i don't even know how to title this

[metonomia]

well screw it. i was typing up the saga of my day and then the whole thing got erased, so no more saga, just the shorter (still long) form.

woke up this morning around 7 to my roomie having broken our fire sprinkler. we all stumbled outside (saving phone and laptop in progress), water was spreading from our room to the hall and into other rooms, and so we evacuated. stood outside for a while in tank top and pj bottoms, soaking wet, no shoes, then went off just like that to my geology final, which i proceeded to fail spectacularly.

came back, they'd sucked up the standing water (maintenance tells us we had 5-6 inches of water up the walls. wtf). we moved our stuff off the floor, worker dudes came in to set up huge pressure-dryers all up and down the hall and in the rooms (oh, btw, it spread down two floors, as well). roomie (let's call her H) and i went off to talk to the residence hall director. that lovely lady proceeded to tell us, in tones of great concern (and she really did care, but), how responsible we all were (H for hanging a laundry line from the sprinkler, our RAs - who were fabulous and amazing and helpful and caring all day - for not noticing and enforcing, and me for seeing it and not doing something about it), how huge a bill we were going to get (oh, btw, the university's paid for this sort of thing before. but not for us), and how we should prepare ourselves because the community had been really affected and lots of people were really annoyed and mad at us.  now before this, H and i had heard nothing but love and concern and helpfulness from everyone. so i really didn't need to be told how mad the world was at me.

went off, called my brother, broke down a little on the phone to him, then called my mom and cried to her. mom got all freaked out and called up the res hall director and bitched her out for talking so punitively to us (which was super embarrassing. ugh. moooom. i really didn't want her to do that), but the long and short of the mom part of this tale is that she is awesome and made all sorts of calls and it turns out that if i have to pay any of the bill (i shouldn't, i'm not actually responsible, but y'know, i really don't want to leave my roomie high and dry with the whole huge thing, gaaah, i dunno), my insurance covers it! yaaaay insurance!  brother came over, and took me to lunch, and talking it all through with him made me feel a lot better and just calm down in general, and then he promised to come back later with friend, car, and boxes to move my stuff that's staying here over the summer to his apartment.

so i went back up to my room and spent something like 9 hours picking apart soggy cardboard and throwing away my favorite notebooks and all my notes from my fabulous formative religious texts class last quarter and trying to dry books (heart of darkness will probably end up having to be thrown away, along with a lot of shakespeare and maybe some joyce) and just in general get organized.

amidst all this horridness, the RAs did all the laundry of we who had our clothes soaked with nasty stagnant water, so that was amazing. and, yeah. i'm packed, boxes moved to brother's apartment, last laundry done and ready to be shoved into my suitcase, i have a place to sleep in my friend's room for the night, and i am actually sitting down in a comfy chair with an ice cream sandwich.

jesus. i can't even comprehend this day. it's been 15 hours since it all started, and i am still in shock, alternating between finding it hilarious and wanting to just go curl up and sob.  it was good in some ways - now i'm not paying for storage over the summer, and i threw out a lot of stuff i don't need - but also really really horrific, and exhausting, and stressful, and scary, and i just want it all to be over. in 12 and half hours i check out and go to the airport, and then i will go home, and hug my cat, and eat my mother's cooking, and bake a fattening cake, and the badness will go away.  until then, i'm gonna go cry and sleep.

we. flooded. the. dorms. i cannot believe it. i just keep telling myself - we are legend. Campion Flood 2010

Comments

[lady_songsmith]

Wow. That's... epic. I was wondering earlier why they didn't just shut the sprinkler system down immediately to cut down on the inches of water and the multi-floor flooding. But I'm glad your mom called the hall director. That is what moms (and dads) are for, even if it is embarassing. And I am VERY glad you are in a place now where you can relax for a little while.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

I think, and I am really fuzzy on the early stages of the whole shindig, but I think the issue was that it didn't just go off but was broken? I don't know. The cool maintenance dude told us that he knows how to go turn it off, but that they have to wait until the fire dept gets there, even when they know exactly what's going on. Lame.

I am, in retrospect, also glad that my mom called. She needn't have told the director to not talk to me ever again, but it was really nice to know that mom was on it re: billing, and asking the questions that I wouldn't even think of like 'will there be disciplinary action other than fines?' (the answer to which is no, thank goodness).

