a strange morning

Sometimes you have one of those mornings that try as you might to imagine how it will go, it doesn’t go like that. My morning wasn’t so much a morning, rather it was the first ten – fifteen minutes right after waking up. 

Jeremy usually leaves around 7:30 for school and sometimes I’ll get up with him around 7:00, make him breakfast, make him a lunch, you get the picture.  But when a little miss Madeline is up a lot during the night, I usually don’t make it to the door to kiss him goodbye.  So he comes in, wakes me up just enough that I vaguely remember him leaving, kisses me softly, tells me he loves me and that’s all I ever remember. 

You can imagine my surprise when an unknown amount of time passes (we haven’t found our alarm clock yet so I’m pretty on the dark with what time it is, no pun intended) and I am awakened by a deep man’s voice with a Russian accent saying, “Hello.  Hello.  Hello.  Miss…. Eh…  Hello. ………..HELLO?” 

Maybe I should back up just a little.  Our new apartment isn’t finished yet.  We wanted to have two bedrooms but the process of turning the used-to-be garage into a second bedroom is taking a little longer than we expected.  The maintenance man for the building is quite talented, doing all the dry wall, painting, floor installation, etc.  Only problem.  He’s Russian and doesn’t speak much English.  Obviously he knows how to say, “hello”.  He’s been over almost every day since we moved in but we don’t talk very much because we can’t understand each other.  He’s never asked me for anything.

Back to my story… It took me a while to realize I wasn’t actually dreaming of a handsome Russian offering to take me for a bicycle ride, but once I did come to my senses, I hopped over to the door and attempted to ask him what he needed.  That didn’t go so well. Finally he stated loud and clear, “TICKET”.  “Ticket?!?” I said kind of frantically. 

My hope and wish for each of you is that if life ever finds you in such a situation, you chose to wore more than just your underwear to bed.

By this time Madeline was awake (no second bedroom yet, remember.  She’s still in our room….).  But I decided to get dressed first.  I rushed over to the closet, didn’t think to turn on the light though, and the first thing I saw was my silk robe.  Thank goodness for common sense even when you’re groggy.  I opted for some polka dot pajama pants and a zip up jacket.  I grabbed Madeline and we rushed into the living room.  Nobody was in the house any more.  So I hurried outside.  When I got to the street I still didn’t see anyone.  Then Eugene stepped out of no where and started motioning to me.  schwoop right over my head.  I have no idea what he’s talking about.  He’s pointing at cars and saying “ticket” but I’m clueless. Finally he says, “You come me.”  So I follow him a couple houses down and he points to a sign that says, “NO PARKING MONDAY 8am – 11am”.  I hadn’t even noticed it before! The guy was trying to save us from getting a ticket.  As I looked around I realized we were the only car parked on that area of the street.  Thank You Eugene!

One of the funny things we’ve noticed about Baltimore is that there are a lot of crazy street signs.  “No Parking Tuesdays 2:30-6:30pm”  “No left turn M,W,F 4-5” just the most bizarre things. 

One of the other things we’ve noticed about Baltimore, there’s a lot of really nice people who are looking out for us.  Sorry we’ve been absent from the world of internet for so long.  We’ve missed it too.  There’s very limited options for internet providers but we ended up going with Verizon.  They’ve come out like ten times trying to get our phone and internet working and nothing.  Then just this morning a guy came and bam! We’re back! I’ve missed you all and being caught up on your lives. We’re still alive! And now I’m gonna spend the day getting caught up with all of your blogs and my email.  Life is good!