Posted on August 15, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Lake Ohmihall

Wednesday was an okay evening. No flooding. I made brown rice pasta and sauced it with pesto, and threw some smoked salmon on the side.

I filled out the paperwork to vacate my apartment and made a note to drop it off in the morning. Oh irony, how it taunts me. Not real irony, of course; I mean the Alanis Morissette kind. I mean, my apartment flooding the day that I signed the paperwork to vacate it–that is so like rain on your wedding day.

When my alarm clock went off at 5:30AM, I woke up and stepped into this:

You may ask why I stopped to take pictures when my apartment was flooding and dumping water into the apartment below mine. But this was me in crisis mode: since the guy who lives below me had already called maintenance, I searched for the shut-off valve for the water and, failing to find it, couldn’t really do much else. There used to be books stacked between the two bookcases on the right side of the picture; I moved those to safety, then grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of the damage in case I should need them later. Then I took all the books off the bookcases and moved them elsewhere; then I moved the bookcases into my bedroom; then, since the water seemed to be creeping toward my bedroom, I moved my TV stand, since it’s right next to me in the picture.

Later, I moved my other hallway bookcase, my dining room table, my exercise bike, my end table, and my sofa. The floor was wet everywhere thanks to our friend humidity.

Maintenance came and shut the water off, then replaced the water heater, and in the process mucked up my kitchen floor and tore holes in the linoleum.

You can see that at this point I’ve moved out of crisis mode and into “Um, my kitchen is a little messy, I should clean it” mode.

I also practiced making frazzled faces.

Shortly after the property manager came to talk to me, the carpet guys came to do bloody murder on my carpet. They vacuumed up the water, then set up a fan to blow under the carpet…

And a dehumidifier in the water heater closet.

At this point, I was staaarving–I’d managed to sneak in my normal breakfast in between bits of mayhem, but I’d been terribly clever on Wednesday and left my lunch leftovers at work so I wouldn’t have to repack them for Thursday (I’d just thrown the bag of carrots and cheese and the containers of hummus and tomatoes directly into my bag Wednesday morning). This meant my lunch was at work. And I had nothing to eat. So I dinked around for an hour or so trying to decide what I wanted and then ordered side items from Papa Johns. Chickenstrips and cheesesticks, which served me well for lunch and dinner.

After lunch, I intended to do some freelance writing so that the day wasn’t a total waste, but exhaustion hit me like a ton of really heavy objects, so I cleared off space on my couch (which was shoved up against all my piles of books) and slept. Later I took a walk around the lake. Or maybe that was Wednesday. I know I took a walk, though.

Friday morning I went to work and had my breakfast, and then finally had my leftover lunch.

I also had some awesome chocolate covered hazelnuts from Oregon. I love it when visiting scientists bring food!

I left work early to see what was going on at my apartment, since despite the property manager’s claim that she would be in touch, no one called to let me know what was going on. Apparently my leasing office is also good in a crisis, but not so much with the aftermath. I got home to find that nothing had happened in my absence–the fan and dehumidifier where still there–so I left to go to Whole Foods and Target for some grocery shopping.

I came back to discover that people had been in my apartment while I was gone, with no notice before or after (other than this missing equipment). I expected that they’d come pick up their stuff, but it still bugs me that I wasn’t told when this would be happening. It reminds me of that time they let the steam-cleaning people into my apartment on the wrong day and majorly freaked me out.

But my carpet was fixed…

And my water heater closet…was still gross.

I made swiss steak for dinner.

…there’s a steak under there, promise.

Then I took pictures of the shambles that were my apartment. Remember how I had the laundry room, the dining room, and the living room all cleaned and organized?

…okay, it’s not that bad. But you also can’t see the other side of the couch. I got a lot of my furniture put back in the correct spot Friday evening, and subsequently had one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had, curled up on my sofa.

Saturday morning I woke up and had some yogurt, then got back to work on moving things back into their antediluvian state. Naturally, I got hungry, so I threw together a big lunch.

Spinach artichoke dip (from the prepped section at Whole Foods), a few bits of broccoli, some salad tomatoes, two carrots, a banana, almond butter, and a piece of cotswold cheese. I made two cheese selections this week and picked this one because it had chives and onions in it and therefore had to be awesome. And it was. But very strong–as I move away from plain cheddar, I’m seeing how one ounce of a good, strong cheese can be plenty.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach here, though–I only ate half the banana and left one of the carrots for dinner.

I did have some of my new chocolate bar (Whole Foods brand of dark chocolate peppermint crisp). Not as good as the Lake Champlain kind, but it’ll do.

My bookcases made it back into the hallway, empty–no point in putting the books back on them when I already took them off and can pack them (when I have enough boxes).

Dinner was a repeat of last night, with less potatoes and onions and the addition of the leftover carrot from lunch.

Note the massive prep bowl of Brummel & Brown in the background. Yes, I ate it all. If there are potatoes on my plate, there is almost always a massive dish of butter or B&B just out of the picture. Don’t judge me, y’all.

Post-dinner snackage…a piece of the dark chocolate peppermint bar, and a piece of the dark chocolate hazelnut toffee bar (one of those ones with the endangered species on it). I wasn’t too impressed by the latter–apparently I like my dark chocolate at 54%-55%, not 70%+.

I totally still ate it, though.

Today I slept in again,  thought not so well as I had the night before, and woke up to more yogurt (I’ve stopped taking pictures of my yogurt most days–same old Liberte Mediteranee yogurt every day!). I then hit the lake trail in an attempt to get some running in, but my fitness has (obviously) decreased since I haven’t been able to run the past couple of months, and because it’s hot outside, so I didn’t get much running in before I had to walk. I’m supposed to start training for my half marathon this week and I’ve already accepted that I’m going to be a little bit behind, but that’s okay. I came home and immediately threw my ice pack on my foot, which has been hurting a little more than it had been recently since I started walking again, but not enough that I’m willing to go back and have it checked out again (yet).

Lunch was some broccoli, salad tomatoes, and carrot sticks with spinach artichoke dip, a dish of trail mix, and a piece of my other cheese selection, mahon.

Mahon is a hard Spanish cheese that taste delicious when eaten with tomatoes. I’m a huge fan of cheese + tomatoes.

I spent the afternoon going all Operation: Clean Sweep on my kitchen and have now checked it off my list–hurrah! That leaves the balcony (entirely gardening stuff), the bathroom (which I’ve worked on twice throughout the week–shouldn’t take long at all), the bedroom (half okay, half not so much), and the closet (um…yeah). I’m happy that I was able to make progress despite having what other, more dramatic people would call the week from hell. (Remember me griping about Wachovia shutting down my bank account on Monday? Oh, the fun week that lay ahead…!).

Well, now that I’ve snacked on a cranberry orange Pure bar and blogged for an hour, my dinner seems to be done. It’s time to eat again…!