June 25, 2007
About two weeks ago, an unpleasant smell greeted me in the lobby of my apartment building: the smell of vomit mostly covered up with an air freshener or a cleaning solution. And a black doormat on the floor had a few obvious, whitish stains.
The night before, I’d seen a couple of apparently drunk girls (age 20 or so) going into the elevator. I didn’t think too much about it, other than, “I hope those damn kids don’t make a bunch of noise and play obnoxious, loud music.” (Obnoxious music, of course, meaning anything I don’t like.)
So, my guess is that one of the drunk kids puked on her way out of the building.
A couple of days ago, I saw a typed notice on the lobby bulletin board. The notice addressed a few topics, including a missing “recycling” bag that used to sit under the mailboxes. (Residents would put junk mail in it and someone would eventually dump it in the recycle bin and return it to the lobby.)
[thumb:1516:l]
“ … damaged by body fluids.“ My first thought was, “Must’ve been those drunk girls.” My second thought was, “Wait, puke isn’t the only body fluid.”
Too much information; “damaged” would have been sufficient. On the other hand, not enough information. “Body fluids” made me wonder if someone had tried to kill and dismember someone and drag the parts out in the bag. Or maybe someone had sex on it. Or used it for a toilet. “Damaged by vomit” or “puked on” actually would have been better, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Regardless — thankfully, the elevator was unscathed in the incident.
PS: Somehow it seems appropriate to follow posts about various kinds of haggis with a post about puke.