Problems with our apartment - Part 1

Due to excessive scolding by my #1 super-fan, I've finally gotten around to posting again. Rather than listing my (legitimate) excuses as to why I haven't updated my blog in over a good month, lets just get on to the good stuff, shall we?

Oh, apartments. Being a freshman that got to skip out on the luxury of dorm life, many of my friends have deemed me "lucky" and point out the many flaws that living on campus poses. While I'm grateful that I have my own room and bathroom, before you jump into the idea of an apartment like I did.. do your research. My roommates and I have decided that the apartment we live in now is either possessed by demons or was severely neglected by a pack of wild, cavemen-like college dropouts. My personal opinion is that it was a combination of the two - misery loves company.. (yes, I did leave it up to you to decide if the "misery" is the demons or the cavemen.. ahahahaha)

Our laundry room in general is a place of pure evil. Everything within this small room at one point has caused us some type of inconvenience or fear for our life. Let's start with the obvious - the washer and dryer. Personally out of the two I have to give the washer more points for being annoying as hell than the dryer; ever seen a washing machine dance? No? I have. For whatever reason our washer occasionally goes into freak mode and begins rocking from side to side like a demonic hip hop dancer (ever heard DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again by Usher? Just picture a washer trying to hit up that "side to side, side to side" bit). The last time it happened I rushed into the laundry room and threw my massive frame towards it as it flailed about, almost tossing me off like a mechanical bull.

Needless to say I successfully ended its tantrum and came out with very few physical injuries - must be that massive frame I mentioned earlier. The dryer on the other hand likes to make weird noises that sound as if a can of pennies are being tossed around inside; however, when you take a look there is clearly nothing but clothes being gently fluffed. Alongside the mechanical issues this room presents, we also have a nice hoard of rats/mice/whatever the correct term is for the rodents that ate my damn bagels is (yeah, try waking up all excited for a bagel with strawberry cream cheese only to find a neat little hole nibbled into the bag with a half-eaten bagel and little turds scattered inside). Although I admit that we have had very few issues with the mouse as opposed to our neighbors (who have now caught a total of six rodents), this one incident was enough to drive me up the wall since our laundry room doubles as a pantry.. and my food is on the lowest shelf.

My roommate called maintenance - I did a small prayer asking that the man who shows up wouldn't be the one who hates me (you know, the guy that had to fix my closet door twice, the vent in my bathroom, the kitchen light, the wall socket, etc.). The doorbell rings. I hesitantly open it..

Maintenance guy: *thick accent* Oh no.. you..
Me: Yeah, it's me again.. heh heh..
Maintenance guy: So, you be having problem with the vrats, eh?
Me: Yeah, it ate my bagel!
Maintenance guy: Oh, too bad.. *evil chuckle*
Me: *glare*
Maintenance guy: Vell, we vill put down traps to try and catch him. Then you cook for me, yes?
Me: ..I do what now?
Maintenance guy: The vrat! When trap traps him, you cook up the meat for me!
Me: Sorry, I'm a vegetarian. Heh.
Maintenance guy: Vhat? Vhy in the vorld vould you do zat?
Me: Because I love animals!
Maintenance guy: Oh, funny weird girl.. hahaha..
Me: So, can you use snap traps to get the rat?
Maintenance guy: Oh no! Sticky traps are zee best. You see, when zee vrat goes to get zee food, his vwittle paws get stuck inside zee sticky glue! Best trap!
Me: But they're not nice! The rat will suffer!
Maintenance guy: Is just a vrat..

So of course he used the sticky traps. Don't tell anyone, but I'm secretly rooting for the mouse.. (yes, regardless of the fact that it feasted off of my breakfast). So far the sticky traps (three in the laundry room total) have not caught a single thing. Karma is a bitch, maintenance guy.

Our next major issue are the elephants upstairs that seem to think they should romp and play about like a bunch of brainless idiots every single night. Even this week, the last week of finals, they were stomping around  at strange times like 4 in the morning with seemingly endless energy. Being someone who hates confrontation, my method of dealing with this issue is very simple and is probably carried out by thousands of old ladies each day - a broom. Simple as that. If they're making thumping sounds on our ceiling I'll return the favor on their floor. A few hard whacks with the end of a broom usually does the trick, but not always, of course.

