My Very First Blog
Where to begin? I have a week left on my first year of my PhD, and it will not be over soon enough. Scratch that, if I had my three papers done, it would not be over soon enough... If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a PhD student, do I have stories to tell! Anything that could go wrong this year, I think, has. Literally.
I moved to a new city, where I knew barely anyone. My landlord, Rodney Hendricks, scheisted me into a crapper of an apartment where the mold was so bad that my plates molded after sitting in the dish washer for 2 days. And this is a building with "concrete walls."
It turned out to be the carpet - which it took ole Rodney a month of me harrassing him for him to bother even removing. I think he finally believed I was serious when I threw up in his office. So for the last 7 months, I have this crumbling dark brown tile with carpet glue on it. And no carpet.
My wall-unit air conditioner has some sort of mold or fungus in it so I can't use it without not being able to breathe. That was fun back in August. And in September/October before ole Rodney turned the heat on (my landlord pays for the heat, so he controls what and when it comes out), so I invested in a space heater. (Last weekend, my apartment was 61*.)
The apartment was completely dirty when I moved in - food particles left on the floor and in the cabinets.
The fan in the kitchen is so caked with nasty grease from the previous tennant that some of it has drizzled down the wall. And just stayed there, despite my trying to clean it. And the rest of the grease keeps the fan from going on, or then by some strange chance, from turning off.
The stove had drippings in the pan underneath the burners and, the worst!, there was some nasty rice gunk frozen in the pan in the main part of the freezer. Talk about nasty - I don't think I will ever forget how disgusting that was! I still gag to think of it.
The shower faucet was broken until about a month ago - after I bought the replacement parts. (And the sad thing is all these things are written down on that piece of paper you turn in at the beginning of your lease...) Before you had to jiggle the handle in order for any water to stream from the showerhead, but even then, you only got half the pressure. So, now, after it's fixed, a little bit of rust flows every time I turn it on, but at least most of the water comes out of the showerhead and doesn't go down the drain :)
The seat for the toilet broke soon after I moved in. Not the seat itself, but that small piece that connects it to the toilet. I jerry-rigged it with that tape with the string in it. You know, that clear yellowish tape. It's super sturdy, unless you knew to look, you'd never know it was broken.
The light in the hall -- one of the switches doesn't work. Thankfully, the other one works, or I would be out of luck.
So, that's my lovely apartment. I didn't mention that because school is so busy, I've never really been able to unpack and get settled. And then there's the adventure of the shelves...
Inspired by 'Clean Sweep,' I decided to mount some shelving above my desk. I drove to Lowe's and picked up the supplies and returned home ready to have a place to store my school-related stuff. I even bought a drill. But the concrete walls seem to prevent you from mounting anything. The screw wouldn't go in more than about a fourth of an inch. So, I decided to use nails, hammered in at an angle.
All seemed sturdy and solid -- I mean I wiggled and jiggled them to make sure that they were solid -- and all of a sudden, BAM! Everything that was on the wall is on the floor.
This wouldn't be that bad -- just a little picking up. But here's the sad part -- I'd bought these beautiful figurines when I was in the Philippines, and I had placed them on the small top shelf because it would be a nice display spot.
I think it took me an hour to recover all the pieces - and finding one of the heads was the hardest! It's so sad. But all the pieces fit back together, which is good. I still have to reattach one of the arms, because it just isn't sitting right, but that shouldn't be that hard.
So that's my first blog.
I moved to a new city, where I knew barely anyone. My landlord, Rodney Hendricks, scheisted me into a crapper of an apartment where the mold was so bad that my plates molded after sitting in the dish washer for 2 days. And this is a building with "concrete walls."
It turned out to be the carpet - which it took ole Rodney a month of me harrassing him for him to bother even removing. I think he finally believed I was serious when I threw up in his office. So for the last 7 months, I have this crumbling dark brown tile with carpet glue on it. And no carpet.
My wall-unit air conditioner has some sort of mold or fungus in it so I can't use it without not being able to breathe. That was fun back in August. And in September/October before ole Rodney turned the heat on (my landlord pays for the heat, so he controls what and when it comes out), so I invested in a space heater. (Last weekend, my apartment was 61*.)
The apartment was completely dirty when I moved in - food particles left on the floor and in the cabinets.
The fan in the kitchen is so caked with nasty grease from the previous tennant that some of it has drizzled down the wall. And just stayed there, despite my trying to clean it. And the rest of the grease keeps the fan from going on, or then by some strange chance, from turning off.
The stove had drippings in the pan underneath the burners and, the worst!, there was some nasty rice gunk frozen in the pan in the main part of the freezer. Talk about nasty - I don't think I will ever forget how disgusting that was! I still gag to think of it.
The shower faucet was broken until about a month ago - after I bought the replacement parts. (And the sad thing is all these things are written down on that piece of paper you turn in at the beginning of your lease...) Before you had to jiggle the handle in order for any water to stream from the showerhead, but even then, you only got half the pressure. So, now, after it's fixed, a little bit of rust flows every time I turn it on, but at least most of the water comes out of the showerhead and doesn't go down the drain :)
The seat for the toilet broke soon after I moved in. Not the seat itself, but that small piece that connects it to the toilet. I jerry-rigged it with that tape with the string in it. You know, that clear yellowish tape. It's super sturdy, unless you knew to look, you'd never know it was broken.
The light in the hall -- one of the switches doesn't work. Thankfully, the other one works, or I would be out of luck.
So, that's my lovely apartment. I didn't mention that because school is so busy, I've never really been able to unpack and get settled. And then there's the adventure of the shelves...
Inspired by 'Clean Sweep,' I decided to mount some shelving above my desk. I drove to Lowe's and picked up the supplies and returned home ready to have a place to store my school-related stuff. I even bought a drill. But the concrete walls seem to prevent you from mounting anything. The screw wouldn't go in more than about a fourth of an inch. So, I decided to use nails, hammered in at an angle.
All seemed sturdy and solid -- I mean I wiggled and jiggled them to make sure that they were solid -- and all of a sudden, BAM! Everything that was on the wall is on the floor.
This wouldn't be that bad -- just a little picking up. But here's the sad part -- I'd bought these beautiful figurines when I was in the Philippines, and I had placed them on the small top shelf because it would be a nice display spot.
I think it took me an hour to recover all the pieces - and finding one of the heads was the hardest! It's so sad. But all the pieces fit back together, which is good. I still have to reattach one of the arms, because it just isn't sitting right, but that shouldn't be that hard.
So that's my first blog.
posted by Elisa Day | 7:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home