On sleeping and heat
It is hot in my apartment and there is nothing i can do about it.
You see, there is no thermostat in my apartment. That isn't to say there isn't a thermostat for my apartment, it just isn't inside my apartment. I can control the heat in my apartment, but the device itself is in the unheated hallway. This is why i cannot blame the thermostat itself for the uncomfortable levels of heat pumping through my vents. He doesn't know any better, for all he knows he isn't doing his job at all! He always believes it is a crisp 20 degrees, and thus pumps more and more heat at me, desperately trying to raise the temperature to a calming 50. He will never make the hallway, exposed to the elements as it is, that hot, but i don't blame him for trying.
I blame my apartment in general. I also have no shower. No, it's true. Where there is a shower, I instead of a slanted roof and a tub. Sure, if one is to have a slanted roof it is better to have one over the tub than the stove, but still... It's nice to have a shower. For the first week all i took were baths. It took ten minutes to fill the tub, and another ten just to make sure all the soap really did come off. Later i learned that you could save time by rinsing individual body parts as the tub filled by crouching over the nozzle, but this proved embarrassing even if i was the only one privy to this. Finally i bought a shower head, but still left with the slanted roof, i am forced to take showers sitting down. It's sad, and i cry myself awake each morning.
Knowing these things about my apartment, people ask me why i don't just move out, and the simple answer is this: I can't. First of all, the lease I'm on right now doesn't run out until august, and second of all, i have already signed another year lease for august 2007- august 2008. Don't ask why, this is just how things work in Iowa City. I got a letter in the mail saying that if i didn't sign a new lease by December first, that they would start showing my apartment to interested renters as soon as possible.
This put me into an interesting conundrum. Say, for instance, that you are having problems with your girlfriend. You could dump her on the possibility that you might find someone new in the next six months, or you can just stick it out, knowing that you are probably with the person you are best suited for (problems aside). Sure, you could move on. I mean, there are always girls out there who are more spacious and affordable, but you know that in six months you will just get drunk and call up your old apartment and it would be too late. She will have already moved onto new tenants.
Somewhere in there i mixed up my metaphor, but i had a point. Ah yes, i can't sleep. I also start classes bright and early tomorrow morning, but i do not think these two facts are related. I blame soda and heat, thought there could be a dash of excitement/fear in the mix. When i was a child i used to never be able to sleep the night before classes started. I would toss and turn in my bed until i gave up and stumbled towards my tower of school supplies. For some reason my mother thought it was necessary to start from scratch at the start of each school year. Come august we would make our way to the stationary store and fill an entire shopping cart with notebooks, pencils, pens, 3-hole punchers, single hole punchers, book covers, 3-hole notebooks, glue (both in bottle and stick form), glitter, etc etc. Looking back now i wonder what happened to all those old school supplies. Did i lose the entire batch over the summer? Did i burn them once school ended? For some reason i don't remember taking many notes, but i always seemed to pick up 8 more note books when the next year started (one of every color).
Anyways, like i said, i would toss and turn in my bed until finally stumbling towards my tower of supplies. I would look up words like "School", "Homework", "Paramecium", or "Fart" in the reference books i had lying around the room. The dictionary would provide me with most of the information i needed. Fart provides a very matter of fact definition that didn't afford nearly the amount of satisfaction i thought it would, and paramecium just had a picture of a cell, but the thesaurus only supplied me with words i no longer needed to look up in the dictionary.
I'm not even sure i have a notebook. I'm fairly sure i have pencils and pens, though perhaps not, as bills can now be paid online. I also fairly sure i have class tomorrow, though i'm not very sure where. I know when, as it determines when i wake up, but i can't remember which class it actually is. If this was elementary school, there would be a general assembly to tell me all of this.
I think this entry had a point. Ah yes, i can't sleep. I blame the heat.
You see, there is no thermostat in my apartment. That isn't to say there isn't a thermostat for my apartment, it just isn't inside my apartment. I can control the heat in my apartment, but the device itself is in the unheated hallway. This is why i cannot blame the thermostat itself for the uncomfortable levels of heat pumping through my vents. He doesn't know any better, for all he knows he isn't doing his job at all! He always believes it is a crisp 20 degrees, and thus pumps more and more heat at me, desperately trying to raise the temperature to a calming 50. He will never make the hallway, exposed to the elements as it is, that hot, but i don't blame him for trying.
I blame my apartment in general. I also have no shower. No, it's true. Where there is a shower, I instead of a slanted roof and a tub. Sure, if one is to have a slanted roof it is better to have one over the tub than the stove, but still... It's nice to have a shower. For the first week all i took were baths. It took ten minutes to fill the tub, and another ten just to make sure all the soap really did come off. Later i learned that you could save time by rinsing individual body parts as the tub filled by crouching over the nozzle, but this proved embarrassing even if i was the only one privy to this. Finally i bought a shower head, but still left with the slanted roof, i am forced to take showers sitting down. It's sad, and i cry myself awake each morning.
Knowing these things about my apartment, people ask me why i don't just move out, and the simple answer is this: I can't. First of all, the lease I'm on right now doesn't run out until august, and second of all, i have already signed another year lease for august 2007- august 2008. Don't ask why, this is just how things work in Iowa City. I got a letter in the mail saying that if i didn't sign a new lease by December first, that they would start showing my apartment to interested renters as soon as possible.
This put me into an interesting conundrum. Say, for instance, that you are having problems with your girlfriend. You could dump her on the possibility that you might find someone new in the next six months, or you can just stick it out, knowing that you are probably with the person you are best suited for (problems aside). Sure, you could move on. I mean, there are always girls out there who are more spacious and affordable, but you know that in six months you will just get drunk and call up your old apartment and it would be too late. She will have already moved onto new tenants.
Somewhere in there i mixed up my metaphor, but i had a point. Ah yes, i can't sleep. I also start classes bright and early tomorrow morning, but i do not think these two facts are related. I blame soda and heat, thought there could be a dash of excitement/fear in the mix. When i was a child i used to never be able to sleep the night before classes started. I would toss and turn in my bed until i gave up and stumbled towards my tower of school supplies. For some reason my mother thought it was necessary to start from scratch at the start of each school year. Come august we would make our way to the stationary store and fill an entire shopping cart with notebooks, pencils, pens, 3-hole punchers, single hole punchers, book covers, 3-hole notebooks, glue (both in bottle and stick form), glitter, etc etc. Looking back now i wonder what happened to all those old school supplies. Did i lose the entire batch over the summer? Did i burn them once school ended? For some reason i don't remember taking many notes, but i always seemed to pick up 8 more note books when the next year started (one of every color).
Anyways, like i said, i would toss and turn in my bed until finally stumbling towards my tower of supplies. I would look up words like "School", "Homework", "Paramecium", or "Fart" in the reference books i had lying around the room. The dictionary would provide me with most of the information i needed. Fart provides a very matter of fact definition that didn't afford nearly the amount of satisfaction i thought it would, and paramecium just had a picture of a cell, but the thesaurus only supplied me with words i no longer needed to look up in the dictionary.
I'm not even sure i have a notebook. I'm fairly sure i have pencils and pens, though perhaps not, as bills can now be paid online. I also fairly sure i have class tomorrow, though i'm not very sure where. I know when, as it determines when i wake up, but i can't remember which class it actually is. If this was elementary school, there would be a general assembly to tell me all of this.
I think this entry had a point. Ah yes, i can't sleep. I blame the heat.