Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Water Pipe

This all began about two weeks ago. After he hit the snooze button about 6 times my roommate Cody sleepily stumbled into the bathroom to take a shower.  To his surprise when he went to turn on the shower nothing happened.  He called to me to come check it out (like I knew how to fix it?!).  We put our heads together to come up with what could be causing this and decided we should check the other faucets around the apartment and with the girls that live above us.  Cody had an interview that day and needed to shower so he headed to his girlfriend's place leaving the water sitch up to me.

I contemplated calling our landlord but figured I'd put it off until I finished one more job application. And then I started another and sort of forgot about the little situation we were having when there was a knock at the door.  It was a man with the silliest hat on his head.  He let himself into the apartment and started rambling on and on.  I looked at him in shock.  I'd never met this man and he was trudging through my apartment with snow still on his boots!  He made it into the living room, turned back to me still standing at the front door and said, "Oh by the way, I'm Emmett the property owner." I let him look around and call his plumber friends.  He discovered a frozen pipe that had burst on the back side of the apartment.  I knew immediately we'd be seeing a lot of this guy over the next week. And despite the labor and construction costs he was about to endure, I couldn't help but think he was making plenty of money off our rent, why the hell is he wearing a child-sized Spiderman beanie?!

As the week progressed we did see plenty of Emmett.   He worked side by side with a construction crew and a plumber to get things fixed.  He listened in on a few of my phone interviews and gave a some words of encouragement here and there.  He asked Cody and I what the heck Linkedin was and why he should have one.  It was kind of fun having this guy around.

Speaking of Linkedin, our friend Amy was over having Cody take head shots so she could update her profile.  We like to refer to Amy as the most interesting woman in the world.  You name it, she's probably done it.  She isn't afraid to give something new a try or strike up a conversation with anyone.  Naturally, she was intrigued by Emmett's Spiderman beanie and asked him if there was a story behind it.

Emmett told us a quick story of how he was running late to court one day (he's an attorney) and he couldn't find his hat.  Desperately trying to get out of the house, he grabbed his son's Spiderman beanie.  When he arrived at court all the other attorneys made fun of him and joked about his lack of professionalism. It's been seven winters since that day Emmett was running late.  He wears the beanie as a reminder not to take himself too seriously and that there are things in life that are more important then what you wear on your head to keep warm.

For a bunch of fUnEmployed folks that was the best thing we could hear.  He wasn't trying to tell us we'd find jobs, or that we're better than the other applicants.  What he was telling us is that life is too short to take yourself too seriously and that you can still have fun and enjoy life no matter what it is you're doing or wearing.

Prior to knowing the meaning behind the beanie, I contemplated including a new one along with our February rent check. I'm so grateful that Amy asked that simple question and prevented me from the embarrassment.  I've always been a believer that everything happens for a reason.  But the water pipe fiasco couldn't have come at a better time to learn a life lesson from our friend Emmett.

    Yes, I took a sneaky picture of Emmett's Spiderman Beanie :) 

Have a wonderful day friends, and remember don't take yourself too seriously!

Cheers,
Kaitlyn

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