Chutes and ladders

The numbers 24 and 87 were etched into my brain back in elementary school. They signify life. That is, if you remember the game Chutes and Ladders.
I do.  The object of the game was to get from space #1 to space #100. Along the way were various ladders, in which of course you ascended. And a series of chutes, which of course did the opposite. Very simple game, really. But I remember being fascinated with the numbers, what they signified, and all the luck involved. 24 was the longest ladder, and if your piece landed on it, you climbed all the way up to, I think, #83. At that point, if you spun a 4, you'd hit #87, which was the longest chute. And that dropped you all the way back to, I think, #19.

That was my day Thursday. I woke up, checked my bank account, and saw that my state refund got direct deposited into my checking account. A little later, I got an email from my local university, SCSU (Southern CT State Univ) telling me that I was recommended for acceptance by the social work faculty committee. Technically, I'm not in yet, but I'm told it's proforma at this point.
A little later, my good friend Pat and I got together for lunch and she made me this incredible West African peanut soup. This incredible soup, which contains only a few ingredients, brought some rare joy to my otherwise joy-free diet.
A little later, I got a call from a temp agency asking if I was available for a part time job. The job didn't materialize, but that was OK. I was still buzzing from the earlier news. Even the international news wasn't as bleak as normal. The economy is picking up steam...other not-so-terrible news.

Then...then...while I'm at the library, GWCTRA (Girlfriend who chooses to remain anonymous) texts me. "I've got 3 inches of water in my basement." I switch gears, haul out of there and head over. On the way there, I stop at a local discount place to pick up some wading boots. I pick out a size 12 and arrive at her house. Indeed, the basement is flooded. Her son is already baling the basement, along with her. I try on the boots and I can't even come close to getting them to fit. I look underneath and see the size...it's a 7. I drive all the way back and swap them for the correct size.
Won't go into all the details but I've been getting a crash course in sump pumps, sheet rock, insulation, and every other component of basement repair and maintenance. For the last 4 days, I've done that and sleep, and very little else. School, financial aid, everything else that was a top priority in my life has taken a back seat.

I am most definitely not complaining. In fact, it's fascinating. Priorities and focus switched in an instant. This isn't Katrina here. Everyone is safe. The house is fine, for the most part. The biggest loss has been her dryer, which is too expensive to fix.
For me, I've gone from 24 to 83 to 87 to 19 in a matter of hours. GWCTRA and I have worked quite well together in this. Given the financial gravity of the situation, which unfortunately, affects her, the homeowner, it's been a lesson for me in so many ways.
One is that we make a pretty damn good team. We've done great at picking each other up, and allowing ourselves to be stressed and difficult without the other one freaking out.
Another lesson is that I keep learning, over and over again, that the more I try to order my life, the more it gets thrown into disarray. Not only that, the more I look at the scope of my "stuff", the more miniscule it appears when nature and/or God conspire to rearrange things.
It's melodramatic to introduce another game to my life..."52 card pickup". It's more like, maybe, "10 card pickup". But it still involves sudden reshuffling. GWCTRA's cards that are in disarray are more in the 20's. But that's par for her neighborhood, which seems to be subject to the vagaries of the local water tables.
In the meantime, I'm going to wake up tomorrow to find, I suspect, more water in the basement. And we'll go back to the wet vacs. And checking the sump pumps. And making sure the water is going away from the house, not toward it. And I'll get pissed and stressed at some point. As will my girlfriend. And we'll be grimy and filthy. We'll clean up. And then, we'll cook dinner together and clean up afterwards. And at the end of the day, we'll hold each other as we fall asleep.

And we'll wake up the next day to another game of Chutes and Ladders.


...gp