The Evolution of Inflatable Objects 101

So my floor of Potomac House is VERY unique. By unique I mean - WEIRD. They have this strange obsession with inflatable objects. No, not anything gross or sick, just like Inflatable kiddie pools and pirate swords and monkeys. It all started with a Helicopter kiddie pool and then everyone had such a good time sitting in it and gathering around it that Squidward, a kid on our floor, purchased over $100 worth of inflatables - including like 22 small aliens, a rainforest two tiered kiddie pool, a giant 10 foot long Pirate ship kiddie pool, 30 pirate swords, pirate hats, a pirate treasure chest, a couple jingling dolphins, a jingling killer whale, two palm trees, and a 3 and 1/2 foot monkey. These inflatables came in in waves and evolved from the helicopter to the helicopter and the rainforest; and then eventually to those plus all of the pirate stuff. They all sit in the large area around the elevators in the middle of our floor.

Now a lot of people from other floors saw the inflatables when the elevators stopped on the 7th floor and began calling us things as derogatory as the "inflatable faggots" and worse. They really hated us. I will admit that at first Rebecca and I agreed with them. I, for one, found them to be annoying and childish; and I hated how everyone congregated around them and turned our floor into one giant party every night. But then the day after the pirate ship came in and was blown up Rebecca and I found ourselves spending friday night sitting in said pirate ship with my huge fluffy white queen sized $60 cozy blanket from target, sipping soda, and having the best time ever with other people from our floor (including Squidward himself). I have to say that sitting in it changed my entire perspective. I realized that it is kind of nice having a meeting place where we can all just hang out together and I really enjoyed getting to know so many people on our floor. I made some good friends that I wouldn't have found if I hadn't decided that I would sit in the inflatable pool for a few minutes... or a couple of hours. Our floor only has about 40 people on it - 30 girls and 10 boys - so we are becoming really close to each other. I must say that I believe we owe that somewhat to Squidward and the inflatable objects. Even if Dad says that anyone who spends all that money on inflatable stuff has more dollars that sense (haha) I like it. What can I say? The inflatables grew on me.

Squid battles epically with Chris using the inflatable swords and some inflatable shields that came with the pirate Ship. :P 

Now here's the sad thing, Sunday we all woke up to a terrible crime - someone probably from another floor of Potomac came and slashed all of the big inflatables. They completely deflated them and we have to throw them away. I feel so angry because even if I didn't like them they were still private property and that's illegal. Plus Squid is such a nice guy and he spent a lot of money to bring us that camaraderie that comes with sitting together in a bunch of inflatables talking all night. I didn't take a picture of the crime scene because it really was just too depressing. I can't believe someone would come and do that just because they're jealous that we are so close and have a cool "lobby" to hang out in. It is so wrong. Well I don't know if we are going to end up collecting money for a new set of inflatables or if we'll ever replace them but I hope we do. And for now I devised a cool plan to tell Squid that we're sorry that he spent that money for nothing. Rebecca, Caroline, Agathe, and I all paid 4 dollars to buy an inflatable squidward for him that we will present him as soon as it comes in. I hope he likes it since that is his namesake and I think it's a really nice gesture. 

Well I guess we'll see how it goes,

Cait