An Open Letter

Dear Apartment Management,

Let me preface this by saying THIS IS MY LAST WEEK OF SUMMER VACATION and I'm trying to enjoy every single bit of it.

So imagine my regret when I answered the phone at 6:30 pm on Sunday night (I foolishly thought it might be about a job interview...on Sunday night I should have known better) and you told me you'd be here in the morning to do something to my water (I'm still unclear)...and I agreed.

Like any person enjoying their last days of vacation, I was up until 6:20 AM and dutifully set my alarm for a few hours later. I thought about just sleeping and ignoring any phone calls and/or knocking. But that would inevitably cause me anxiety and guilt. So I dragged my sleeping self out of bed, picked up the laundry, washed the dishes, and put on pants for my water testing visitors.

AND THEN, the phone rang just 5 minutes after they were supposed to be here (not too bad for apartment fixer people). But it was just you telling me that they WERE NOT coming. Are you kidding me?!

You then wanted to reschedule for Wednesday of this week. I told you that I might not be here as I might be out enjoying my last days of vacation. You claimed to understand and said, "well this is important to us but you need to do what you need to do."

Yes. Yes I do. And I don't need you to affirm that I'm allowed to leave my apartment.

Look, I understand this is a first world problem, and this absolutely wasn't the first blog post I'd write since taking a six month hiatus, but let's me real: I'm really just an 80 year old curmudgeon in a 30-something's body. ← Writing 30-something nearly gave me a panic attack. That is another post altogether.


XOXO,
Amy


P.S. As always, stay tuned for part 2: Will Amy be home on Wednesday for the water testing people?



   

Basically...

My entire week boils down to this:

All I'm doing is working for the weekend so I can see The Hunger Games. I'm going to be so disappointed if it sucks!

Today it was hot! It was 79 degrees at afternoon recess on the last day of WINTER! When you live in New England sometimes you get blizzards in October and this on the first day of spring:

I got a new bathroom ceiling today! There is now dust on every surface of my apartment but I no longer have insulation hanging out over the tub. 

This morning I emptied my bathroom and piled everything in the hallway outside (everything being bathmat, shower curtain, and all my shower stuff). When I got home it was all back in it's place. I thought it was strange that the contractor hung up my shower caddy before he left (and vacuumed my entire apartment) but at least it doesn't look like he tried on my underwear.

      

Extreme Home Makeover: "Everyday A" Edition

For the longest time, my dining room housed an empty round table, a disorganized brown bookcase, and a CD collection.  After the second flooding of my apartment, I moved my computer onto the dining room table and it slowly became an inefficient workspace.

Two trips to IKEA later and I have assembled an organized, usable, and grownup home office area that will double as a crafting space when I am feeling inspired. 

I have officially accomplished goal #18 on The List!

Here is the evidence:

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

(I had already moved the dining room table out.)

AFTER

I love how the room came together.  It makes me want to hijack a box truck and a strong man to help me redo all the other rooms in my apartment.

Slow...Not Quite Steady

Remember when I was all jazzed about my field trip to IKEA?  I got all kinds of goodies to turn my dining room into a functional workspace in order to accomplish #18 on The List.  Well the progress pretty much ended there. 

I put together my desk and my storage boxes and then hit a plateau of motivation.  I've done bits here and there but nothing earth shattering. 

I am still planning hoping that it will come together by the end of the month.

My favorite new thing (aside from my HUGE desk) is my monogrammed mug.

The picture ledges that I successfully put up all by myself (with minor to moderate plaster chippage) will obviously look better when I put actual pictures in the frames.

The gigantic bulletin board above my desk is just waiting to be filled with fun things.

That's about it for now. 

FYI:  Despite how crooked everything looks I assure you it is all straight.  I used a level and everything!  I just took horrendous photos without even getting up from my desk.

On an unrelated workspace, yet related procrastination note, I FINALLY hung up my key holder necklace holder that I bought a super long time ago.  I put it off for so long because I couldn't commit to where I wanted to hang it and I was nervous about trying to drill holes in a cement wall.  And so it sat, on the dresser, next to the necklaces it was supposed to organize for a million months.  Today I carpe diem-ed and hung it with those removable sticky hooks.  Problem solved on every level.

End of blogging dry spell?  Perhaps.

A BAD Idea

Waiting until the day after the storm to dig out your car is a BAD idea.

The Boxtown got 20 or so inches of snow.  That's a lot.  And yes, I know that it snows in New England and I shouldn't complain blah blah blah.  BUT it seems as if Bloomberg was directing the plowing of my apartment complex during this storm.

It was still snowing a bit as the sun was setting yesterday so I decided to wait until morning to dig out my car.  Again let me state that this was a BAD idea.  Everyone who had to be up and out for work early this morning got their cars out first...mostly by adding the snow blocking their vehicle to the snowbank in front of my vehicle. 

I know that it snowed a lot and that I was in for quite a bit of shoveling but I was completely unprepared for this:

 SERIOUSLY?

