Head for the hills!

Friday was quite an adventure here in Ames, Iowa. It rained quite a bit last week, enough apparently to totally flood the meadow across the street from us, and then the street itself, and then the apartment buildings in the area. Dan called me at 11 AM while i was still in bed and told me to get out and move my car up to the next street to the North because ours was flooding. “I don’t see any water in the parking lot–wait a sec, yeah the street is totally filled with water.”


From the east end of South 5th, around noon on Friday


Behind our apartment buildings (ours is the grey one).

We got our cars out and up to South 4th just in time. I went and knocked on Karl’s door to tell him to move his vehicle and Dan went knocking on all of our neighbor’s doors, because cars were quickly becoming too submerged to drive through the water. He went into the office and suggested that they alert people. “What, you want us to go knock on everyone’s door?” “Uh, YEAH, that’s what i’ve just been DOING.” So he got their asses going. Good work.

Meanwhile, I waded back to our place with my big rubber boots on and quickly packed a bag and grabbed some bananas. I went back to my car, ate a banana and tried to decide whose house i could shower at… There’s a back staircase from S 4th to Nina & Karl’s apartment complex so i called him, took a shower at their place and was able to get out the back door and back to my car though the water had risen to their parking lot by the time i was done.

Dan stuck around and had a ball wading through the brown water with Ryan and making friends with the neighbors while i went to the mall for a bit (where i found THE JACKET!) before my dental appointment and then got out of town. I was on my way to Des Moines when my car suddenly shut off in the middle of the interstate. I was able to pull over onto the shoulder, called mom and then Dan who came with Ryan to rescue me after first grabbing a burger or two. Ryan identified that my fuel line had become disconnected, reconnected it for me and i was on my way. THANK YOU, Ryan!

Some day i’ll tally up all the money that Dan and Ryan have saved me on computer and car repairs and feel guilty, and then take them out to a nice dinner or something. Amazingly, all the bad luck of the day ended up making me feel very fortunate to A: have an apartment that’s on concrete stilts; 2: Have found the perfect jacket finally :) C: Still have super healthy teeth even after a year and a half away from the dentist; 4: Have friends to rescue me; and E: be close enough to just hop down and visit my family. Never mind that i experienced a flood and car problems on the same day.

I stayed in DM that night and visited with Tim, Angie, Jamie and Mom and perhaps Grandma and Grandpa heard some of what we were saying, having been in the same room for most of the time. I had an interview with Zillow in Seattle which was a little awkward because i had forgotten about the time difference and expected a call at 3:30 rather than 5:30, and the phone connection was rather fuzzy.

Cut to today. Nothing in my email inbox. I feel anxious. Chicago? Seattle? Portland? Chicago? Portland? Seattle? Interviews? Plane rides? Hotels? Nothing at all?? Everyone warns me about Chicago. There is still nothing to speak of in Portland, my top choice. I am still waiting. This will be my first week without pay.

Monday, June 2nd, 2008 11:28 am • job hunting, shopping, location, weather, life
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  1. Calee says:

    June 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    Oh man. I’m glad I live on the top of a hill. That was really scary. I went by Brookside yesterday and the skate park was still under water.

    More rain expected this week… better get out those boots again.

  2. Kelly says:

    June 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    Yikes, I’m glad I live far away from all the flooding. I’m also glad I left town when I did or I would have been stuck in Ames and been super uber late for my sister’s wedding rehearsal which would have probably resulted in my untimely death.

    Also, Innova/Sigler is hiring three graphic designers. Just on the FYI. I sent a message out on facebook. THREE. You kind of need to sort of stay in the area. You also need to sort of kind of call me because I haven’t seen you in a while.

    Glad you survived the flood….

  3. » Materialism | 33% Disaster - Steph Adamo’s Blog says:

    July 14th, 2008 at 8:43 am

    […] has been flooding this summer, as i’m sure you’re all well aware. I blogged about the floods in ames, after that happened Des Moines also flooded, and just after that Cedar Rapids and Iowa City took […]

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