sleep apnea…I mean update (gosh I’m tired)

Well, for those of you who are concerned, let me just say that I slept like a rock last night. For about 6-7 hours, which, for a lot of people, is plenty of time, but I require at least eight. Otherwise, I get a headache much like the one I’m experiencing now. You see, what had happened was that I went to bed around 11/11:30 after having a roommate fashion show (which we have every time one of us has anything fun or important to go to…Brooke’s going to a wedding this weekend, and we’d spent approximately five hours shopping for her entire outfit, which looks amazing by the way, but she’s just gorgeous anyway, so…).

So I lay there in bed in one position until the pillow felt like a rock. Then I rolled over and lay in a different position until I realized that it was really uncomfortable. Then I curled up into the fetal position and cried a little because of the frustration of not being able to go to sleep. Then the smoke alarm started beeping. I thought to just ignore it (makes sense, right?), but it got worse, and that’s when I started cussing and got up. (Of course y’all know the crying and the cussing parts aren’t true, but I sure felt like doing both.)

There was neither fire nor smoke. There was, however, water dripping rapidly out of the alarm and onto my gym bag, which had been so dutifully pre-packed in preparation for today’s session with Cynthia. And there was a wet stripe across the ceiling about a yard long. Awesome.

So Brooke called the emergency maintenance number and told them what the problem was. Then we went upstairs to make sure our neighbors knew that their water heater had busted. Either that or their dog, who usually does his business off of their balcony and onto ours, had had an enormous accident in the living room.

Now, I realize that it was midnight, and that I too would be wary of someone ringing my doorbell at that hour, but if I looked out my peep hole and saw two girls in their pj’s, I’d at least crack the door open. I mean, do Brooke and I look intimidating in the least? I didn’t think so either. But my neighbor starts talking to me through the door:

• Neighbor: Yeah?
• Me: Uhh…hello?
• Neighbor: Yeah?
• Me: Uhh…I’m your downstairs neighbor?
• Neighbor: Yeah?
• Me: Uhh…There’s water dripping through our ceiling, and we think your water heater might have busted?

At this point, he cracks the door a little and, without even checking on it, denies that there’s anything wrong with their water heater. I explain where the water is dripping (right outside the water heater closet), and that our water heater busted back in January, and maybe he should check on that and turn it off, at which point I hear his wife saying from inside the apartment, “Oooo it’s kinda damp back here” and then a second later, “Whoa! There’s water everywhere!” So we instruct them on how to turn the water off and promise to send emergency maintenance their way since we’re on the phone with them anyway trying to get our smoke alarm to stop deafening us.

Meanwhile, Brooke had turned off the breaker to the smoke alarm and was trying to unhook the internal battery. She was trying to do all this while on the phone with maintenance, though, and it was proving rather difficult, so when I came back downstairs, I climbed up on the table and did it. We were a little nervous about turning the breaker back on, so we just decided to leave it off for the night and let everything dry out.

Then we realized that that was the same breaker that operated everything in my room and bathroom. “Forget it,” said I, “I’ll just turn it back on in the morning when I get up,” and I went to bed. Five minutes later, my stupid responsibility (and our neighbors running around sounding like buffalo) woke me up and told me I should see if my clock was still on. It wasn’t. That breaker operated the outlet into which my clock is plugged. So I had to set an alarm on my phone to wake me up this morning. And finally, FINALLY, what felt like an hour later, I went to sleep.

So yeah, don’t talk to me today unless you have a hug and/or some chocolate to give me.

test Filed under sleep/dreams |