Can I shower now, please?

Even though things are sucky and I hate our apartment and this city in general, I had a great weekend with hubby-to-be. We had no water in our apartment since Friday, so clearly the weekend didn’t start off great. He picked me up from work early because I was feeling really down for some reason. The plan was just to go home and sleep it off. We ordered some pizza and started watching the Jersey Shore. In a way, watching mindless young adults doing senseless things on reality TV lifted our spirits. We began drinking hoping that maybe we would forget about the fact that we live in such a crap-hole of a place.

On Saturday, we decided to make the best of the situation. So we went grocery shopping and loaded up on food so that we could camp out in our apartment for two days. The weather was chilly, and football was on, so that seemed like the best option. That day passed, and we were still slightly depressed and cold, not to mention really gross since neither of us had showered for 4 days. That night, I could barely sleep. Every time I woke up to go to the bathroom I was reminded of how stupid this place is. What kind of apartment complex does not insulate their pipes for the cold? Several maintenance requests were made by us in vain because the only response we got was that they could not do anything about it and the cold weather was not their fault. Great, thanks!

At 2:00 AM I could not take it anymore. I was breaking down. Hubby-to-be woke up and was trying to comfort me. We started exploring other apartments around us and were looking at ways we could get out of our lease. We ended up deciding that with only 6 months left, it wouldn’t be worth it. Then as we lay in bed, awake and our minds racing, we started talking…about nothing, really. Before we knew it, it was 5:00 AM. I love this about hubby-to-be! We can talk and laugh for hours and it never gets boring! We drifted off to sleep again only to wake up at 9:00 AM because of the cold draft coming in through the cheap windows. At this point, I couldn’t take it anymore. I broke down again. I hadn’t showered in 5 days, I was always cold, each one of our bathrooms was stinky, and we couldn’t do the dishes or the laundry. Hubby-to-be calmed me down and suggested we get a hotel room for the day. Best idea he’s ever had! So we packed a suitcase, a DVD player, beer, and said good-bye to our cold, stinky apartment!

We checked into a suite at the Embassy Suites Hotel, featuring 2 32” TVs, an amazing bathroom (with running water!), and best of all free cocktails from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM! We settled in, showered!, watched football and took a nap. When 5:30 rolled around, we went down to the lounge. Three cocktails later, we were happily buzzed, and had forgotten all about our apartment situation. We had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel and retired to our room after a surprisingly blissful day! Funny how simple things like being able to flush the toilet can make you happy! This morning we woke up at 5:50 AM (the earliest we have woken up in weeks!), happy and ready to start the week. We even ate breakfast! That’s a rare thing for us.

All in all, even though the past few days had their share of depressing moments, disappointments, and misery, in the end, it didn’t seem so bad at all. And I realized that I would rather be in a stinky, cold apartment with hubby-to-be than be without him anywhere. I also realized how lucky we were. We at least had an apartment with heat to shelter us from the cold winds and freezing temperatures albeit without running water. And when we weren’t happy with that, we could at least afford to go to a nice hotel and take a hot shower. In this city, a good number of people are not able to do so and have to endure Mother Nature’s moodiness outside without basic necessities that we take for granted. Today, we go back to our apartment after work and to be honest, I can’t wait!