NJM-10 in NoJoMo13

Day 10 – What was the last thing on your mind as you fell asleep last night?

So, this is a little boring, but the last thing on my mind last night as I fell asleep was "I hope I am awake and dressed by the time the maintenance guy comes by to look at that leak in the morning."

Just a few minutes after I went to bed last night, Anna woke up and went to the bathroom. She insisted that I come to her bathroom to "...look at something, right now!" There was paint and textured plaster in the sink and on the floor. Water was slowly dripping from the ceiling. GREAT.

I went upstairs and knocked on the door, but apparently the friendly teenaged son of the woman was not home. I know this because nobody answered my knock. I could hear her moving around up there from my apartment, but she wasn't feeling like answering her door. She's a little shy, and she doesn't speak English (They are from Ecuador) , so I guess that's why she didn't answer. Whatever.

I came back downstairs and called the Emergency Maintenance number for our Apartment Community (they frown upon people calling it an Apartment Complex...sounds too "project-y") and in just a few minutes, Jay called me back. I explained the problem and told him that I was afraid that the ceiling (and subsequently, the neighbor's bathroom) was going to fall through and if that happened, I'd have to share a bathroom with my 15-yr old daughter and it was entirely possible that I might die if I had to do that. He laughed and said that he'd be right over.

Jay came in, looked at the problem, and said "Yep. There's a leak up there." Wow! I'm so glad that I wasn't hallucinating all that! eye roll

Jay went upstairs and knocked on their door...yelled out "Maintenance" in English and Spanish ("mantenimiento", if you're curious) a few times, then unlocked the door. He must have frightened the lady pretty badly, because I heard her scream. He got her calmed down pretty quickly, did whatever he did up there, then came back to tell me that he had found the problem, had it under control for the night, and would be back this morning to see if his solution worked. If the dripping didn't stop soon, call back and he'd come back out.

So, yeah. I wanted to sleep in as much as I could, but I wanted to be up and dressed before he came back this morning. It really wouldn't do to have someone that good looking walking around in my apartment while I'm naked and half asleep. On account of I'm a really dirty old lady, you know!

I shouldn't have worried. Things turned out okay. The leak is fixed and Jay and a couple of others will be back on Monday or Tuesday to repair the damage to my ceiling. Neighbor lady was down here this morning, and though my Spanish is rusty, I think she was apologizing for the "trouble with the water". I invited her in for coffee, but she shyly smiled as she shook her head "no" and went back upstairs. I guess we aren't going to be bffs, but maybe she will say "hola" when we see each other, from now on.

Meanwhile, I have to figure out how to explain to my germophobic 15-yr old that the water that trickled into her bathroom and all over her sink (and her toothbrush) was...um...toilet water...without her losing her mind and going all OCD on me!