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Almost Home The renovations on my apartment are almost complete. yay. I would sound more enthusiastic but I have been out of my apartment for more than 30 days over a span of two months and they are still not finished. I�m just waiting for the paint fumes to clear before I can move back in and they can just do the rest of the renos around me.Granted there isn�t that much left to do: the dishwasher needs to be installed and they have to finish the light fixtures and the smoke detector. That will all happen next week. Yah, right. Problems I�ve discovered: my balcony door still doesn�t close, my bathroom door doesn�t close, a few cracked tiles and cracks in the counter tops, everything is filthy and they have now taken 2 full rolls of toilet paper (what the heck?). There�s grease of some kind in the sink, the (now much smaller) bathtub is full of crap (not literally) and my carpet is full of wood splinters. Did I mention I don�t own a functioning vacuum? I spent about 4 hours there tonight cleaning and barely made a dent. I left when I got so dizzy that I thought I was going to pass out, or maybe throw up, or both simultaneously which is a highly disgusting prospect. I think I�m going to go back tomorrow and clean the bathroom so at least I�ll be able to live there. I think I�m going to write a letter to the owner and see if I can get my rent reduced. I�m still paying FULL rent for living elsewhere during this fiasco. GAH! Luckily I also found out what the horrible smell in my bedroom was. It smelled like someone had left a sandwich in there and the sandwich meat had gone bad. The smell just kept getting stronger but I was having trouble pinpointing the problem. Well, I found it. When I packed up my kitchen I put all of my spices in a shoebox, including two bulbs of fresh garlic. In the unexpected two months that my kitchen has been packed away, the garlic, not surprisingly, went bad. The stench was unbelievable! I�ve also decided that in celebration of moving home I�m going to buy a new vacuum cleaner and bath mats. Whoo! Damn, I�m exciting. Paaaarty with the bath mat. whoo. It�s funny how when I say home, no one is sure if I mean my apt., Bear and Africa�s place, or my parent�s. I use �home� interchangeably for all three. Bear and Africa�s place has a homey feel to it and I know that I�m loved and welcome there, but I can�t help but feel like I�m intruding or imposing. It also doesn�t help that I�m an introvert living with two extroverts, a non-noise person living with two that don�t notice noise. I�m having fun but I�m looking forward to having my own place again. A place to hang my clothes, to put my food anywhere I want, to walk around naked if I feel like it, to have my own quiet space. And then I can visit and have fun at their place without all of the guilt I keep feeling. Self-inflicted guilt, I know. I�ve tried and tried to keep it at bay. I�ve bought thank-you gifts for them, I�ve done dishes (I HATE doing other people�s dishes), I�ve cleaned and straightened and stocked, I�ve bought groceries and made deserts and still I feel guilty. I just hate intruding into other people�s space. It doesn�t help that I�m anal about cleanliness, especially in the kitchen, and I struggle to find a way to deal with that without coming across as rude and judgmental. Well, soon I�ll be back at home. There are things I�ll definitely miss: the way Bear wakes me up in the mornings (I LOVE that boy), the awesome talks with Africa (I LOVE that girl), coming home to dinner ready and margaritas in the making, just hanging out and watching TV with two of my best friends. But I just have to walk down the block to get back to my home away from home. I know that I�ll always be welcome there. Thanks, guys. 2003-11-15 || 11:53 p.m. |
