Displacement: Part Two

So, I spent the rest of the Rome trip trying (and pretty much succeeding) to not think about my apartment-turned-swimming pool. When I got back, however, I was faced with the reality- I had, essentially, nowhere to live.

The school had set up the "nanny apartment" for me while I was gone. Now, let me explain. The nanny apartment is a mid-sized room with a bathroom on the second floor of the apartment part of the Headmaster's house. This is confusing, I know. Basically, the Headmaster has a huge house, but the third floor of it is made up of four apartments for faculty. Under these -real- apartments, but not part of the Headmaster's house, is the nanny room. It's used usually for people coming to stay for a short period of time. I had heard all about this space from others who had stayed there, so when I found out that it was my turn, I decided that I'd stay with Chris in Somerville instead. So, after he picked me up from the airport, Chris and I headed out to Concord, where I saw the ruins of my apartment for the first time. The floor had been completely ripped up, furniture stacked on top of each other piled into corners. I almost wept at the sight, though the good thing was that there was no standing water. Then. So, I grabbed some clothes and we headed back out to Somerville.

I spent the week there, commuting 45 minutes each way. It was strange- I'd been living on campus the whole time, and now I had to get up earlier and spend a significant amount of time in the car before getting to work. I definitely felt more isolated from the community during this time, which I really didn't like, in addition to the fact that half my stuff was still in my place on campus. So, after a week, I decided that I didn't want to commute anymore, so I moved into the nanny room.

I say "moved into" because, by this point, my apartment had about three inches of standing water in it again. It hadn't stopped raining since we had gotten back from spring break, and it didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. So, to prevent all my clothes, etc, from getting moldy, I moved everything perishable into the nanny room. That was definitely tons of fun, since I had to wear big rubber boots the whole time, wading in and out of my place, and that room was barely big enough to hold everything.

By now, I despaired of moving back in before the end of the year. The head of operations kept telling me, "Next week! We'll get you in by next week, I promise," but it kept on raining. I became used to spending every weekend with Chris, getting out of Concord - and the nanny room - whenever I could. Finally, however, the rain stopped. My apartment slowly started to drain, and now all we waited for was for the place to dry out completely before work could start.

And start it did! Last week, the operations crew was able to start putting the new floor in. They raised it an inch or so, just in case, and are going to put a pump in outside my door, just in case. This past Saturday, I moved all my stuff back in. The new floor is beautiful, and I am just so happy to have my place back. There is still a bit of work that will be completed tomorrow, but other than that, I'm back in and snug as a bug in a rug.

I'm just praying that it never rains again.

Displacement: Part One

So, I mentioned in my last post that a lot has happened since we returned from that fairy tale land called Italy. In order to fully understand, however, we have to go back in time a bit...

When I met up with the kids in Rome, they told me that they were so happy to be there, since it was sunny and it had been raining in Boston all the week prior. Chris had mentioned this as well, but at the time, I thought nothing of it. A few days later, however, while Jamie and I were frantically trying to figure out what we were doing the next day, she got a call from our head of Operations at CA. Jamie talked to him for a bit, laughed, then passed me the phone saying, "He needs to talk to you." Feeling a bit of foreboding, I took the phone.
"Hey Ploy, how are you?"
"I'm fine..."
"Hey, I hate to be the bearer of bad news when you're on a trip like this, but I just wanted to let you know that, you know, we've had a lot of heavy rain here in Concord..."
-insert uncomfortable squirm in my belly-
"...about 10 inches in the last weekend alone, so yeah, the river is flooded and I just need to let you know that right now there are about 3 inches of standing water in your place."
-insert my stomach dropping out my butt-
"So, don't worry about it, we've moved all your furniture, and you were so great, cleaning up before you left, and you did everything right, leaving us your keys and telling us where you were gonna be and everything will be fine..."
-insert the beginning of a cold sweat-
"... and we've got the nanny apartment in the headmaster's house all ready for you when you get back, I'll leave the key in your mailbox."
"Uhh, well great, thanks for taking care of that for me..."
"Yeah, don't worry, we've got it under control. We'll call if anything else happens."
Anything else??

I put down the phone, look and Jamie, and figure that all I can do is laugh with her.