After performing well for the past week or so since we got our line hooked up, our phone has mysteriously decided to stop working. No dial tone -only loud static.
After fiddling with all the plugs and walking back and forth a few times to local pay phones to test it, as instructed by the phone company, I had to ask for someone to come to our apartment to check the phone line. Although our building is secure, according to the landlord, the outside buzzer doesn't work and so tenants frequently prop the outside door open when expecting visitors. Since I didn't know exactly what time to expect the repair person this morning, I walked downstairs to latch the front door open so that I wouldn't have to spend my morning sitting outside waiting for them to come by.
Walking back up one of our two disgustingly dirty apartment stairwells, I was attacked by not one, but twenty dustbunnies who commonly lie in wait among the dirt and gravel that line the stairs. I barely escaped with clean lungs and a light coating of dust after fighting my way through. I had had enough! Armed with a broom, dustpan and garbage bag, I ventured back to conquor them all. The dirtier it gets, the less people seem to care, thought I (as evidenced by the cigarette butts and miscellaneous garbage that had been growing in number over the past few days.) But I DO!
No sooner had I swept two flights of stairs, thrown out the bag of garbage and dustbunnies and returned triumphant to our apartment to close the door, only to hear the tell-tale sound....of a broom sweeping the stairwell!
Gah!
I went out and spoke with the girl doing the sweeping to ask how often the stairs get swept. "Twice a week", she said brightly.
No. I don't think so. Those bunnies reproduce quickly, but given the size of the population I'd just exterminated, they'd been at it for longer than a week. I explained that I'd just swept, not knowing how often management did so and that the dirt had been driving me crazy. Perhaps she could mop the stairwell instead of resweeping?
She didn't say but instead, inquired rather hopefully as to whether I'd swept the other stairwell too?
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Adjusting to apartment living...
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4 comments:
Augh! It's some sort of law of the universe, isn't it? Well, I hope sweeping girl will take your little chat to heart.
PS. That chick pea curry you mentioned earlier sounds delightful. We recently did a yellow lentil soup that was basically lentils, onions, tons of cumin, and salt and pepper. Yum. Sometimes the simplest dishes are the best.
Sadly, the stairs remain unmopped and a wee population of M&Ms has begun to breed on one of the steps.
Your lentil soup sounds wonderful. I'll have to send you a great recipe for a lentil/veggie stew that was passed along from one of my mother's cookbooks. Amusingly, the recipe is called "Lentils, Monastery Style" and includes (perhaps shockingly -for monks) dry sherry, which is nice if included but optional.
the electrician you sexually harassed came by the lab today. what's with our lab being a hotbed for electricians? oh yeah, mark only gets female grad students....
Yeah Janet, he probably heard about you from computing services guy and figured he could chance it as getting offered coffee was better than encountering a startled grad student blurting out statements about her earthshaken furniture!
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