The Smell

I like to drive home for lunch on these inconvenient days when I have to work. I still haven't decided if I save money by eating at home for free or by not wasting gas on the drive home by doing the fast food thing. I'm sure there's some sort of mathematical equation that I could work to figure out where the money's going, but I'm trying to stick with that whole "When am I ever gonna use this?" argument for not caring about math all through high school.

Anyway, I came home to have some lunch and noticed a rather large van blocking the road around to the parking lot in front of my building. At first this really annoyed me, 'cause I had to drive the long way around. Strike one, strange van guy.

The half hour I spent in my apartment eating my sandwich went by without a hitch. The time went by pretty quickly, as lunchtimes tend to do. As I walked into the hallway I noticed a very long hose and a very long extension cord stretched along the hallway. When I got to the exit, I noticed the carpet was wet. I also noticed some strange van guy spraying it down with something. I asked if it was okay for me to walk that way or if I should find stairs somewhere else. He said it was fine, so I walked. Whatever he was spraying was pretty slick. I nearly fell when I was in the lobby. Strike two strange, carpet spraying van guy.

By the time I got home from work, the carpet cleaning experiment was finished. I made my way back up to my home on the second floor and noticed an odd smell. At first sight, the hallway carpet looked much cleaner. But the odor it gave off said something different. I'm not sure how to describe it without causing nauseating feelings in you, the reader, but here's my try. The hallway now smells how I imagine regurgitated cotton candy would smell like. Strike three strange, carpet spraying, cotton candy vomiting van guy.

Think I'll start packing my lunch.