The Transient Experience
Our living situation for the last few months can only be described as transient. We left our home of over 15 years (the longest I have lived anywhere) to move to…a hotel. At the time, we didn’t have any prospects to buy so we didn’t know how long we would be “houseless”. (I hesitate to call it “homelessness” as we had shelter and resources which those struggling to survive do not.) In our houseless state, we moved some clothing, our toiletries, and my beloved pellet ice maker (best gift ever) to our temporary digs.
Our eldest (Tyler) was still home on break from grad school, so we decided to stay at a hotel that had a kitchenette and two bedrooms for the last week of his break. We then moved into an Airbnb apartment for several months (with Tyler’s help before he left). We had access to a full kitchen with the apartment which had some cooking items (not all) and plates, cups, etc. This was a lovely apartment above a well-known floral and gift shop in town. This location proved costly to Jeff over the duration of our stay. We were living there over Valentine’s Day so I told him if he failed to produce a quality V gift, he will have truly failed as it was RIGHT THERE! Unfortunately for us, we had to be out of that place after two months as it was rented to others. That landed us at another hotel. Fortunately, we had purchased our fixer during the two months in the apartment, so we could move some items that we had accumulated (like a fabulous floral arrangement from said shop that I received for V Day. Well done, Jeff!).
We were in this hotel for only 4 nights because it became unsuitable to my comfort. When I say unsuitable, I really mean awful. We had no housekeeping services for 3 days straight, which was fine, but unexpected. I had, I thought, rightfully concluded that we weren’t going to have housekeeping services at all, which wasn’t an issue as I still had cleaning supplies and our own towels that I was using. Imagine my surprise when I was seated on the throne to find a member of the housekeeping staff walking in on me. I didn’t know I still had any pride left until that incident….
We packed up and left the next morning to go back to the original grubby two-bedroom hotel space that we started in. Lovely…. As I was driving around with our possessions in the back of my vehicle realizing I had no place to go, I admit that I lost it for a bit. Not long but for a bit. It’s a horrible feeling when you no longer have a place to call “home”. This made me empathize with those in the Ukraine (or any refugees really) who must take what they can and leave not knowing if they will ever return. I only had a miniscule taste of what they must have felt, and it was awful. I can’t imagine leaving everything behind, not knowing what awaited you. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I chose to pray for them.
With my attitude restored, I waited for the hotel to have our room available and started to unload. That’s where we’ve been for 2 ½ weeks thus far. It hasn’t been without its hiccups. We have people staying here that evidently can’t read because they’re smoking when there are signs on every door saying it’s prohibited. I also had a couple of kids running around playing “ding, dong, ditch” knocking on my door. I MAY have had some fun with that, as I finally decided to wait for them to do it again and when they did, I opened the door and said “HA” loudly. Poor kids almost wet themselves. I am happy to report that they haven’t been terrorizing the hallways since.
The worst experience since being here has been dealing with a horrendous bout of food poisoning which had to have carried noise to the neighbors as these walls are paper thin. I can’t imagine that they enjoyed my best impression of Linda Blair in the Exorcist for 6 hours straight during the night. I know I didn’t. Needless to say, this transition may be difficult, but it’s survivable and will make us appreciate our new house even more.
So, Thank You, Jesus, for that!