During one instance at about two in the morning my roommates and I were all doing school-related things - studying, some homework, catching up on textbook reading, etc., when the noise upstairs became unbearable. Why in the world did the people above us keep making that rhythmic, extremely loud thud? One of my roommates was pissed off enough to find out for herself. All four of us made our way outside and upstairs to the 2nd floor (me following meekly in the background, of course) and watched as our roommate banged on their door in fury. And what appeared when the door opened? Well, I'll be good and try to say this as nicely as possible.. a caveman. Yes, I realize I talked of cavemen earlier in this post, but never had I met one until I came to college. A very large man with dark hair on his head and face with a very dumbstruck expression. Like I said, a caveman.

Caveman: *gruffly* What?
Erin: Um, hey, we're trying to study and couldn't help but notice you guys were being really loud.
Caveman: What do you mean?
Erin: Well, we've been hearing a ton of thumping noises for a while..
Caveman: Oh, that's just us thawing out a turkey leg.
Erin: Uhh.. what?
Caveman: The turkey leg... we need to cook it but it isn't defrosted. So we're hitting it against the counter. It shouldn't take too much longer.
Erin: Okay, thanks..

Why yes, he did say they were thawing a turkey leg by beating the thing against their kitchen counter. Why not set it out a few hours earlier? Pssh, that would be logical and no fun, of course! Haven't YOU always wanted to get your frustration out by beating a big piece of meat? Ahaha..

While there are several other things I could continue to rant about, I'm going to let all of this information sink in and after a few more posts I'll continue with Part 2. Like I said, always do your research when looking at places to live.. if the reviews on apartmentratings.com STRONGLY bash the place you want to live, heed their warnings. I know I will from now on..

Driving is not my forte.

Most people who know me also know the intensity of my driving habits; whenever it's late and I'm not tired I'll ask Ashley if she wants to go for a drive with me. We always leave the GPS behind at the apartment and make it our goal to get back home without any help. It's a great way for us to get to know the area and is usually a lot of fun - except for when we get lost. Sometimes we drive towards downtown Raleigh, sometimes Cary. This past Friday, though, we somehow found ourselves all the way in Durham. Before we get into what happened, though, let's do a review on the things I've hit with my car since I received it two years ago:

• a parked car at school
• yellow pole at McDonalds
• cement parking block 
• multiple curbs
• metal basketball pole
• steel mailbox
• flower pot holder

I'm pretty sure that's it. But even if I forgot something you get the idea. So Ashley and I head off towards Cary; we've been talking and listening to music for a while when I decide it's time to go back. Unfortunately we don't recognize anything around us like we usually do, but we're not worried because we always find our way back somehow.

As we're driving along I look to my right and my eyes widen.

Me: Ashley, we've been here before.
Ashley: What? No we haven't.
Me: Yeah, we have. I've passed that sign before and I've driven on this road earlier tonight.
Ashley: Are you sure?
Me: Yeah, look - there's Lowes.. again.. and we're on Maynard for the second time.
Ashley: Shit!

So we keep driving and take a different way, knowing that this time it'll lead us right back home to Wolf Creek. Then I start looking around again and I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. My mind goes back to when I was a kid and I watched that one episode of Twilight Zone where the Army battleship has that evil Commander who kills innocent people; but for some reason he and everyone else on the boat couldn't escape.. no matter where they went they always ended up back on the boat. At the end they found out they were in hell for killing so many people and now they're stuck on that boat for eternity.

So when we found ourselves back at Maynard yet again, I told Ashley we were doomed to drive around forever until we ran out of gas, and that when we try to buy gas we'd get shot. I don't think she appreciated this scenario as she tried to calm me and herself down. The road we are currently on is completely deserted so I'm going at a fairly fast speed when I see something up ahead.

*hop* - pause- *hop* - pause- *hop*
Nope, not a rabbit. A raccoon, we think.

I scream and slam on my breaks, causing Ashley to scream just as equally (or possibly more) loud as me.

Me: AAAAHHHHHHHHH!
Ashley: AHHHHH! WHAT!?! WHAT?!?!?
Me: An animal! Over there! I almost hit it but I didn't! I think it's a possum! *points*
Ashley: That's a raccoon! Damn Ashleigh I thought you were going to hit a person or something!
Me: My bad. I didn't want to kill it!
Ashley: I didn't know what the hell was going on!

And so we keep driving, not much else we could do. Fortunately we're getting more confident that we're headed in the right direction at last. I'm jamming to some music hardcore when..

Ashley: ASHLEIGH WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? THIS LANE ENDS!!

I look and sure enough, it's a right turn only. Before I crash into the large yellow signs at the end of the lane I take a sharp right turn into a school parking lot. My heart is pounding like crazy - this is one of many times tonight (and other times) my driving has almost ended my life or severely mangled my car. I park the car and try to calm down; when we both feel better it suddenly dawns on us how freaking creepy this parking lot is. Of course we're the only ones here, and everything is deathly quiet. Just then, the street lamp directly in front of us shut off.

