I'll start this post by reminding you Christmas is NOT my favorite holiday. It takes a LOT for me to 'get into the Christmas spirit', if you can even say I do that. The season seems so busy to me that I don't really get to celebrate it for the reason I'm supposed to, and I don't like that.
Friday night I went to a Christmas concert with some friends and that helped. Last night I volunteered at Winter Wonderland, and that was fun. Today my mom and I were going to bake, and I was excited about that. This week we are traveling and eating sweets and spending lots of time with all sides of our family, and that will be fun.
This morning my alarm went off and I stumbled into the bathroom when my sister walked by and said "Hey, don't flush the toilet. The sewer backed up in the night so we can't put any water down the drain... and we need to get everything out of the basement because the floor is soaked."
So, quick break here, my parents are some pretty organized people, but they are currently housing all the stuff that doesn't fit in my sister's apartment, AND an entire two bedroom apartment (we're talking EVERYTHING) from Omaha because I'm on rotation and have been living with them for the past six months. So like, a normally unfortunate and treacherous situation of sewage water in your basement just became 10x worse because everything your daughter owns is down there. In May, when that apartment came home from Omaha, our guest bedroom became a life size game of Tetris with lamp shades, couch cushions, tables and chairs, bedroom furniture, and all the odds and ends we could fit in the gaps. Which meant that this morning, we spent about three or four hours un-Tetrising the basement, with our feet squishing every step in the carpet, hoping and praying that that water was like, moderately clean.
So instead of taking a shower, I put on a sweatshirt and found some old shoes and traipsed to the basement. Everything that was wet, boxes, furniture, other random things, had to be carried outside. All the furniture was spread out and tilted on it's side so it could dry. About half an hour in my mom commented that we should probably be wearing gloves, so we went and found some, and some hand sanitizer, and just kept right on trucking. My sister works in a research lab that tests/cleans/does something with swine waste so she is like, in her prime during this extravaganza. I am wondering how long until I suffer some sort of bacteria related illness. My mom is wondering why she doesn't have 3 more cases of lysol on hand.
A little while later my sister had to make a Wal-Mart run for some furniture sliders to prepare for when we actually have to move all this furniture back. (Moment of silence for my sister going to Walmart on December 23) She stopped at McDonald's on the way home so we could have breakfast. I have not had coffee yet because I'm well aware that coffee gets the intestines moving, and you know, we can't flush our toilets. We all sat at the kitchen table, smelling like questionable water, sweat, and LOOKING like we hadn't showered, and ate sausage biscuits, laughing about how this was a weird way for the Lord to get us to spend time together. It was possibly the least extravagant family meal we've ever had, but somehow one of the most delicious.
We weren't completely done until around 2:00, my parents moving boxes around to ensure we found all the water, reorganizing things, using the shop-vac to dry the carpet, and setting up box fans and a humidifier. I used the Shop-Vac in the bedroom and had put a towel down to kneel on so I didnt have to sit in the water, but soon realized that it only took 30 seconds or so for the towel to become saturated.
Now, we're just starting our baking for the next few days. No one has taken a shower still, but it's sure making me appreciate peppermint bark more after spending all morning wondering what kind of water was all over my dishes. *Not the same dishes we are doing Christmas baking in.* Isn't it weird what gets you in the Christmas spirit?
Merry Christmas, y'all. May your holidays be happy, your family time be joyful, and your shitter never be full.
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