What an interesting couple of months.

Candice and I spent about three months inexplicably struggling in an over-saturated market to find a new apartment and move out of our efficiency. After feeling like we had some sort of renter's leprosy, we found a seemingly great place with a lovely yard, nice den for band practice and artwork, and so on, which was considerably more spacious.

The next two weeks we seemed to come down with the worst flu one could experience. The lethargy and migraines were indescribable. There were many things that I wanted to--such as unpack, or pry open one of the windows that had been painted shut to the point that no force could seem to open them--but they just fell into the vacuum of lethargy. We both missed a lot of work.

I came home one Friday, about an hour earlier than usual because I'd received a ride rather than taken the bus, to Candice having collapsed in the hall. We took her to the ER; the whole way, I had to keep shaking her to keep her awake. The ER, and I as well to a degree, assumed it was mostly dehydration from our flu-like symptoms.

The next few days, we began to feel a bit better. The furnace stopped working in the basement and it sank to a ridiculous cold, but it was working again in a few days. And in a few days, we began to feel like shit again. Exactly one week later, on Friday, I took Candice to the ER again because in the middle of the night she fainted and became incoherent.

This time, it began to make sense. They tested her blood this time for carbon monoxide, and it was extremely high. The city fire department battalion evacuated our building, and ran a test on the air in our apartment. It was 350ppm; at 400ppm, it causes death within 3 hours. Since it accumulates in the body over time, anyway you look at it we are both extremely lucky to be alive.

Our building has been deemed as uninhabitable and condemned. We (and one of our neighbors) was put on oxygen. They broke down the doors of anyone who didn't answer in the building.

We are looking at upwards of $3,000 in medical bills; nevermind that, I'm convinced that that first Friday, had I not arrived home an hour early, Candice would either be dead or suffering from irreparable brain damage. I'm amazed that we are both, in fact, not in such condition.

What's most amazing, however, is that we learned from our landlord's repairman that he had warned him about the furnace needing to be replaced a while ago, and that he said he would "get to it." This is in addition to other unspecified reasons that the building was condemned.

We are now living with friends until we can hopefully move back into our old apartment, I've suspended my classes, and we're preparing for a lawsuit. It's going to be a slow winter.




mattspire dot com