Our air conditioner isn't working. It runs and runs its little heart out all day long leaving the house a current balmy 84 degrees at 7:30pm ( it dropped a degree, woo!) and then it leaves us with a lovely little present of an electricity bill of $300 at the end of June. *gulp*
Our landlords are currently "unwilling to address this nonissue" ( ok, that's not an actual quote...but the nutshell) and we've been around and around for going on 3 months, but that's not the point of this post. I've been complaining about it on Facebook for a while now, enjoying all the sympathetic responses of my fb friends...but tonight I felt I needed to say a few things that I haven't said on Facebook.
Lesson one: I have learned through this process that I'm not a particularly nice person sometimes. Especially when I feel like things are unfair. When this issue started my immediate response was outrage and a really amazing email that would make someone cry with just my words. However. The housing manager and I had spoken before. She knew I was a Christian. And so instead I wrote super nice emails and we had super nice conversations on the phone where I was above and beyond patient. I could run for president with my social skillz these past few weeks. Of course, it has done zero good...and we're still sitting around sweating in our underwear. Mostly, Ransom but you get the idea. But, I felt and I still feel that maintaining my Christian witness was more important. But what about all those other times?!? What about all those Starbucks baristas that got my order wrong? What about that waiter that brought out the wrong food and the restaurant that was incredibly slow when I had an impatient 3 year old waiting for dinner ( *ahem and me ahem*) ? What about that person who cut me off in traffic? Or the post office worker who is ignoring the long line of people waiting to be helped and taking his 15 minutes? These people don't know I'm a Christian and they definitely wouldn't be able to tell from my actions and words. Sometimes my sense of justice outweighs my sense of kindness and I want to do a better job.
So to be honest, I'm happy about our current living situation in the hotness of our house....because I feel like I've done what was right and kind and sometimes that matters more.
Lesson two: This is more of a reminder but still....I love our house. Did I tell you that I drove by the house that we almost rented before we found this one? It was on this awful zero plotline street with tons of traffic and no grass...Who even knows about the inside. All I know is that this house is not only everything we wanted ( close to Brett's work, room for entertaining and biblestudies etc) it also had things I didn't even know I wanted like sidewalks on the street so Ransom can safely ride his bike. Out of the way location that makes it seem like we live in the country when we live in the middle of a city. A back yard with rose bushes. A SCREENED IN BACK PORCH ( This has been on my dream house for years). A Starbucks with a drivethru a mile a way ( this is new, but worth mentioning because God knows ALL THINGS). And so I say all this to say that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this house was the one that God picked out for us. He wants us here. And I am so grateful for the kindnesses this home has offered us. That said, I'm currently uncomfortable, hot and sticky and reevaluating my monthly budget to try and include a giant bill. However, if I can trust the Lord to think of things like sidewalks and close Starbucks then He also knows that we're hot. He will take care of this. This is His fight. And while I will do things like consider getting my own air conditioner quotes and send daily reports of the temperature and unit activity to my house manager, I will do my best to not get a hothead about it ( pun intended).
Wish me luck. I'm still learning.
