Current Events

Whew! I feel like I’ve left most of y’all in a lurch, and for that, I’m really sorry! This week has been absolutely insane, so I haven’t had the chance to do much of… well, anything but those things that were then on my plate.

First, I got a new job! My last day at my old firm was Wednesday. It was actually a very lovely day with wrapping up work, having pizza with my coworkers, and celebrating with cake. I also got a beautiful card from the Accounting department, a sweet lunch the day before from my attorney, and a gorgeous card holder from a coworker and friend. It was so sweet, and I was sad to go! Sad about the people, I mean.

The new job is… incredible. You guys, absolutely incredible. I haven’t started yet (my first day is Tuesday!), but it’s with Pandora Jewelry’s corporate office. When I was interviewing, I met with the attorney under whom I’d be working, and I LOVED him. I walked out of that interview confident that I’d get it, but also a bit intimidated because… seriously, who gets lucky enough to get that job?

Apparently, this girl does!

Anyway, more as that progresses. In other news, we’ve had a couple houseguests over the past two weeks or so. My friend and her boyfriend moved from Florida to the DC area, and they needed a place to stay while they were here. We opened our doors to them, and now that at least my friend has found a place, we’ll soon be closing that same door. Left open a crack, of course, but still closed most of the way. It’s been great having others in the house, but Matt and I both admit that we’re ready to have our home back to ourselves.

I’m incredibly thankful they were here, though, as our basement flooded as a result of Hurricane Irene (power went out, sump pump stopped working, hello water all over the basement!) and they were awake to alert us. After Matt and I stumbled downstairs, we helped my friend and her boyfriend take everything they had downstairs to the ground floor, then we started the process of removing water while my friend tried salvaging what had gotten wet. (Fortunately, that was most of it.) Matt and I had buckets and bins, and we hauled out water bit by bit until the water finally started to secede.

The hilarious part is, Matt and I are Floridians, so we’re seasoned to riding out storms like this. Rain and wind? Better weather to go fly kites! And trust me when I say our hurricane party was tons of fun until this incident.

Not only did out houseguests warn us of the basement, though, they helped us rip up that carpet! Thank heavens, too, as Matt and I admit we had no idea what to do. We ripped, tugged, and shredded our ways out of what was a really bad situation.

Part of the problem, as the picture above shows, is that water was coming up through cracks in the foundation. While cracks aren’t necessarily unusual, especially for a basement, the amount of water we had through the floor was not. So when the sump pump went out with the power, the water had nowhere else to go, and the pressure caused it to come up through the cracks.

Finally, Matt and I bought a wet-vac and got the water sopped up.

Well… Matt got the water sopped up. I stood around and looked silly.

Remember when I made that post the other day about Irene and helping other people out? That weekend, our houseguests were our specks in the world that made a huge difference to us. I am forever grateful for their help, guidance, and experience!

That’s pretty much been our week. It’s been crazy, exciting, soggy, and overall fun. But of course, that means no time for y’all! So I’m going to check out all your blogs, and I have a few posts in mind, so keep an eye out for those.

For all y’all who were hit by Irene, I hope you’re recovering well. And good luck with the upcoming tropical depression and hurricane! Are we ever going to catch a break?!