smiling on foot

This wonderful piece of video footage was taken in R*becca’s basement bar the night before the jersey shore party. Love that karaoke!

By now, many in the northeast have heard of the flood that overtook many a backyard and basement. It rained a heavy rain the weekend before St. Patty’s and didn’t stop for about 3 days. This resulted in many rivers overflowing and underground springs and sewers backing up into people’s basements. Cars were ruined. Furnaces were rendered useless. Fire trucks were sent to houses everywhere to shut off electricity within the more endangered neighborhoods to safeguard against accidental electrocution. I had St. Patty’s plans for Sunday the 14th that would require me to take Monday off from work – however, those plans fell through because of the weather so I instead spent my Monday trying to help deal with the water in the basement.

Monday morning, I woke up to the vacuuming sounds in the basement and thought “uh oh…” I went downstairs and Dad told me that it’s starting to really come in down there. I put on my winter boots and checked it out. Sure enough, there were many large puddles forming. I rescued the catbox from one of the few dry spots of the basement and brought it upstairs to safety. Mum had found a cardboard box of mine that just happened to hold a bunch of electrical type things that had been in the water. I guess I don’t need those old cell phones and that 35mm camera anymore… but it still made me sad. So I ate some breakfast and did some things on the computer before taking on a shift of water vacuuming. Dad left to do some shopping and have a “meeting” at the local Elks lodge. From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., the puddles had turned to a full pool of water probably about a couple inches deep in the worst parts of the basement! I couldn’t believe how fast it came in! I got to work on the system Mum had started. First, we vacuum up the water until the shop vac was full, then dump the water into smaller buckets. When all buckets (5) were full, you have to carry them out to the backyard to dump. Dad had kindly left me 5 full buckets to carry out to start and boy oh boy was it miserable. I have a bad back, ya know, but I can’t let the elderly do ALL the work.

Remember the Unbreakable movie with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson? Remember how his “superhero” look was to wear a giant rain poncho with a big hood and to be all angry walking through the rain? That’s who I reminded myself of. I wore Dad’s raincoat for maximum coverage so the hood was very large on my head. And I trudged out into the dark, rainy day with my buckets of water with such an angry, angry… uh… anger. Just so mad at that rain for invading my basement. Since moving back to my parents’ house, about 70% of my belongings are in that basement. I knew most of my things were in plastic bins, but who knows how strong they’ll hold? I mean, they are from Walmart after all. And I knew my old, wooden bureau that belonged to my grandmother is just wading in the water down there, but what was I to do? Natural disasters just make you feel powerless… and that’s just no good for anyone.

So I emptied about 15 buckets of water and guess what… no progress at all. In fact, I think the water ROSE in the hour I was down there. I came upstairs just as dad was returning from buying one of his suicide submarine lunches: an Italian with everything including hots, plus potato chips. I think he was drowning (har har) his sorrows in heart-stopping meats because his beloved Elks had flooded too and *gasp* closed it’s doors. (!) He split his sub with me and we watched the news together while the sirens blared through the neighborhoods. One of dad’s favorite past times is laughing at others’ misfortunes so this cheered him up after the loss of his Elks. He enjoyed seeing the SUV on the news that was half underwater and the people being rescued from their homes. I told him that vacuuming and carrying buckets of water to the backyard was fruitless as the water is coming in too fast. He replied, “No shit” then went on to tell me how he visited many hardware stores and sump pumps are sold out. So I guess we do nothing. I went to my room and watched old episodes of Lost until Mum came home. At around 4:30, I put my boots on once again to check things out and the water was up to my ankles! At least I know my boots are fairly waterproof! We honestly didn’t know what to do, so we did nothing.

Then my brother came over just in time for dinner. He assessed the damage, ate dinner and then went home. I thought that was that, but he returned at around 10ish with a guy who’s been working with him (Mark/”Smokey”/”Catfish” – I have yet to meet this guy, but he has many names). I was in bed and had no idea they were even there. They drilled a big hole in the cement floor of the basement for a pump he found somewhere for us. Mum was instructed to make holes in a bucket and then put the pump inside. The hole they drilled in the cement was just big enough for the bucket. Water from under the house traveled into the bucket via these holes and then was sucked into the pump, which directed the water through a hose and out the window (into the neighbor’s backyard – sorry, guys). My brother did real good for us that night. By morning, the water was pretty much gone. Yay!