That SNOWBANK in front of my car was 3 feet high in places and a good 4 feet wide.  Thanks for the crappy plow job and to my crappy neighbors who helped make a sledding hill in front of my car!

One hour and a billion shovelfuls of snow later, I was able to extricate my car from its snowy sarcophagus but cutting a hard right around the third of the snowbank that I left for someone else to deal with.



So. Things we learned today:  dig your car out of the snow before your neighbors do.

Oh and another piece of advice I learned this week:  while you may think that parking your car in front of a church is a safe bet...parking in front of a church overnight in the city is a BAD idea.

What A Wonderful Day For A Field Trip

Happy 1.11.11!  What better day to take an EPIC field trip to IKEA? 

I have been planning a trip to IKEA to aid in the redecorating/office space project for ages but I could never convince anyone to go with me...admittedly it's kind of a hike.  So today I woke up early, drove the hour to get there and arrived 15 minutes after it opened.

I then proceeded to spend the next 2.5 hours wandering the airport sized store deciding on furniture and decorations.  IKEA is great if you are a good decision maker.  However, if you are like me (lacking the decision making center of your brain) it is quite overwhelming.

I finally procured my items and then just had to worry about fitting them in my car. 

I drive a Corolla and that desktop is 5 ft. by 2.5 ft.  It was a struggle...mostly due to the fact that I couldn't figure out how to put the back seats down.  I had to break out the car manual to discover that the lever for the seats is actually in the trunk!

So I got the seats down, took the head rests off and shoved that beast into the trunk...and it fit!  Thank goodness because otherwise I don't know what I would have done. 

It took another half hour to get all that stuff back out of the car and into the apartment.  Now I just need to figure out how to put it all together.  Snow day project!

DIWDH

Sadly...today I said goodbye to my Christmas tree.  While it stopped drinking water a week ago and was stripped of all ornaments on New Year's Day, I lacked the ability to remove it from my apartment independently. 

This morning, Dad and his trusty truck made a visit to Boxtown to collect the remains for certain incineration.  We wrapped it in a blanket to protect the hallway carpet from turning green and hauled it back to Chelmsdale. 

 The aftermath.

This evening I gave my vacuum cleaner a workout until it started to smell like burning plastic.  My initial fear was that the vacuum was about to spontaneously ignite but I gave it a breather then finished the job without incident. 

In other HUGE news, after 16 months of hanging wet towels on the doorknob, I finally installed a two legged octopus (bipus?) looking hook on the back of the bathroom door.  As D would say, "Thumbs up times two!"

Now that the Christmas tree corner has been vacated, I can begin my apartment redesign.  Stay tuned for more DIY DIWDH (Do It With Dad's Help) projects.

DIY Electrical Emergency

So after living in my apartment for 16 months I have finally decided to start decorating.  Have I mentioned that I tend to procrastinate?  Today I purchased a bulletin board, several photo frames and a peg board to begin with #18 on The List.

After what was probably my last lunch date with T (until vacation?) I stopped by my parent's house to raid Dad's workshop for nails and screws.  I got a mini lesson on how to install an anchor screw, which you use to hang heavy stuff.  He filled my coat pocket with these:

and gave me the following advice:

D:  Don't hit any electrical wiring.

A:  How do I know where it is?

D:  Oh, you'll know.

A:  Because I will cut the electricity to the whole building?

D:  Yes.

A:  Umm...what are you doing tomorrow?

My handywoman skills about rival my car knowledge and my confidence to put 2 inch screws in the wall near a light switch without causing property damage is low.  So even though I am almost a grownup, I will resign to asking for help.

Anchor Screws - 1
Amy - 0

Third Time's A Charm

No visual construction update today, although there is wet cement on the new steps and I am just ITCHING to write my initials or something vulgar in it. But then I remember that I am supposed to be a grown up and have to exercise some self control. No promises.

There is a much more pressing matter to discuss today. Long story short my apartment has flooded twice because of an old pipe that froze and exploded causing a waterfall inside my wall that leaked into the apartment.

Thanks to the construction destruction men outside I came home to find water spraying out of a hole in the wall all over my living room. You know how you put your thumb over the end of a hose and it sprays....yeah just like that.

The hole:


The damage...look at the wall:


Ruined pictures:


Super Fun!

Living Alone: Year One

Today marks the one year anniversary of living in my apartment on my own. This year has passed very quickly and has certainly had its highs and lows. But as always, taking time to look back and reflect has provided me many a life lesson.

These are the things I have learned while living alone:

1. I will watch almost any TV show that is presented to me in marathon form.

2. No one else is going to take out the trash.

3. All the hair in the tub really is mine. (Yikes! How am I not bald?)

4. Plants need water. They don't subsist on air and sunshine.

5. The fridge is always empty yet the sink is always full.

6. Apartment walls are thin!

7. There is NEVER a wrong time for an impromptu dance party.

8. Just about anything will rust if you leave it in the sink long enough.

9. I use an astronomical amount of toilet paper.

10. Living alone can be both wonderful and incredible lonely all in the same day.