Thursday, June 16, 2011

disaster in the kitchen (lyn)

Wednesday night. 11pm.  Alexander has just gotten in.  I am answering emails.  Suddenly I hear Alexander scream, “Oh my G-d, what happened to the kitchen?”  I come in, and our sink is backed up to the brim with black opaque water.  The kind where you are sure that some sea monster is living beneath it.



We call down to the lobby.  Morgan, our fake doorman, is on call.  Morgan uses our lobby as a hotel.  Every night, between 11 and 7, he pulls up a chair with a ratty looking red pillow, locks the front door, and goes to sleep.  If you are out and get in after 11, you have to wake Morgan in order to get into the building. 

So I call down and wake Morgan.  “Morgan, call Roberto and have him come up.  My kitchen is flooding.” Surprisingly he does, and more surprisingly, Roberto shows up.

Without going into all the details, some pipe below my apartment gets clogged.  Roberto must fix the problem by morning, before tenants start using their water.  So, Roberto begins work.  I don’t know exactly what he is doing but I do know that it is very very loud.  He is snaking something down my pipes.  He is taking out all the wet stuff from under my sink.  He is rattling things around. Black water is on my floor and encounters.  It is in the dishwasher and sink.  it smells.  It is disgusting.

Alexander and I talk for three hours, as it is impossible to sleep.  Finally Roberto leaves, around two.

This morning Roberto and another worker come back and totally dismantle my sink.  Then they remove the cabinet doors underneath the sink.  And finally, they move everything from under the sink to my floor.  The place is a wreck.  

I leave.  When I return,  I clean the kitchen.  I rearrange all the bottles and boxes and brushes and other things under my sink.  Then I do three loads of dishes in order to be sure that no black water touched anything we’ll ever eat from.  And while I am in the cleaning mode,  I  re-arrange the contents of my refrigerator, just for fun.

It’s only late afternoon and I am exhausted.  I’m guessing I earned a ton of activity points today.  But then, who’s counting?

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