We head out of there like it's no tomorrow and somehow manage to get back home; I have a feeling I won't be driving around at night for quite some time.

This is not how a Sunday should go.

This past Sunday was definitely not one I'd like to repeat anytime soon. Mind you, there were some parts that I found particularly enjoyable; however, everything that occurred in a nutshell was mentally and physically draining.

Let's start with Sunday morning, seems pretty logical. I wake up and feel very productive, so I decide to start putting together flashcards for my Animal Science practical that will be coming up in a few weeks. When I'm working I need to have everything laid out over a wide expanse of space and placed in a certain order so that I can have access to everything I need. My desk is too small and I'd be tempted to go back to sleep if I worked on my bed, so as usual the floor became my workspace. I was doing pretty well at getting a lot done when I thought I saw movement against the wall out of the corner of my eye.

*scuttle* *scuttle*

I shrugged it off, thinking I was just seeing things.

Just a few seconds later..

*scuttle* *scuttle*

This time I looked over and caught the culprit. A large Brown Recluse. I found out later that day when I was telling someone else this story that most people around here don't know what a Brown Recluse is.. must be a Burke County thing to know? Anyway, it's a spider. One of the two deadliest in NC (alongside the Black Widow). Here's what they look like, in case you're a visual learner:

When I realize that this huge spider is scurrying around my room I let out a very loud gasp; I don't believe in killing things myself so what do I do? Run to my roommate Ashley, of course. I bang on her door like there's no tomorrow and a disheveled Ashley answers.

"What?! What's wrong?!" she yells.

"A spider! HUGE! IN MY ROOM! Kill it!" I say back.

She shuts the door and returns momentarily with shoes on and her chosen weapon - a large pink hairbrush. I'm tempted to say something but hold back - she is killing a poisonous spider in my room, after all. I follow Ashley towards my room as she hunts down the spider safari-style; I point to the wall where I last saw it. After looking from the spider back to her hairbrush, she rethinks her artillery and pulls one of her shoes off instead. Within two very vicious whacks Mr. Spider is now extremely dead. Satisfied with a job well done, Ashley starts to make her way out of my room.

"Errr.. what about the body?" I hint.

Ashley sighs and disposes of the remains via toilet paper and flushing.

At this point we need to do something relaxing, so we decide to finish the movie we were watching the previous night, "My Sister's Keeper". I have to say that it was a good movie, but definitely way too depressing for my tastes. While we're watching my mom calls; she demands that, due to the very annoying problems I've had with service on my new phone, I drive to Sprint immediately and get my phone checked out. Grumbling, Ashley and I type in Sprint to my GPS and head off.

When we arrive at Sprint I explain my dilemma to the guy who was sadly assigned to help me. He tells me that for the first time in seven years, Sprint had an outage.. and it was right here in Raleigh. He says the problem will be fixed in a few days and not to worry. I believe him, but my mother doesn't. She calls my phone and wants to talk to the Sprint guy; I ask him if he would mind explaining the situation to her and he agrees. He assures her that despite the fact everyone in the area is having phone trouble, they'll run a synopsis on my phone to ensure there is nothing else going on with it.

He hangs up with my mother and hands me back my phone while informing Ashley and I that it takes a good hour for them to check one.

Me: So.. we have to wait for an entire hour just so you can look at a phone you already know is functioning perfectly because my mom said so?

Sprint guy: Well, we can just say you got it checked out..

Me: But I'm a horrible liar, my mom will know.

Sprint guy: I can even put it in the system, it'll look like we checked it for you.

The offer is tempting. But my super nerdy/good conscious won't let me do it. I tell the Sprint guy that Ashley and I will find something to do for the next hour.

Since we're in a large shopping complex we decide just to walk to all of the stores instead of driving. At the moment we're surrounded by restaurants, but we're not hungry. I can see stores in the far distance, across three parking lots. The only way to get there walking are small gaps randomly placed in between very nicely maintained rows of decorative bushes. To get through the gaps we have to shimmy sideways crab-style and get stabbed by the holly leaves. I'm not too excited about how we have to waste an hour pretending to shop until I see something that changes my mind - Game Stop.

I know I shouldn't walk into this store. It's a given that if I do, a huge chunk of my wallet will be left behind. But I can't resist - Ashley and I go in and browse for what seems like forever. When we leave I'm $100 poorer due to my purchase of three games, two memory cards, and a universal RF adapter. But on the plus side, I finally signed up for a Game Stop card so that I can build up my points and eventually start to save.

