The Apartment above a Bar

I was reminiscing about the good ole partyin' days a couple weekends ago with Chris and Alexa and I decided that one of the stories might be worth telling to the general public. Before we owned the house we live in now, Travis and I lived above a bar in downtown Galveston. It was the perfect place to live at that point in our lives. Now, it would totally not be worth it:

• Two flights of stairs to climb daily would not be fun with a stroller, diaper bag and groceries;
• Window AC units and one gas heater would not suffice with a newborn in the home;
• Late night live bands at the bar below might be slightly entertaining during midnight feeds, but those drunk people throwing beer bottles in the road would seriously piss me off;
• While it was fun at the time, random visits multiple times a week from whoever was going out to the bars that night would start to get irritating with a newborn on a schedule.

Another downside would be situations like this... One Friday night, many a moon ago, Travis decided to go bar hopping with an older guy friend of his. He has been known to have a drinking problem, which meant he would most likely be staying the night at our apartment. Somewhere around 3 in the morning, Travis stumbled into the bedroom, bouncing like a pinball between the bed and the wall. His repeat bounces off the bed woke me. A little irritated at his drunkenness, I just rolled over to go back to sleep. About 15 seconds later, I hear water pouring onto the floor. I assumed he had spilled his glass of water, so I sat up to see what I could do to mend the situation. I was still irritated, but figured if I helped him I would be able to go back to sleep sooner. When I sat up, I quickly realized that he was leaning against the wall peeing on his nightstand. !!! I slapped him on the arm and yelled, "Travis! You are peeing in our bedroom!" That's when he turns to me and says, "huh?!" and I notice IT'S NOT TRAVIS.

What the deuce?! I immediately jumped out of bed and ran into the living room to escape Random Dude In My Bedroom. It scared the begeezes out of me! Travis was passed out on the couch, so I shook him violently, screaming his name until he came out of drunken unconsciousness.

"YOUR FRIEND IS PEEING ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND!"

Again, with the "huh?"

"YOUR FRIEND IS PEEING ON THE NIGHTSTAND IN OUR BEDROOM!"

"What? No way."

"Yes way! Fix it!"

All my screaming woke up my sister, who was living with us at the time. She comes out to find out what's happening and I quickly explain the situation. In the meantime, Travis' friend had come out of our bedroom, closed the door and leaned against it. It looked like he might finish what he was doing on our bedroom door, so Ariel yells at the guy, "THAT IS NOT THE TOILET. THE BATHROOM IS OVER THERE," and points to our only restroom. He looked thoroughly embarrassed, even in his drunken state, and for some reason tried to fit between two couches to get to the bathroom. Ariel again, "NOT THROUGH THERE - YOU HAVE TO GO AROUND THE COUCHES," all the time gesticulating wildly in the direction he should take.

He finally made it to the restroom. I looked at Travis and told him he was going to take care of this situation on his own. I was mortified by it all and did not want to be around when his friend got out of the bathroom. Ariel invited me to sleep in her room for the night and I took her up on the offer. When I woke up in the morning I was a little afraid to leave Ariel's bedroom. When I finally did (the urge to pee finally won over - I wasn't about to pee on her nightstand), I found Travis' friend was gone and the bedroom mess had been cleaned up, although it did reek of urine for a couple days.

I am so happy about our decision to buy a home in early 2007. A large part of our decision was the money factor. Living above a bar made it very easy for both of us to drink too much since we were always within walking distance of home. We also decided that we would have to remain in Texas for several years to pay off some debt before returning home to Illinois after we had both graduated from college. So why not build equity in a home? We are yet to make the final decision on where to move to from here: Illinois or somewhere else around here. Either way, I plan to move from this house within two years.

It's amazing to see how much our lives have changed in just a few short years. I loved our time above that bar, but I am so happy to be where we are at this point. This change-thing is only going to continue exponentially from here.