Sometimes the Ceiling Falls

On instincts, red flags, & crushed crushed velvet pants

I had a pair of crushed velvet green pleated pants. They were gorgeous. Fit perfect. I never wore them anywhere aside from trying them on. I was saving them. For what? I don’t know. But like almost every other item in my bedroom, last week I had to say goodbye to them. Still with the tag on, covered in disgusting insulation (and who knows what else) after the ceiling collapsed in my bedroom.

Many warning signs went off in my head when I decided to move into this apartment. I ignored them all. It was a complex I had lived at before and while I didn’t love it then, I knew it. And it was CHEAP lol. Ah, you get what you pay for as they say.

Red flag #1
Before I moved in I asked multiple times when I could see the unit…I kept being told “soon”, and that they’d let me know. A week before I was set to move in they let me know it wouldn’t be ready to view until 3pm on my set move in date.

Red flag #2-1,564,694,565,454
When we walked in I smelled weed. When I mentioned it to the leasing agent she said I can’t smell anything. Covid messed up my nose. Um, does it matter if you smell it or not when I, the person living here can? But I digress. The apartment was…bigger than I expected but not impressive.

• It was missing window screens that couldn’t be replaced because they didn’t make them anymore (it was an old complex).

• The patio door wouldn’t close.

• The hall closet door stuck.

• The weather stripping was crumbling.

• The bathroom sink was chipped and rusting.

• The kitchen cabinets were crooked or didn’t close…despite the listing for this unit specifically saying new white cabinets.

• And the list goes on.

Red Flag # 3
The way they treated me when I voiced concerns about these things was really telling. But the move was a rush job for me since we had been told we needed to return to office. I needed to just get moved in and settled. When I spoke to the property manager, instead of offering solutions, she asked if I wanted to still move in or not. We eventually discussed the fixes that needed to be made and they all got done within a few days including the addition of a new sink.

Later, my air purifier went into the red, air quality = TRASH. When I opened doors and windows it got better, when I closed them, red alert again. I went to that same property manager and let her know the air quality was really bad in my apartment and I thought there was a ventilation issue. Her response? How do you know? 🙃

Eventually the maintenance guy came out and wouldn’t you know it, the filter in the hvac unit hadn’t been changed in what looked like YEARS! Disgusting. He said the system couldn’t breathe hence the ventilation issue.

There were other little things here and there but how they handled the ceiling collapse? Yeah, I knew I had to GET OUT. Which brings us to…

Red Flag #99 The ceiling collapsed! It happened within 10 minutes of me waking up on the 22nd. I was laying in bed, slowly entering the day since my boss let us work from home and I didn’t need to rush. When all of a sudden I heard a loud CRACK! and then the ceiling began to fall.

I jumped out of the bed and ran out the room. BUT LOLA (my dog) WAS STILL INSIDE!!! I think she heard it before me because she had jumped down from the bed right before it happened. When it fell, it started towards the foot of the bed. That scared her so she jumped back up on the bed. At this point I’m outside the room calling her to me.

Right as she started to jump off a huge slab of the ceiling fell on her!

The way I screamed her name…I legit thought she had been crushed! #TRAUMATIZED. Luckily, she was able to shimmy out, but she was on the wrong side of the bed. She had to jump on it and walk all over the disgusting insulation. But she was okay! She came right out. I quickly put on clothes (ones that had been discarded in the bathroom) because I had been in my pajamas. Before I finished doing that, the rest of the bedroom ceiling came down. It was so loud! I didn’t grab anything but my purse and Lola and we evacuated immediately.

The damage

So that’s what happened. The drama that has resulted from it because the apartment complex is TRASH has been a pain. I’m okay. Lola is okay. We are safe in a new apartment complex.

We had less than a week to move, it cost EXACTLY how much money I had in my emergency savings. I’m grateful for our health and safety. Also, despite living there for 3 months most of my stuff was still packed up. I guess something in me knew this wasn’t home and that we’d need to move.

My insurance can’t cover my personal items lost because they can’t determine the cause of the collapse. And the cause must be one of the 16 perils 🙄. The apartment complex wants me to pay for removing the damaged items (not happening, friends). There’s more but…I think this post is already too long. Maybe I’ll do a “podcast story time” to get into more of the aftermath/issues with the apartment management.

I have two lessons I hope you will gather from today’s post:

1. That you should always trust your instincts

2. Just wear the dang pants!

Or rather, you should stop saving things for the right time. Now is the right time. It may be the only time.

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I said this in my monthly newsletter but I want to say it again here: I am super grateful to the folks who put money in my tip jar or sent something via venmo 🥺 Y’all didn’t have to do that but I am super thankful, y’all are thee best! 💜

About me:

Talicha J. is a Black queer poet, teaching artist, and Pushcart Prize nominee. She was a 2024 Collaborating Fellow at The Poetry Lab. Her debut collection, Falling in Love with Picking Myself Up (2015), led to a national tour and helped grow her presence as a poet. She is currently a reader with Frontier Poetry & Alternating Current Press.

In June 2024, she released her chapbook, Taking Back the Body, which won the Beyond the Veil Press chapbook contest. She also curates writing and editing sprints, leads online generative workshops, and hosts a monthly publication submission space. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming with Plenitude, Fahmidan, Peach Fuzz, Lucky Jefferson, Just Femme and Dandy, Button Poetry, and more.