Theresa Lewis

Sometimes in life you get lucky… really lucky. I know I did. I love where I live in town. The building is not exactly fancy, but it is clean and well maintained. I don’t have to shovel the snow in winter, nor rake the leaves in fall, nor even cut the grass and weed the gardens in summer. I simply get to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor at this point in my life. The building is in a part of town that has just enough hustle and bustle to keep life interesting.

 

My building has an elevator so I don’t have to struggle up and down the stairs. We have every convenience including free use of laundry machines.

 

We also have two rooms for socializing. It really is a wonderful place to live. If ever there is a problem, we can call housing and someone shows up within minutes to take care of it. There never used to be any bedbugs here, however, recently, there has been an issue with the little critters.

 

Housing has taken care of the problem and continues to do monthly checkups of every apartment. It’s a good service, but it’s also more than a little annoying at the same time.

 

What bothers me the most is that we have to strip our beds on the day of inspection. When the guys come to check, they lift off the mattress and box spring and thoroughly check everything including the metal bed frame. When they’re done, they simply drop the mattress back onto the box spring and leave. They don’t care if the bed skirt is all messed up.

 

My issue is that I have a bed skirt on my bed and anyone who has ever put one on their bed knows how difficult it is to get it on straight. You have to fuss and fidget with the darn thing to make sure it hangs evenly on all sides. It’s really a taxing chore to do that job alone.

 

After going through several months of having to balance the mattress on my back so I can get the bed skirt on straight, I just knew there had to be a better way. Besides, I hadn’t even slept in that bed for over six months anyway. I sleep in a recliner that I had purchased in May. The reason I sleep in the recliner is because my mattress has broken springs that poke into me at night which causes me to wake up, in pain, numerous times a night. Sleeping in the recliner is so comfortable.

 

The last time the inspectors came, I told them that I no longer sleep in my bed. I had hoped that they would stop having to inspect it. When I told them that I was sleeping in my recliner, they decided to inspect that. What was there to inspect? It was fake leather and smooth. No problem, I thought. Well, I was wrong.

 

They flipped the chair over to check the exposed under side. To my horror and embarrassment, there was an accumulation of clipped toenails, toast crumbs and enough hair to make it look like I was hiding a pet under there. Man, it was gross. That’s what happens when you don’t move the furniture when you clean. Your laziness gets exposed. 

 

THE END