I should have stayed in bed today. I still feel awful, and it was supposed to snow last night so that today would be a snowday and I would be able to stay in bed all day. In fact I was considering doing just that when I got a message from my roommate asking me to “turn on the hot water asap.” So I got up and went to turn on the hot water, but nothing came out of the faucet. Very convenient (I should have stayed in bed today). I, luckily, had showered last night, and didn’t really need the hot water, but troubling none the less. Why she decided to leave the house without having resolved the problem and what she wanted me to do about it are beyond me. I called her, and after reminding her that she’s the one in charge of talking to the landlord and assuring her that I really don’t care what her schedule is like, she called the landlord (I should have stayed in bed today). Plans were made to find a plumber, and I moved on. As I was walking out the door, the door knob fell apart in my hand. Excellent (I should have stayed in bed today). I managed a temporary fix and will have to deal with replacing it tomorrow. More calls were made to add this to the list of things to tell the landlord. Of course it’s an easy fix, but I feel like we should let them know before we start changing the locks. Finally made it to work. Things were going well. I had my usual 8 minute Friday morning meeting with my advisor. We accomplished nothing, but that’s normal. I found tanks for my experiment this summer. I got a master key so that I can start doing rounds next week. I found a whole binder of old questions and study notes from comprehensive exams. Then I got a phone call.
Des: If the landlord finds a plumber, can you go home to meet him?
Me: Fine. Whatever.
Perhaps you remember a previous post about spending all of every Friday getting serious about Comps and how there will be no exceptions. (I should have stayed in bed today). Five minutes later the landlord called.
Landlord: Did you check to see that the valve is open?
Me (to myself): Do I look retarded? And why the hell are you calling me? You are supposed to talk to Des.
Me (to the landlord): Of course.
Landlord: Can you check again and call me back?
Me: Okay.
So I went home. Which was not so bad since I had forgotten to pack a lunch this morning. I looked at the valve on the water heater. Definitely open. Still no water. I decided to close it and see what happened just in case. After opening it again, we had hot water. I have no idea why. Apparently our house was just messing with us for fun (I should have stayed in bed today). The landlord sounded very relieved and gave me a lecture on what great tenants we are and how they want to keep us happy. I assured her that we know and we are. I came back to work, and was about to settle back into the studying when my advisor’s wife, V, showed up at my desk. She wanted to know if I could babysit tomorrow. Now, I’m planning a massive hangover, sleeping in, breakfast at Cindy’s, replacing the door knob, and a trip to the yarn store for tomorrow, but they pay extremely well, and I really could use the money. Apparently she was hoping for a more negative answer than that and is now distraught that she’ll have to go buy stockings so that she can go to the uppity, flooty-snooty gala auction at her kid’s private school (I’m glad to see that I’ve made someone else wish they’d stayed in bed today).
Okay, so it could have been a lot worse than all that. The water heater could be broken and expensive. There could be a large puddle. The landlord could be completely unresponsive. I’m just really annoyed that I’m the only one who can deal with these things. And even more annoyed that my schedule doesn’t get any consideration. My job around the house is to pay the bills. I do it every month. On time. I do not say, “It’s kind of inconvenient for me to write a check or go buy stamps or whatever this month, could someone else take care of it?” I wait patiently for my roommates to pay me their share at their convenience. When I discover that something is broken, I fix it. I spent an entire day last weekend fixing things. It’s somebody else’s turn!
At least the emails are getting interesting today. We recently discovered that GW’s hiding out with the Republican Congressional leadership at the Hyatt in Cambridge today. We’re disappointed that we didn’t get to invite him to our Australia Day party, and a mass mooning seems to be in the works for his commute back to DC. Though I doubt that he’ll just be driving up highway 50 to get home. I’m sure they delivered him to the front door in a helicopter. How disappointing.
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