak that I come to find out later – it is more like a mini Katrina has hit the inside of the house…So what do you do at 1 am when you come home to a ceiling that has fallen to the floor in the entry way with water all over the place and you can hear it dripping and it just gets worse as you climb the stairs and you go into your bedroom and see that the ceiling has fallen out of your bedroom and onto your bed. I am talking about an 8 foot by 4 foot area of ceiling that had fallen out onto the floor of my bedroom. Could it get worse…yes cause as the night and the next day go on the Hole gets larger, and larger… I left many panicked messages with my landlord at his house and then at his office that we had a major issue and that he needed to call me as soon as he got the message. I grabbed as many towels that I could and garbage bags to fill up and started any where I could to get some control of the room. Then I grab the digital camera and take some pictures of the damage before I start some of the clean up. I filled the garbage bags with the plaster and went outside to find the trash cans filled, Wednesday is trash day and 2 weeks after Christmas people are just now throwing out big boxes. The neighbors who moved out last month their trash can was filled to so too. So I over flow mine – my roommate does the honor of showing up at the house about 30 min after I get there, drunk, saying that she is going to try and help I send her down stairs with a trash bag to get the plaster out of the entry way and clean up there. ( after about an hour and moving the stuff out of the way in the entry way she calls a cab and goes back to her sisters house cause she says she is scared to stay at the house and sleep – I am to tired to fight about it and I don’t want her in my room)… The water is still dripping down the walls and into buckets. The light in the kitchen is filled with water- so is the one in the hallway – I tape the light switches as they are so there is not a short to come. The roommate helps with the kitchen light – as I try and pour it out into the bucket – ok so she gets a good splash of water on her head but at this point I don’t care. We go into the 3^rd floor and turn off the water under the sink because that is the area we think that the water is coming from but not sure. Our other new roommate is in Baltimore for her internship – her room is all intact and looks fine- I put my quilt over her door to dry and my bathroom stuff into her vanity area- since my vanity area is leaking and looks like it is going to fall at any moment. I need a wet dry vac…the towels are soaking up the water and I am wringing them out into the sink, the squishing sound of the water soaking into the towels every time I walk over them is just something else that I need to add to the list. The ipod is on and the music is playing with all of the work…I get to a point of I need to get some sleep and craw into my bed – over to the far side where the ceiling is still all there and dry – and try to fall asleep – but with the hole in the ceiling I am scared that a mouse is now going to come flying into the room so I turn back on a light and try to sleep at 3:30 am. The phone rings at 5:21 it’s my landlord Fred calling to ask what has happened. He shows up at the house by 6 am and I am waiting to call other friends who might have a wet dry vac that I can borrow. I call Rita thinking she would have a wet dry vac and I know that she gets up before 6- I leave a message… its after 6 am now- I call my dad about an insurance question thinking that he is up – no I work him up- he wanted to know what I was doing up at that hour – I am not real sure myself. After I get off the phone with him I call Mona – I think Mona had a we dry vac- I woke her up to and yes she has one – so I get in the car and drive over there to get the vac and take the camera with me to show the pictures. It was a baby one but I needed it…after I got that one – Rita calls me to say that she has a large one too if I needed it …but at that point I have the little one and was going to see how far that would get me. Since I had to drive past Jackie’s office on the way back from Mona’s I take her up on the offer of coffee and she wants to see the pictures. So I start the morning with a sugar free vanilla latte and one of their new breakfast sandwiches ( the turkey bacon one is ok) And head back to my house to play with the wet dry vac and see what else I can do… I need to wash the towels but I am not sure If I should turn on the washer or not… I call missy who lives down the street to see if I can come and take a shower at her house and wash a load of clothes. Yet I never make it to her house cause every time I am about to head over there someone else is calling or heading to the house… I find some more sleep in the blue chair downstairs between phone calls- final get up when Jackie shows up with tippys tacos in hand for lunch and offering her help…Jackie calls in a favor and a plumber comes over to see what is going on. He does not see a busted pipe and the water to the house is still on and there is no water leaking in the house. After the plumber leaves and fred shows up again we are off to Target to get carpet knifes to start pulling up the wet carpet (ok this carpet has need to be replaced for YEARs and I am not sad at all that is has to go – however the moving of my bedroom furniture to get the carpet up is going to be like moving out of the house. At this point it is close to 7 and as much as I would love to go to glass I know that I cant and will not make it there. We are pulling up carpet in the hall at 7, and then start pulling it up in my bed room…the really wet areas and it is looking like it is has already started to mold…Moving the desk – packing the shelf into a big bucket, and putting things on the bed…the first side of the carpet knife has died and I flip it over …We have hauled out bag after bag of wet carpet and padding, lucky that Wednesday morning is trash day…it is another reason I wanted to get up as much as I could by then – after we get most of it up for the night it is almost 8 and fred is back – I so need a shower and a bed…So I leave with Jackie to come to her house for dinner and to shower and sleep thinking that I would ride with her this morning to get my car and be there for more cleaning – but I am worn out and there is little that I can do there other than laundry without the help of someone else. So I stay at jackies house and sleep and get up and take a hot bath to try and help my aching legs and back. I need a nap. For the first time I am glad that I don’t have a job and that I was able to stay at the house and deal with some of the mess…I know that I don’t own the house but I have been there so long and I guess that I take pride in the fact that I live there and would hate to see something happen to it. It is my home…oh and on the other hand well Fred is beyond not being happy or please with the slob who lives on the 3^rd floor – yes the one who had the nerve to move my food out of my cabinet and called me a hoarder and said I had a metal disorder – that did NOT make me a happy person- and up till this flood like event we had not spoken to each other in weeks. So Fred has decided that it is time for her to go – I am all for it – he was appalled with the appearance of her room – 4 empty red wine bottles on the floor – coke cans with cigarette ashes – she is NOT to be smoking in the house- dirty dishes and trash on the floor – along with clothes every where – we had to kick a pathway so that we could get into the room. She is late most months that I am aware of paying her rent, she is late giving me utility bills and I no longer have the extra money to float with the lack of a job…. So it looks like with the request of the landlord that I will be finding a new roommate for the 3^rd floor and you know what I am not upset by that at all. I could use a lot less drama in my life and she can move to her sisters place cause that is where she is most of the time and the only one who will let her in with the bad credit she has…

oh there might be a swim gig coming up at the end of the month but I am waiting to see about that one – and then the next Idea is to sub teach during the mornings while trying to land a gig of full time art teacher for the fall. I was planning to stop by the Field school this week and drop off my resume but that is not happening with all of the mess at the house. Maybe there will be time later in the week for glass – Madeline emailed this morning that they might be up there tonight but I still don’t think that I will make it there with all of the madness – not that I had anything planned to work on…

Why do things keep happening on Tuesdays?

But on the brightside of things in the middle of the madness, with some happy news, Ashley, my sister, called to say that during her first visit to the doctor for an ultrasound and blood work that she had passed out twice as they tried to get the 6 things of blood that they needed. In the end someone asked if they got all that they needed and Ashley response was something along the lines of “I f-ing hope so.” She made me laugh in all of the madness that I was sitting - Congratulations go to Ashley and Ward who are due on Tiffany’s Birthday, August 21. So the beach trip is still ago with a very pregnant Ashley – lets all hope they don’t have to take anymore blood.