As for damages, the basement is a little stinkier than usual. My stuff is overall pretty good. The Walmart bins held up well. I had some framed photos in a trash bag and the bottom 5 or 6 inches got wet. They’ve been drying out in the dining room and most of it is salvageable. A lot of that stuff I’ve had forever and can be thrown out by now anyway. The big sadness is the mirror that goes with my dresser. I’m so dumb! I forgot that it was stuck back there upside down so the fancy wooden design at the top got completely submerged in water. I touched it and pieces of the design just crumbled off. I’m very sad about this… probably not sad enough to take off all the finish, sand everything down and refinish myself. (This is a very big two-bureau set.) But I do feel like I should do something. Maybe I can pay to have the finish removed and then all I’ll just have to do the refinishing. Maybe someone has some suggestions for me? You’ll see it in the pics below. I forgot to take pictures when the water was up to my ankles, so you’re just seeing the beginnings of the flooding… hopefully, we have a dry remainder of Spring!

Big news, bloggos, I’ve included a fun WordPress plugin to this here bloggo that allows those with fancy smart phones (iPhone, iTouch, Google Android, etc.) to read smilingonfoot.com in a nice and clean ”mobile view.”  If you do have a fancy smart phone and find that you’d rather read smilingonfoot.com in tiny font from the site (I know you will miss looking at my feet in top header), there is a button at the bottom of the screen that turns mobile theme on and off. Enjoy!

March is turning out to be quite the month for milestones for ol’ LK. This weekend marks the 2-year anniversary of breaking up with G and moving back to my parents house (yippee). Last week was the 1-year anniversary of purchasing my fabulous Mercury Mariner with 4×4, heated black leather seats, sunroof and many other fantastico attributes (still as in love as the first day we met). This year, I will pay off one of my three hefty college loans that I’ve been working so very hard on, before month’s end. This one was important for me to get paid off before the others as it’s in my dad’s name. So yay for March.

I’ve been laying pretty low these days and have been enjoying a calm lifestyle. Working is tough so the weekends need to counter with minimal outings and early curfews. And to further clarify, “laying low” also means not getting completely hammered or spending unnecessary dollars. In fact, I think I may actually be beyond these inclinations. For example, I went to Syracuse at the end of February for RB’s 34th “Jersey Shore” birthday party weekend. It was awesome! Everyone dressed up to the theme, which I love (more people need to have theme parties). Much to my surprise, I did not get ridiculously hammered and did not get miserably hungover during this visit. You know you’re getting old when hangovers are viewed as no longer worth it. :) When the party was winding down, RB and 2 ladies were off to a bar at 1:05 a.m. to meet boys before 2:00 a.m. closing. I opted to put on my PJ’s and get ready for bed. I heard from a few people afterward that they were surprised that I didn’t get to the bar too… like really surprised. So allow me to announce this March of 2010 that ridiculously hammered, party time LK has transitioned to a calmer, less alcoholic, yet still super fun with a little buzz LK. Let’s hope that she sticks around until next March (with a few exceptions, of course).  :)

3/23/10: This just in… Mum just informed me that today is the 32nd anniversary of my left kidney being removed!  Is March the best or what!?

This has pretty much been me for all of 2010 so far:

There’s a ghost at Hekd’s House.

First, I should tell you that I’m crazy obsessed with watching Lost. Even at this moment, I’m fighting the urge to not write this blog entry and instead dive right into some Lost episodes. Once I heard that the current season was going to be its last, I decided it was time to be part of the club. Before now, I refused to watch it because of all the unanswered questions the series poses. I would listen to my former roommate discuss the episodes with others and wonder why they put themselves through this madness of having so many more questions than answers. I wouldn’t be made a fool of. So I decided that once the series was ending, I’ll watch them all at once. Fortunately, Netflix offers them for free when I watch on my lappy.

