drip drip crash

A couple weeks ago, it rained rather heavily. A small drip appeared in my ceiling below the upstairs neighbors terrace, where their outer wall sits. An e-mail was sent to the landlord, and Mr fix-it took a look.

Found nothing.

Next rainstorm, again came the drip. He didn't come. My upstairs neighbor was experiencing a good deal of unwanted H two Oh herself.

Next rainstorm. Now the drip was FOUR FEET WIDE sending half my front room into a much wetter state than I prefer. My landlord's response to this was that he was under the impression it had been worked on, and was going to see to it.

That was last night. I went to work. Then, I came home. I got the bad news right away. That part of the ceiling was so water logged that it had collapsed.

The ceiling was on the floor. (Note: that is not where it belongs)

I decided to forgo my usual "e-mail the problem away" approach and called him. Within 2 hours, he was actually at my apartment-

Ok, I need to cut here. This is the man that took my deposit check and disappeared. I never saw him the first 11 months I lived in this house. Every other issue was delegated to someone with a beard, so this struck me as significant.

*ahem*

He was actually at my apartment with his fix-it guy, cleaning, examining, and diagnosing. I am now told that by Monday, my apartment will no longer look like said leak had occurred. The leak is "fixed" (a temporary fix, he says, so it won't leak between now and Monday when he has that section of the house overhauled).

My upstairs neighbor pretty much lost a couch. Color me lucky on that one.

gee, thanks. It's not like I have enough to worry about already.

August

So, August is ending. The semester starts on the 31st. I work nights (11PM - 7AM). I learn days. (8AM - 2PM) I sleep... maybe.

Female company landed* a job in a school in Alden. Starts the 1st of September. Her work hours would keep her out of the house somewhere around when I'm also gone. That would be fine... if there wasn't one massive detail putting a kink in that schedule. Though I'm assured that her sister is more than willing to help out. Problem there is that her sister is on the other side of the Mayo clinic.

Ok, no problem. I'll just move my office into the front room of the house. It's empty anyway. Still, this all starts in less than two weeks, and I'm the obsessive type that wants to make sure everything is set up before my schedule keeps me busy 22 hours a day.

But by saying this in a public forum, I have doomed myself to the inevitable monkey wrench getting tossed at me.

*by landed, I mean they keep telling her they want her, but haven't actually solidified it yet. Yay for school bureaucracy.

Transit

Ah, the Transit Drive in. A glorious relic of the past where you stay in your car to watch not one, but two movies back to back. All the benefits of weather related peril plus the ultra low-def sound provided by your own car stereo. The biggest benefit to this is that if you stay for both movies, your battery dies unless you idle the car.

I expected some kind of speaker to pull up to. Whatever.

I wouldn't have known such a place even existed, but I live with someone who's always looking out for something to do. The movie selection was her idea too. G.I. Joe and Transformers 2, back to back. A glorious pair of testosterone fueled 80's nostalgia with explosions, chicks, and awesome storyline. Although not so much chicks and storyline on Transformers. It was Michael Bay's latest disaster. G.I. Joe was the clear winner here. Allow me to demonstrate.

G.I. Joe:
"Plot element D has just happened!"
"Move on to plot element E!"

Transformers 2:
*Firey crash* "Has plot element B happened yet?" *BOOM*
*man gets thrown in an explosion* "No!" *BOOM*
"Keep firing!" *BOOM*

Both movies opened themselves to a sequel, leaving the Hasbro double-header with loose ends. School starts in 2 weeks, how am I going to concentrate?

Love comes in a 3 pack.

I just got home from work. The night was... manageable. The audit was, unpleasant, for lack of better words. Things just felt tense. Not 'everyone is miffed about stuff' tense, just 'oh wow the world needs a massage' tense.

But I'm feeling pretty bold.

The vending machine guy came in again. Usually he's through the lobby so fast I barely see him. This time, I caught him.

"Hey, can we make requests?"
"If I got it, yea"
"Ho Ho's!"

He comes back in with a giant box on his shoulder to stuff the machine with. In his hand is a small stack of white packages. He drops them on the counter. The awe-inspiring Hostess delight, and not just in the standard 2 pack. No, these were the 3 pack. Four of them. Twelve snack cakes total. I just scored a stack of free Ho Ho's.



Kitchen staff was calling in. The hotel was pretty full, and very few people working breakfast. The guy running the kitchen came to the desk for a moment, hoping to catch if anyone was coming. He was clearly not having a good morning.

"You know what makes everything better?" I asked. "Ho Ho's" I said as I dropped one on the counter in front of him.

He looks at it, puzzled, then smiles: "Man... I *love* Ho Ho's"

My manager just took 4 days off. A number of things piled up whilst he was gone, including a policy change he argued against. When he arrived, it took him all of 4 minutes to see it all and nearly freak out.

"I think I can help," says I, "Here" I add as I drop a Ho Ho in front of him.

He reaches for it while smiling, "Holy crap, I love Ho Ho's. That's awesome"

The girl taking over for me in the morning, clearly didn't like the idea of even being up at that hour. Once again, the delectable snack cake produced the word 'love', and smiles were abundant.

I felt like I was riding a unicorn that was pooping rainbows.

The Nationals

The Nationals - that's what it's called on our banquet list. Whether or not they eat doesn't matter, it's a generic term. Some groups book the ballrooms/banquet rooms downstairs for whatever reason. Since I show up at 11PM, they're pretty much always long gone. Then I saw a sign announcing "Ms Teen USA -->"

?

Apparently, the place was full of "attractive" girls for the better part of the day. (said so in quotes because I never saw any of them, only heard tales). The auditors (us) noticed that we missed a hotel full of girls. Regret and lament was expressed, but I quickly corrected them.

"Gentlemen, they were a handful of underage *girls* artificially placed in a high pressure lifestyle harboring a princess complex. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near them"

A brief moment of pause preceded the thoughtful nod.