As we left Game Stop we came upon a man waiting outside a sub restaurant for his food to be ready. His dog was absolutely adorable so instinctively asked if I could pet him. Because I'm an Animal Science major and I'm trying to teach myself all of the dog breeds, I was asking him tons of question about his dog.

Me: What breed is he?

Creeper: He's a Sheltie.

Me: Awesome, he's super cute. I'm trying to learn all of the dog breeds since I'm interested in pursing a career involved with animals.

Creeper: Ah, I see. Do you know what his coat coloring is called?

Me: Tricolor..

Creeper: *looks to Ashley* Ohh, she knows her stuff!

Me: Welp, thanks for letting us pet your dog. We have to go now.

The creeper literally lets out a sad, "Awwh" as we start to walk away. Not long afterwards I realize his dog has caught up with me; he apologizes and starts attempting to talk to us again, so we continue to walk away faster and carry on a fake conversation to look busy. I suppose all types of people enjoy the companionship of an animal.. Regardless, I'm really glad I got to learn a little about Shelties; I never realized how small they are in real life, I assumed they were much larger. I definitely have a new appreciation for this breed.

After we spend some time in A.C. Moore we head back to Sprint to pick up my phone. What do you know? Nothing was wrong with it. I text mom and tell her the good news and drive Ashley and I back to Wolf Creek.

When we get home I see that I've gotten a text back from mom that read,

"We're switching to Verizon."

This is not how a Sunday should go.

So basically I'm cursed.

Lately I've been having an uncountable number of problems with my apartment, but only because the one my roommates and I are staying in was renovated over the summer. Usually whatever goes wrong isn't my fault so I don't feel too bad about calling maintenance to come and fix the problem, but this past Monday I had an issue that I actually caused. Apparently the bathroom doors at Wolf Creek have the ability to lock, unbeknownst to me. After my shower I dress and close the bathroom door, then try and go back in a few minutes later. But wait, why is the door not opening? I call my roommate over and ask for her opinion.

At first we were under the assumption it was simply stuck, but further inspection proves otherwise; a third roommate of mine, Sindhu, comes in and enlightens us - the doors are able to lock if you push the doorknob in and turn. Right now it's about 6:00 in the evening and the office closes at 7:00. Ashley and I made our way up to the office and explain my dilemma. The employees have seen us so many times that they have memorized my name, building number, and apartment number. One woman tells me, "Maintenance has left for the day and won't be back until tomorrow." My eye twitches. Tomorrow? As in, not today? I have almost everything needed for me to get ready to face my classes inside that bathroom. The manager of Wolf Creek (who knows us best of all) sees me sit down at a table and give up on life.

Miraculously they find out that maintenance has not in fact left yet and will be able to run by the apartment when they get done pressure washing one of the buildings. Relieved, I head back to the apartment with Ashley; within the hour the maintenance guy is knocking on our door. Ashley lets him in and he basically stomps inside. Before he speaks I apologize and promise that I'm not going out of my way to be a pest. He shrugs it off and heads directly for my room without asking which one it is because he's got that memorized by now. I walk in behind him and within seconds he has my bathroom door open; he says, "Piece of wire hanger. Works like a charm." I only have plastic hangers, but I don't inform him of this.

On his way out I thank him and say goodbye - he throws his hand up (waving, I think) and says, "See you tomorrow." I don't think the impression I've made on the maintenance crew is a positive one.

Let me tell you about my day.

I try to be a generally happy person, so when something doesn't go the way I've planned it I can usually just shrug it off. However, exactly four days ago I had one of the most unlucky days of my life. Not just one or two things went wrong, but it was legitimately one thing after another. Before I started this blog I made a Facebook Note outlining what happened; it went as follows:

October 22, 2010

In order to study for my two exams I have today, I stayed up until 2:00 in the morning. I set my alarm for 5:30 so that I could be at the Scholars Egypt Trip meeting that was being held at 7:00 a.m. I somehow managed to get up, turn my alarm off, and stay asleep until 6:15. Frantic, I banged on my roommate Ashley's door to wake her up so she could give me a ride. While waiting for her to wake up I quickly ran to my bathroom to wash my face; I reached for the glass knob and twisted.. it broke in half. So now I'm left with my water running on full blast and no way to turn it off as the only thing left was a little piece of metal that wouldn't move.

