oh, what a week...

i started writing this post in september and never finished. i thought i'd put it up anyway.


i have had an insane week. let's start at the beginning...
last monday, i was awakened at around 8:30 by the sound of the workers in my landlady/next-door neighbor's yard breaking up the debris from re-siding her house. as i sat in my bed poking around on the computer and reading, i started getting the distinct impression that the noise was now coming not only from the back yard but also directly over my head. i first called my dad, who denied any knowledge of construction planned on our house, and then my landlady who confirmed that yes, they were redoing the roof. since it sounded like the incredible hulk had taken it into his head to use our house as a trampoline, i decided i had best leave. after dropping my car off for a long-overdue oil change, i took the bus downtown to shop for shoes that i could wear to potential job interviews and/or eventual actual jobs. not being in a decisive mood, i thought that the solution to do would be to buy everything i remotely liked (on credit cards, of course) and bring it home to ask the opinions of everybody i knew, eventually returning the shoes that didn't make the cut. six pairs of shoes and $800 later, i took the most crowded muni bus i have been on in my entire life back to my car, drove home, and trudged upstairs to examine my purchases in a different light. the first thing that i noticed was that there was a large mess in the center of my room. it took a moment to register that the large mess was composed of paint, plaster and insulation. this prompted me to actually look up at the ceiling, which had a large hole with the sagging boards showing through, and half of my light fixture was hanging off. i first called my dad, whose response was something to the tune of "no. you're kidding me..." and then my landlady, who came over with one of the workers to take a look. she translated their explanation to me (they're not used to working with roofs like ours, whatever that means...one of the men had put his foot through the top layer...), but made no apologies. she's generally a kind lady, and she likes our family, but apologies are not really her style.