Let There Be Light

As these beautiful sources of light and life were delivered into our hands, I could have sworn they were glowing. The aura…the promise of light! I could see the heavens open up as a choir of angels began to sing in my head (insert “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” here).

Our only problem was how to install them. The salesman explained to us—in German—how to install the fixtures. Now, you might think he would take pity on us and explain how to install the lights in English, given that we were dealing with electricity (which can be dangerous) here. Nope. Lacking any other option, I dutifully repeated after him, “rote to rote, grün to grün,” while desperately holding onto to my hopes of having light before the sun set (and not electrocuting myself in the process).

Brad and I psyched ourselves up the entire way home. Once we reached our apartment, we had convinced each other that there would be no problem. “Rote to rote, grün to grün,” had become our mantra, and we were ready. We turned off the power, and began installing. Then, The Test…They worked! Sweet success! After a break, Brad climbed back on the ladder, which we had perched precariously on our bed in order to reach the ceiling.

Unfortunately, we had accidentally turned the circuit on again. As he began connecting “rote to rote, grün to grün,” he was shocked (literally) by a jolt of electricity. (From this time forth, he’s convinced that I’m out to get him.)

We will be installing more lights this weekend...and we just updated our wills. My husband's a bit nervous.