On New Years Eve this year, I spent the night playing board games at my friend's parents' house. It was a fun time. I found a new favorite game, Pit. I love it! It was great. I was able to see friends I don't get to see very often. One of these friends is my buddy Nathan. He reminded me of the interesting time I had when I went to see him in a play in Ohio. Let me tell you a story...
The time is October. The temperature is pretty cold (of course). My friend Scott and his wife have the opportunity to go see Nathan in a play in Cincinnati. Sarah and I say "Why not?" So we leave extremely early on a Saturday. We drive through mountains, valleys, towns, until we finally arrive in Ohio. It is about lunch time so we decide to go look for somewhere to eat. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people out on the streets. We find a little sandwich shop and eat some lunch. Then we meet Nathan before the play. He was in a performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It was very good.
After the play, Nathan had to do another performance before he would be done for the day. So we decided to go see what there was to do in Cincinnati. First we drove around looking for stuff. We started going out of the city into a very sketch residential neighborhood. I started to feel very uneasy. We then drove back into town and parked the car. We decide to walk around the town to find something to do. We litterally cannot find anything to do. Most of the places are closed, at 3 pm on a Saturday. I didn't understand it. There were hardly anyone out on the streets. We finally found a Starbucks open and containing a few signs of life. After spending about $10 on two cups of gourmet coffee, we decide to go back to the car. I'm about to freeze, the wind is whipping through the streets in between the large buildings. We sat in the car and waited for Nathan.
After we went out to eat, we headed to Nathan's apartment. This is where the fun will begin. He lives in a small two-room apartment. We get there to a heat I had not experienced in a long time. He had a radiator putting out heat that he could not turn up or down. It was extremely hot in this place. Scott, Lauren, Sarah, and I took over Nathan's kitchen for our air mattress. Scott and Lauren had a small air mattress at the foot of my air mattress. Sarah and I had a bigger one that required us to use a pump to inflate it. We get the air mattress in place and lay down to sleep. I am unable to sleep.
It is so hot that I am unable to sleep comfortably. Meanwhile, I hear everyone else sleeping great. I doze in and out of consciousness. While the hours slowly pass, I notice that my rear keeps getting closer and closer to the floor, while my head and feet are still raised of the ground at the same height. Apparently my weight is keeping Sarah, who is on the other side of the air mattress from sinking to the floor as well. I finally feel my butt touch the kitchen floor.
I start to doze off again when I am awakened by Sarah pulling on my arm saying "There is someone outside!" I get up to see what is up. From the alley next to the apartments I hear someone screaming "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!" Then I hear what sounds like sneakers running down the side walk in front of the apartments. I move to the main room where Nathan's bed is so I can see out the front windows down to the street. In the dark, I hear Nathan stir as I look out the window. He whispers to me "Is there anything I can do to help you sleep better?" I say exactly what is on my mind, "Yeah, you can lay me out!" He laughs a bit. I tell him about what I had heard. He said that sometimes people yell in the street between buildings. I decide to go back to bed.
When I get back to bed, I lay down and tell Sarah that whoever was out there is gone. She gets up to go to the bathroom which makes me sink all the way to the floor. When she comes back to lay down, she launches me off the air mattress in the kitchen floor. Sarah says, "I guess we should blow it back up." We proceed to get the pump and everything ready very quietly in the dark. As soon as we turn it on, the loud little pump scares Lauren who, while being half-asleep, jumps up out of her bed and tries to hold up the air mattress while we pump it up. Scott doesn't move. We finally get Lauren to lay down and get the mattress inflated. We lay back down to sleep.
I continue to doze in and out. I lay in a pool of sweat. I slowly begin the movement down toward the floor again. It is getting on to be about 4 in the morning. I hear Scott let out a moan of absolute pain, but then gets quiet again after he rolls over. In the dark, I can hear Sarah repositioning on the air mattress. Then I hear a pop and a rushing of air. I suddenly begin to descend rapidly toward the floor. Sarah begins to fuss about the air mattress, mad because it had gotten stuck on the fridge door and popped. I tell Sarah to go sit in Nathans reclining computer chair and try to rest. I sit on a kitchen chair for an hour dreading what new challenges the day will bring. My luck changed however and the next day went smoothly.
So this story goes to show you, Heat is not all sunshine and daises. Sometimes it's radiators and air mattresses. Stay Warm!
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