I recently had the fun experience of dealing with a broken water heater that had spilled gallons and gallons of water onto the floor of the kitchen and bathroom of my apartment.
The kicker? It wasn’t my water heater that broke. It was my upstairs neighbor’s.
Long story short, a few puddles dripping from my bathroom ceiling light turned into my fiancé and I being up to our ankles in nasty water for two days straight. (I’m talking streams down the walls, water spreading under our laminate floor and then seeping through the seams when we walked on said floor, soaking wet drywall…the works.)
And since that couldn’t possibly have been enough to deal with, our air conditioner died. In July. During the hottest week of the year.
So to sum up, we’ve had a dehumidifier running for five days now into an apartment we can’t cool down properly without an air conditioner (we have fans, but this week they’re calling for 100+ degree weather, so I’m thinking the fans are only going to blow around the steam coming out of my fiancé’s and my ears.)
As former rapper from the early 2000’s Nelly once so eloquently put it, it’s getting hot in here.
(Mind you, this is all happening two months before our wedding. I thought I knew what stress was. Ha! Childs play. On a scale of one to ten, this all has me at about a 47.)
Allow me to share some tips to keep from sweating the small stuff (although I’m sweating through just about everything I own at this point…sorry for the gross visual.)
1. Accept the fact that there are things you can’t control
“Let it gooo, let it gooooo….” Man, I wish I was in that frozen wonderland right now…
Life has a funny way of throwing terrible things at you and laughing at how you handle them. Keep your cool by realizing that sometimes stuff just happens and there’s nothing you can do about it.
In my situation, there’s literally nothing I can do about the fact that I possibly have mold growing under my laminate tiles or the lingering mildew smell because of the saturated drywall. I live in an apartment so I have to wait for certified maintenance professionals to take care of this for me. So in the meantime, I’ll be by the pool. Margaritas, anyone?
2. “Exercise releases endorphins, endorphins make you happy!”
Any “Legally Blonde” fans out there? Easily the best line of the movie.
Anyway, the brilliant Elle Woods made a great point with that line. Getting some kind of physical exercise is an excellent way to destress and forget about adulting for a while.
So sure my apartment is going to turn into a sauna this week, but none of our stuff got ruined and I don’t have to pay for any of the repairs. See? Ahhh…. I’m starting to relax already….
3. Chill out!
Whatever you have to do to put yourself at ease…be it exercise, meditation, take a nap, go for a walk, house down a pint of ice cream (“stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts” after all)…whatever it takes, make sure you keep your mind at ease.
There’s nothing worse than sitting around a sticky humid apartment thinking about how long it’s taking them to schedule our new floor, or why the repair man can’t get us a new air conditioner on the spot. Trust me, it doesn’t bode well for bad moods or body odors.
Hopefully these tips help you beat the heat so you don’t boil over and you can keep your cool! (Sorry not sorry, I love cheesy puns…)
