Wednesday, May 14, 2003
 

Slammers! Long time no, uh, slam! Do not mess with the cranky insomniac. I've been in quite the foul little mood today. Or for the past week.

So, here's what's going on in SlamLand:

The ceiling is repaired, sort of. To a degree. In a way. Maintenance, after their two minute cameo appearance the day after the flood, never returned. Eventually, carpet, paint, and roof guys began to drift in and out, doing mystical repair things, all of which they refused to explain to the poor little helpless female, otherwise known as ME. One of them even had the gall to address me as "Little Missy." You'd think that the steam billowing out of my ears would have tipped him off that thou shalt NOT belittle the feminist, but no such luck. After that, I started playing Rammstein (thank you, K-Lite) every time I heard a knock at the door, but to no avail; they still didn't take me seriously. I need to get some facial piercings. Or grow a few inches.

I've been living in disaster central. Apparently, it was my responsibility to do all of the post-flood cleanup, but I couldn't even get to that because of all of the machinery that kept being deposited here. I ended up with an industrial dehumidifier in addition to the previously-mentioned fan. It sounded like a factory floor in here.

One of the many high points of all of this was when "Rusty" and a buddy came by to re-popcorn spray my bathroom ceiling. They got the spray on my over-toilet unit, on the floor, on the mirror, on the toilet, in the shower basin and on the walls, and all over my shower toiletries. Heck, I think that I probably could have done somewhat better than that. Except, oh, wait; I'm just a delicate helpless female. Yeah. Right. I felt like putting on a hoop skirt and offering the Big Strong Men mint juleps to cool them down. Instead, I sat on the futon and stewed.

They probably wouldn't have flinched. My apartment was already a mess, as it always is during seminar paper season. Plus, I'd had to throw stuff around madly when the flooding started, to prevent further damage. Also, because of the insomnia streak, I've quit sleeping on my bed and am just using it for storage. I sleep on my painfully pathetic futon, since I usually watch TV until the wee wee hours of the morning (Roseanne, anyone?).

Enough griping, though I could go on with this subject forever. At least I've gotten out of the apartment since classes ended: a dinner at someone's house, a Kentucky Derby party (oooh, bourbon balls, I love thee), dinner with a fellow departmental, that sort of thing. Why do all social events involve food? Must be some primal thing.

But I ramble. I'm going to start looking for another place, I think, since my lease here is coming up. I'd like something with a different floorplan, something more compartmentalized. This feels very open. I'd also like fewer undergrads; they're a bit loud for my tastes. My major requirement is that I remain within walking distance of the university, since that's good for my physical and mental health. Also, the drivers here are insane and scare me to death. It's bad enough to have to cross the street.

I still haven't turned in one of my seminar papers, owing to everything and its cousin happening this past term (much of it in the past few weeks). The professor doesn't care, anyway, so that's not a problem. I just want to get this thing done. I love the topic and the novels I'm working with, plus this is definitely a possibility for a future dissertation chapter. I've managed to write three seminar papers this term that will probably end up in the dissertation in some way or another, which makes me dance for nerdy joy.

That seems like such a condensed version of all that's been going on. The prospect of spelling it all out just exhausts me, though, and a lot of it would be whining, anyway (me? whine? never!), and I'll skip the more depressing incidents for the time being.

Ah, well. Law and Order draws nigh. In the meantime, I should probably return to Deracination. The excitement will kill me yet. Soon, hopefully.

Elvisette philosophized at 8:18 PM