We arrived to our cell, parents in tow, and opened the door to a world and an adventure that would grow and stretch me like no other had in my 22 years of life.
The heavy door swung open to brand new, fluffy, light tan carpet, freshly painted white walls (where there was sheet rock - one inside wall was completely brick), a quaint kitchen with a light green/turquoise vintage punch button electric stove that would shock the fire out of you if you weren't careful!, a mid-80s era dishwasher, and no refrigerator. My husband, my dad, and my father-in-law did a quick walk through and immediately went back down to the U-haul to start the arduous task of unloading and wrangling furniture up the stair well, around corners, down walk ways and into our new "home." My mom and mother-in-law immediately started cleaning and wiping down kitchen cabinets, putting down shelf paper, and getting ready to start unpacking the kitchen, because as any woman who's ever moved knows, the kitchen is THE most important room to tackle first! I started directing the men as to what boxes went in what room, where furniture needed to be placed, and directing all of the logistics of moving in. Then, we started having new faces "pop in" to welcome us, introduce themselves, offer much welcomed advice about moving to "The Gentilly", and guys offering to help unload, which was all wonderful and quite overwhelming all at the same time!
Despite the smothering heat, the guys finished unloading the U-haul in record time. I think they were actually racing against their own stamina because they knew that "having the big one" as Fred Sanford would have said or dying from a heat stroke or becoming severely dehydrated and shriveling into a parched prune was imminent. IT.WAS.HOT!!!! There's really no way to describe the immense, oppressive heat of that one particular day in July of 2002 in The Big Easy. After the last item was delivered from the U-haul, I remember collapsing onto the couch, my father-in-law sat hunched on the ice chest, my dad sat leaned over in a chair, my husband was lying on the floor, everyone's faces burned red, everybody's shirts looked like they had just gone for a swim in the pool that our apartment overlooked. I was shaking from the fatigue and heat. And no one spoke.
A refrigerator was supposed to be supplied, and it was, a few days later. There had been a little mix-up in the maintenance department concerning the delivery of our fridge. Needless to say, the little food I brought with us that day ended up in the garbage. We couldn't keep it cold. Ice melted as soon as it entered the humidity of the world outside the cooler. The air conditioner in our apartment was taxed from having the doors opening and closing during the unloading process, and the inside of our apartment was hotter than the outside until the sun started setting that evening. I'm not sure if Yeti coolers were around at that point, but even if they were, we couldn't afford one (and still can't)! Nor do I think we need one...although I could've used one that day! ha! But one thing we did have and that worked quite well was the Garbage Disposal!
After eating lunch and delivering the U-haul back to the rental store, my dad and father-in-law headed back to South Alabama together (they lived in the same town still at that point). My mom and mother-in-law had planned to spend the night with us and help us unpack. Of course, there were things that we needed from Walmart, so my husband and his mom decided to head to Kenner to Walmart. Pre-Katrina that was one of the closest, nicest Walmart stores, but it was a good drive, especially depending on the traffic. My mom and I stayed at "The Gentilly" #219 to continue unpacking.
I wrapped and packed many of my dishes in newspaper, so my mom loaded the dishwasher with them to run a cycle to get the newsprint "film" off of them. Then, she turned the dishwasher on. It filled just like it was made to do and ran the wash cycle without a hitch. Then, the drain and rinse cycle began and with it so did the flowing and gushing of water out of the bottom of the dishwasher. The water looked like it came straight out of the Mighty Mississippi---just like that rolling river decided to take a little detour from it's winding and twisting along it's banks from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and flow right on through my "home". My Cell. #219! Brown, murky water started flooding the kitchen floor! My mom immediately stopped the cycle, and when she did, she noticed that the kitchen sink was gurgling and filling up with horrible, dark, thick, water. I stood there almost paralyzed trying to think of what to do. My mom thought that maybe something in the garbage disposal might be causing a blockage, since the water was coming out of the disposal side, so she turned on the disposal. She made a correct assumption!! For at the very moment that she turned on the disposal, it happened, the one thing that I so wanted my husband and brother-in-law and father-in-law to do back in January...I wanted a mouse killed! (See Chapter 2 for explanation) And, now I had a chopped up, dead mouse (we think it had been dead a while, thankfully!) floating in my kitchen sink!!!!! Hair, waste, bone fragments, lint, fragments from rat's nests, and years of pipe corrosion came bellowing out of the garbage disposal floating in the putrid waters. My mom and I just stood there in awe! I was actually at the point of absolute hysteria. Frozen from emotional and physical exhaustion. And then from deep within me I started to laugh, tears streamed down my face, I fell down on the adjacent living room floor and just laughed! Mom laughed! What else was there to do?!?!
After regaining composure, I called my husband, and after he got composure from laughing hysterically as well, we got a plan. I called the housing department, and they were able to come and assess the situation. Come to find out, our apartment had not actually been lived in for quite a while due to plumbing problems! The maintenance department thought all of the issues had been resolved; however, from the apartment sitting empty for a while, the plumbing from our apartment down to the apartment below us had gotten completely impacted, preventing any water from flowing correctly. Therefore, for two days, our apartment kitchen and the one below us was completely out of commission as plumbers worked to cut out sheet rock and repair the problem. Thankfully, we could still use our bathroom, so we were able to stay in the apartment and did not have to find a temporary place.
That was just Day 1! The rest of our first week was filled with trials. I cried when my mom and mother-in-law left me. I felt so alone. So overwhelmed. So exhausted. Yet, I put on a brave face, and I determined that I was going to attempt to "bloom where I was planted." However, by the end of the week, I was ready to pack up, leave my husband to complete seminary alone, and go home to my parents!