Cannot wait to get hoooome.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I assure you that within 20 years, this will be the story your child will share with his or her classmates, the classmates' parents, and the teacher at the end of year author's tea, "Share a Family Story." (I heard one about my husband being kidnapped by Romanians (true) and then arrested by Bulgarian border guards (not true) and relying upon the US Ambassador to save him (SO not true)). Except when you hear it, it will involve many fire trucks and yelling and perhaps the collapse of the whole building. Within 5 years, you'll be trotting it out at cocktail parties in grad school and then at social events with other friends in the neighborhood you settle in for Real Adult Life. Cuz it is one for the record books. It is AWFUL now. AWFUL and I am so sorry. (and very glad that geography final wasn't cumulative). You are done, you have had a fabulous year and it's time to get the hell out of Dodge.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

This is very true - we have already laughed about it some, which is nice. And it is pretty epic, so I'm definitely looking forward to the time when I can just tell the funny story and shake my head over ohhh, college.

(Kidnapped by Romanians????)

<333 thank you. It is sooo time to get out of here.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

(Seriously, kidnapped by Romanians?)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

My husband and I were volunteers in Romania in 1992 and 1993 through a Rule of Law program under an Agency for International Development grant. Romania wasn't quite the wilds of the Asian republics or Albania, but it was close in those days. My husband went off for a few hours with people we did not know very well to go "fishing" and ended up on an 18 hour ordeal that ended at a lake at the Bulgaria/Romania border. He had no money or passport. Though we had our share of run ins with Securitati and played the Can You Guess the Spy games, in this particular instance, he was not arrested by Bulgarian Border Patrol and it did not involve the US Ambassador. My son really did embellish this account for a public story he gave last week for an end of year school report.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

That's so scary! But what a good story--did you have to explain the real story to the teacher?

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Good God, what a story. It doesn't even need embellishment.

*blinks again*

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

<3333 I am so happy that you will be home soon! home to bake and relax and hug kitties! I am cheering you on from the sidelines - you can survive these next hours.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

That sounds like HEAVEN. <333 thank you for the cheering!

[keeperofqkeys.livejournal.com]

My first year of college, the boys upstairs flooded their bathroom and it cascaded down into my dorm room. A few years later, an entire water pipe burst in one of the dorms (on the third floor; the water was gushing down the stairwell and out the door, even).

But at least your mom helped you out, however embarrassing it might be. And at least it was right at the end of the semester, too. Stupid accidents are stupid.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, apparently this sort of thing actually happens fairly often. The maintenance crew and the company that does the drying thought it was a walk in the park.

I am, ultimately, glad that my mom helped out. And YES, how horrid would it be if we had to stay here longer as those girls who flooded the building? Stupid stupid.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

(alskdjf this is like the fourth time I've written this comment! I have a new computer and I love it, but I keep accidentally fucking with the keyboard and opening or closing things, I don't even know how!)

My first college dorm was this old luxury twenties hotel which I loved, but no one had done any work on it in years. We didn't always have heat or hot water, and the ceilings and windows and walls would cave in, and there were mice and roaches and feral cats in the basement and precipitation in the windowless second-floor (out of thirteen!) computer lab. Also, we have fire alarms all the damn time and were evacuated in the pouring rain for a carbon monoxide leak. That said, we all LOVED it and those are the best stories. So really, this will be the story your friends tell for years, especially to the new kids -- "Remember that time our ceiling caved in?" "Yeah, and the time we flooded the dorm?" It's the best.

It's a pity about all your stuff though! Can any notebooks and stuff be salvaged???

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

Yay new computer!!

That sounds totally awesome. Feral cats in the basement? Sign me up! (No roaches, please) And yeah, it's already turning into a totally epic story. All the RAs are saying they're going to tell it to next year's class, and the rumors flying around about just how it started are kind of hilarious in their wrong-ness.

Most of my stuff is fine, if damp - some though had all the ink running and just had to be thrown out. Luckily the big stuff like my computer is completely unharmed. It was a pretty good push to make me throw out things that I really don't need, so that's good.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the rumors are always the best part!

:( Well, it makes moving home much easier anyway!

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Wow. This is epic (in the sort of morbidly terrible way that you stare at in horror). But at least you get to relax in comfort (hopefully for a while. And no communal bathrooms?

Here's to crazy dorms.