And now I’m a fool for Lost.

I watch it just about every day and I’m up to season 3. To be specific, I have 4 episodes left of season 3. I love Sayid. I hate Juliet. I love Desmond’s accent. I’m bored with Jack. I love Ben. I’m disturbed by that Nikki/Paolo episode. I’m enthralled with Jin and Sun’s back story. It’s all a wonderful soap opera of characters. And they throw me just enough bones that I’m not overly irritated at the lack of knowing what the f is going on. But then again, I don’t have to wait very long to find out the resolution of each cliffhanger.

Last Saturday morning, I watched an episode. At the end of every episode, the credits come up and then the production company “bad robot” runs their graphic of a robot and some kid voices yell “BAD ROBOT!” and then the episode is officially ended. I’m at a place now that I’m so sick of hearing this every day of my life. So I try to hurry up and click to the next episode before this bad robot part plays. But last Saturday morning, I simply closed the laptop before the bad robot part played and packed it away in a bag. Saturday evening a bunch of us got together at Salem Beer Works for BM’s birthday, then I went to Dan and Hekd’s house for the night since it’s a lot closer than Weytown. My laptop spent all day and night unplugged and in my duffel bag. The plan was that I would sleep in the basement room on the comfortable futon. But for some reason, I was too scared. And when Hekd and Dan went up to bed, I felt uneasy being by myself. But I decided to sleep on the couch in the living room even though it’s not very comfortable. I put the TV on the sleep mode so it would shut off in 30 min. I do this at home nightly and 99% of the time I fall asleep before 30 min. At Hekd’s house, I was awake when it shut off so I put it on another 30 min. Once again, I was awake when it shut off so I just let it stay off and tried to sleep. I drifted in and out of a not-so-restful sleep and then around 4 in the morning, there was suddenly the familiar kid-shouting from the corner of the room, “BAD ROBOT!”

I was so scared, I buried my face into the couch and thought, “I knew it. I knew there was something off about tonight and there is totally a spirit in this house that’s messing with me.” At this point, my laptop had been unplugged for about 17 hours. I didn’t think my lappy’s battery could last that long. And even if it did last that long, Netflix times out when you’re not watching anything for a while. Dan went to breakfast with the boys the next day and relayed the story. Dan told me that Keith said it was probably a glitch. I think not. So I’ve decided it’s fact.

There’s a ghost at Hekd’s house.

My streak of failed relationships is successfully intact. And it’s okay. As a professional girlfriend, I rarely have a relationship that lasts less than a year, but the latest lasted just under 6 months. I don’t know if it’s the short duration of the relationship or the fact that it’s my umteenth boyfriend I’ve had to say Sayonara to (perhaps a bit of both), but I am surprisingly okay with everything. I cried for a week after we broke up and was generally sad for a week after that. I talked things out with a few close friends and then thoughts of him just fizzled away… just like magic. Now that I think of it, a substantial portion of what makes things okay probably has something to do with the low caliber of manhood this particular ex-boyfriend displayed. Breaking up was a no-brainer. But I won’t go into name-calling on this one. We’ll just say he wasn’t for me and I wish him well. I think 6 months is about the time when you get to know someone for who they really are and there’s no more of that “best foot forward” nonsense or even that “rose-colored glasses” nonsense from the beginning months. So you date and get to know each other and sometimes it’s not a fit and you break up before “real” feelings are invested. Not a terribly uncommon story. I think of him fondly as someone who sort of brought me back to life in the romance realm and I’m glad to have known him at this time in my life. And all this being okay is really a shocker for me (and I’m not talking about the hand gesture). I’m usually a lot more emotionally effected by these types of things. Perhaps we should throw in a little “growing up” in the mix too. Whatever the reason may be, it’s obvious that the way my head works has changed significantly over the past couple of years. And for right now, I think I’ve come to terms with not having a boyfriend for a while – there are other things in life I can focus on… and other things I absolutely NEED to focus on to make me happier in this life – that does not involve dudes. So stay tuned for more major personal growth in 2010. Maybe I’ll fall in love in 2011. It would be nice to do that one more time before the end of the world the following year.