We Ain't City Folk That's Fer Sure!

It has been a rough week for me already. Morning sickness started full swing on Saturday and it has been nonstop ever since. Now when I say nonstop what I mean is it lasts all day and through the night. If I dream about food, which I am known to do, (especially about this drive-thru restaurant that exists only in my dreams that carries every imaginable flavor of milkshake possible and bacon cheeseburgers) I wake up and have to make it quickly to the bathroom and try not to fall back asleep on the bathroom floor.

I was getting worried that I didn't have morning sickness yet because the last time I didn't have morning sickness I had a miscarriage so I was hoping and praying that I would get it...but not this bad. Who the heck has morning sickness all day and while they are sleeping? If Kris moves too much on the bed it's just about over for me. To give you another idea of how sick I've been, I haven't had a diet coke in 5 days and the thought of chocolate, even the smell, has me racing to the bathroom. Jamison ate some M&Ms and then breathed on me...that was enough.

So an amazing thing happened last night. The boys were in bed by 8pm, Jamison fell asleep by 9pm and all I could think about was laying down myself and going to sleep. I am lucky if Jamison is in bed by 10:30! The child won't wind down but it was just about a miracle that he was closing his eyes and it was a few minutes before 9pm. That's the end of what was amazing this night.

I got ready for bed, lay down and was rudely interrupted by a blood curdling shriek....and then another...and another, so on and so on. And then someone started shooting what sounded like guns. I threw on some clothes, opened the door to our apartment and looked out into the patio.
(Our temporary apartment is set up facing a small patio which has a pool and a small play area. We are on the first floor so the patio is right there, no more than 20 feet from our door and master bedroom window)

When I opened the door I saw several halogen floodlights lighting up the patio and people were running around with little 'Britney Spears' microphones around their heads. (We keep the blackout drapes closed so we had no idea all this was going on.) Turns out, they were part of a film crew and were filming some murder scene. I gathered this from the bloody people laying next to the pool and skanky Latina strumpets doing their 'best' TeleNovela 'acting'.

We had no prior warning from the apartment office that this was going to be going on.
You know darn good and well what I did; I walked over, interrupting the shoot, (had a hard time taking my eyes off the REALLY bad makeup jobs, they were supposed to be bloody but it was pretty bad Wal-mart Halloween makeup...it's a novela after all) and told one of the guys "That is enough with the screaming! It is late and my family has to be up at 5:30am! No more please!" (It's times like these that I'm grateful I speak Spanish) I went back inside and after a few minutes looked outside again and I was SHOCKED that they started packing things up! It wasn't just because of me but I guess I was the last in a long line of complaints.

Well they continued to bang around and it was almost 10 pm Kris headed out. He ran into the owner of the apartments who was absolutely furious. She had received so many complaints from the tenants that she came over to the apartment building. Turns out, the film crew had a contract with her to come to the apartments at 7pm, film people walking up and down one of the balconies for 30 minutes and that was it. She had no idea there would be so much equipment, lights and bloody actors around the patio area, not to mention not giving them permission to be there past 8pm! This is a small apartment complex and all are furnished temporary apartments mainly used by the embassy, only 20 apartments, 5 stories high and all facing the patio area.

While Kris was talking to her the director came up to them (all smiles and trying to be charming) with an “everything is OK” attitude and an “I don’t know why you are upset” sort of rambling excuse towards the owner of the apartment. Kris lit into him pretty well, to which the owner of the apartment told Kris after “I don’t think he has ever been spoken to like that before but that is the first and last time they ever work here again”.

When Kris got into work today he spoke to his boss who is also staying in the apartment complex. He was pretty upset and told Kris he was going to be moving elsewhere because the place was just too darn busy for him. This made Kris and I feel much better because it is nice to know that there are others who aren’t cut out for city life either. Blaring horns from backed up traffic, drunks laughing and singing at all hours of the night, smoke filtering in from anyone smoking a cigarette nearby or in another apartment, neighbors who think it’s just fine to walk around upstairs in stiletto tap-tap-tappity-tap-tap heels, you get the picture. Will our permanent home be any better? At least it’s in a neighborhood-type setting, it can’t be any worse. Our dream of 40 acres in Idaho keeps us sane.