Logic now tells me to put the two halves together on either side of the remaining metal piece in order to turn the water off.. right? Wrong. I have no idea how, but my bony little hand managed to shatter the two pieces of glass knob into dozens of smaller pieces. Oh but it's all good, I can call Wolf Creek and get them to fix it, right? Wrong again. I have called that poor man so many times to fix things in my room that he honestly believes I break things on purpose. So if I do call Wolf Creek, I'll be paying for the new set of handles to go on my sink. After giving up on the sink I ran and made sure Ashley was up; we rushed out the door and headed towards her car. I stubbed my toe on the sidewalk but just kept on walking - no big deal, right?

Open Ashley's car door. Oh wait, where's my other glove? I only have one.. cool, it's under her car. Throw all of my stuff in her floorboard and grab the glove. At this point we're headed out of Wolf Creek; then I realize.. I left my breakfast and the coffee I was going to use to stay awake today back home. No time to turn back, though, so we keep going. Everything goes pretty smoothly until we arrive at Sullivan. I open the door, thank Ashley for the ride, and try to get my book bag out of the car. It's not budging because it's caught on the bottom of the seat.

It takes me a good five minutes of me yanking and untangling the straps to finally remove it from the car. Finally it's free and I can go inside; it doesn't take me long to find the right room for the Egypt trip meeting. I pay the $350 initial deposit and was then told a lottery system would be used to determine who goes on the trip. If I'm not chosen in the lottery system do I get my money back? I'm not sure, my question was never answered because I'm invisible. Once I paid and attempted to talk to the Scholars guy I just left with another girl interested in going to Egypt. Oh, and if I keep doing as badly as I'm doing in my classes I'll be kicked out of Scholars, meaning I won't be allowed to go on the trip. This is the only year Scholars will go to Egypt, and it is my absolute number one country I want to visit in my lifetime. 

By now I'm wanting to eat something - anything - so that I can have a little energy for my first exam. So I walk to the closest C-Store and grab one of those cracker and cheese snack things. On my way to Animal Science I manage to drop the little stick you spread the cheese with and two of the four crackers. Oh yeah, and I forgot to get water. I finally arrive at class and grab an exam. When I was done I felt that I had done pretty decently and left for the library with Alex. I express my desire for some Starbucks and we decide to go to a gas station and buy some. On the way there Alex and I almost got hit by a van that decides even though the crosswalk says "walk", it's more important for them to reach their destination in a timely manner than our lives.

We finally made it to the gas station and brought our drinks to the register. Alex pointed to something sitting on the counter and was trying not to laugh. I give him a weird look and try to figure out what's going on. After staring intently at everything for sale at the register I gasp when I realize what he's talking about, making Alex and the cashier burst out laughing. We head back towards the library and see that the back door, which is usually locked, is propped wide open beside the Creamery where we usually sit. My day just got a little better - it's 60 degrees and windy outside, but now we don't have to walk all the way around the library just to use the front entrance.. or so I thought. We approach the doors and a man carrying a small table says to me,

Man: Ya'll can't come in here darlin'.

Me: *small, unbelieving voice* ..r-r-really?

Man: Sorry.

Me: You mean we have to walk all the way around when the door is open right here?

Man: Yeah..

Me: *voice cracking* I don't think my day can get any worse.. *walking away sadly*

Man: Err, if you want to go in that badly you can..

No, actually. I decided that if I wasn't good enough to go in through that door the first time, I wasn't going to take a pity freebie. At this point my mentality is shot; Alex and I had discussed the Animal Science test and from us comparing what we put down I determined I didn't do that well. I start doing a sort of crying/laughing deal while Alex tries to make me feel better. We make it back to the library and find Heather and Deisy. I have another breakdown while trying to explain to them why I was upset in the first place. Heather and I make our way to our Companion Animals class; I take the time to rant and rave to my poor friends about everything that's happened, probably annoying the ever-living shit out of them as I did so.

Afterwards we all head to Biology, where I have another exam to take.. I grab an answer sheet and start filling out my information. Heather looks over at me and says, "Ashleigh, you put your name on there the wrong way.. it's supposed to be last name first, then first name." Well, shit. Now I have to dig out my big eraser and start over. At this point the exams have been handed out and the timer has started - but I'm still working on putting my name down. I finally get everything in order and open up the test booklet. Just like with my last Biology exam, I have no recollection of what happened when I did the multiple choice. Fortunately I was coherent enough to do a decent essay which will hopefully improve my grade, but I'm not counting on it. I finish the exam and grab my stuff to head for the bus. What do I see when I reach Talley? The Wolf Creek bus driving away into the distance. Yes, it really did happen.

By now I'm starting to accept that everything is guaranteed to go wrong, so I plop down and wait for the next bus. About 20 minutes later one arrives and I head for it; I finally get home and take a nap to sleep away the horridness of my day.