2007 wrap up

This was one hell of a week. On Wednesday, I returned home from Christmas in Chicago to my cats wigging out from the smoke alarm beeping and shorting out in my bedroom. I opened the bedroom door to find brown water leaking from the ceiling. What I had originally believed to be a minor leak from the upstairs unit ended up being a nightmare of a roof malfunction. At this moment every single item from my bedroom has been crammed into my living room, the ceiling in my bedroom has been completely removed, and the carpet has been torn up and is being blown dry by two giant fans and a dehumidifier. I have plastic tubes running from my bedroom into my bathroom sink to provide an outlet for all of the water that gets sucked out by the dehumidifier. This is day 3 of my living room slumber party and I have been told it will continue like this until they figure out who is liable for the roof damage. That determines what repair crew they bring in to fix everything up. They anticipate it will get repaired in the next week. Cross your fingers. I feel horrible for the occupant of the unit above mine. The water damage to his unit was so extensive they had to tear down his entire ceiling and all of his walls. His king sized bed is destroyed. What's even worse is that he is still on vacation. I wonder if I'll be able to hear him scream when he gets back....

In other partially unrelated news, I'm moving to St. Paul! Originally, I was planning to move to a new place in April but having to deal with this shit sparked my curiosity and I poked around the listings on Craigslist. I ended up finding my newly renovated dream apartment for the exact same rent as what I'm paying now complete with brick walls, hardwood floors, french doors, beveled glass, a garden, and garage parking. Granted, it's located on top of an adult bookstore and it's smaller than the place I'm currently in but I'm totally excited. Never would I have expected that I would be moving to St. Paul but February first can't come soon enough.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get back to cleaning the dry wall dust from my belongings to the melodious droning of the giant fans in my bedroom.

Happy New Years, everyone!

'Tis the season

We all have that family member who is just a bit off and it always seems to be the most noticeable around the holidays.

I received a package today from my dad's sister Mick. Upon opening this Christmas/birthday gift (she did not include a card) I discovered that I was given a collection of objects from around her house. I curiously opened each newspaper-wrapped item and laid them all out on my table: a pink vinyl coin purse, a ball point pen, a calculator, and a sculpture made out of sea shells. I had a flashback to the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where Aunt Bethany wraps up her cat and gives it away as a Christmas gift.


Given that I have yet to buy a single Christmas gift, I'm torn-- do I stoop so low as to regift or should I take the high road and wrap up one of my cats?

Anyone want a sea shell sculpture?