Part One: The Flood

Let me preface this story by stating the fact, I love snow and snow days. I love how snow beautifully covers the death of winter with a bright, shimmery blanket. I enjoy slowly sipping my French pressed coffee while watching the snow drift to the earth. Like Lorelai Gilmore (from Gilmore Girls), I smell the freshness of the air when snow is on its way. However, this year, also like Lorelai, snow and I had an off day. 

Wednesday, January 17, 2018, we were on our 3rd snow day. The day before I had spent 3 hours (I like to be thorough) frustratingly browsing Amazon and ordering a new bed frame. (Jodi had been lending me her antique frame, but I had returned it in December after her daughter got married. I had ordered a bed 6 weeks earlier that decided to never show up. So I had been sleeping on my mattress on the floor.) Needless to say, I was looking forward to the lazy, snow day ahead.

I woke up around 8:30 to a phone call from my friend, Brianna, asking if I had renters insurance. (I do!) A friend from her hometown had a house fire overnight and didn't have renters insurance, so she was concerned.

After the phone call, I turned on Live with Kelly and Ryan (guilty pleasure). Then I decided instead of cereal, I'd treat myself on our last snow day and make pancakes for breakfast. Around 9:15, I flipped my pancake and began to steam water for my coffee when I heard the sound of ice cracking. I ran to my locked water closet... I heard water rushing but didn't see anything. I hurried to my laundry room, climbed on top of the dryer, looked behind it and found water leaking under the wall that borders the water closet.

In the next 15 minutes, I ran back and forth between my laundry room and water closet as water gushed out. In those same 15 minutes, I called my landlord twice with no response. I called my dad, who was at work, plus, lives 3 hours away, but in that moment I just needed my daddy! He helped me gather my composure and reminded me I could call my apartment owner while continuing to move my belongings out of water.

*Deep breath. I think I can, I think I can.*

I got ahold of my owner who was going to continue calling my landlord for me, as well as head my direction. 

By then it was barely possible, but I preceded to move what I could away from the water. In distress and with no luck, I attempted calling Brianna (12x), plus Jodi and Fonda (twice apiece). 

This was when I entered panic mode. I vaguely remember screaming out to God, "Just let someone answer my phone call!" I needed some sense of control over something, anything at all, but I had none. I hoped my owner had gotten ahold of my landlord, but there was no certainty. I was desperate for someone to be there to comfort me, but I knew I had to keep moving.

(I should note, my upstairs neighbors had recently moved. Knowing upstairs was vacant, I put together those pipes were the culprits. Unfortunately, my apartment holds the water closet for both apartments. Luckily, there was only a little dripping out of two vents in my ceiling that occurred once water seeped its way to them upstairs.)

The scene as water ran throughout my apartment: