Last Sunday night, I put in a maintenance request about the previously dismissed "humidity problem" in my bathroom having developed into an unarguable leak. It took them a few days to find the source of the water; turns out it's the corroded pipe that supplies the water-based HVAC system. They've since worked their way from the leak, on the third floor, down to my apartment on the ground floor, and are now moving out sideways, in search of structurally sound piping. This evening, they determined that they were going to have to enlarge the hole in my bathroom ceiling, because none of the vertical run of pipe was sturdy enough to attach new pipe to. So they did. I showed them out a few minutes ago.

And now I go fall over, because the plumber is supposed to be back bright and early.

[ETA, 13:30: It turns out that it's not just my stack that was without HVAC. Some idiot back at the time of the original installation didn't put in valves, so to work on any of the pipes, the entire building has to be drained. A valve has been installed to cut off the stack containing my apartment, so now everyone but my stack has their heating & cooling restored.]

I thought I had a test today. It's next Friday.

At least I'm now well-studied. And hey, I've got my afternoon back!

Okay, slight exaggeration there. But for almost two weeks now, there's been a nontrivial leak somewhere in the plumbing. First we thought it was the under-sink, which had a visible slow leak. That was fixed easily enough, though, and the leak continued. But zeightyfiv and I noticed that it now correlates with using the shower.

Maintenance brought a plumber in today, and opened up the access panel in the wall behind the shower (which required moving both stove and refridgerator out of the way). We found that the drywall inside was basically disintegrating, due to grout in the shower being cracked and falling apart. That let water into the wall, where it leaked out mostly underneath the cabinets and behind the stove.

Now maintenance wants me to move into a different unit so that they can replace the drywall, shower tiles, and cabinets in this one. There won't be any movement on that today, though, because the apartment complex manager is stuck in an airport in Salt Lake City. So I'm in limbo, unsure of whether I should be packing or doing something else entirely.

Today it became clear that my employer expects me to both tell the future and read her mind. If I could do that I wouldn't need to work a student job, because I'd be able to gamble for a living.

Employerprof is going on vacation for the next two or three weeks. I hope to be able to send my letter of resignation before she gets back.

If you have to stand next to the stove continuously in order to not forget that you're cooking something? Please do so, or refrain from attempting to cook. We have cheap gas ranges which offer poor control and have a nasty tendency to go out on any setting less than "high". If you walk away, you're either taking a chance on your apartment filling with gas, or your food catching fire. Both of which typically require the other 600-odd people who live here to evacuate.

No love,
- Me

Last Thursday, I forgot that I had scheduled an exam for Entirely Too Early in the morning, and slept through it. I got lucky, and it was far less of a disaster than it could have been. The professor is out of town until tomorrow, so none of the tests have been graded, and I was able to reschedule my exam for today. Went alright, except that for two tests now I've been under the impression that the exam covers more material than it actually does. Could've used my study time more effectively. But eh, I'll pass.

This morning, I got an e-mail saying that the hideous and uncomfortable couch that I'd donated to the ground floor common area would need to go back in my apartment. I've asked for a week to make space for it, which I hope that I won't actually need to do. After this morning's test, I picked through the dysfunctional database* of healthcare providers who accept my insurance, and now have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. The goal is to walk out with a letter to Residential Life saying that I can't use some of the furnature they provide due to ergonomic issues, so will they please remove it from my apartment? (List of furnature to include: Bed, couch, and chairs.)

Now, I need to get to work on the take-home midterm from Intro to Chaos. But I'm mentally worn out, and writing this entry hasn't cleared my head as much as I'd hoped. Might take a nap.


* I mean that in the most basic possible sense. If I search the database for PCPs or GPs, it means I do not want doctors whose practice is the nearby hospital. Nor the urgent care. Nor an OB/GYN. By definition, these people are not primary care physicians.

A colleague of my summer research professor asked him to recommend an undergrad to her, since her previous assistant had graduated last spring. He sent me, and I was hired on the spot, which I was not at all expecting. There's some administrative hoops to jump through, but I start next Thursday.

The new subject area is astrochemistry. One of the things I'll be working on is extracting miniscule amounts of amino acids from the interior of meteorites. The chemistry isn't very complicated (prof. described it as "kitchen chemistry"), but since the masses involved are so small I expect it to need exacting precision. Good thing I'll be working in the afternoon, when I'm awake.

To sum up: YAY!

My folks were adamant about moving my stuff in on Saturday, because they had other engagements Friday and Sunday. So we did that. Then around 17:00, after I'd gotten partially unpacked, the manager for the apartment complex pulled a cancellation on a studio apartment out of his hat. (Turns out he'd spent a chunk of the day calling people who hadn't checked in yet and pushing them for a decision on whether they were going to live here or not. 'cause if they verbally cancel, their "deposit" no longer reserves a space for them.) Fortunately for me, my folks had gone to help my younger sister finish moving into her dorm room, so the were able to help me move out again. Then my mother, grandmother, and I went out for dinner at the nearby sushi restaurant, while my stepfather went home to check on my youngest sister since she'd been home alone for a few hours by then. After dinner, I had a shower in my new apartment, and slept for 11 or 12 hours.

The new place has a lot going for it, even compared to the studio I was in last year. The air conditioner is really cold. The kitchen is a galley unit that isn't tucked into an alcove, so it has real cupboards, and even a little bit of counter space. The sink has a garbage disposal unit. The bathroom has a fan, so you don't have to leave the door open to air it out after showering. And while the shower is still tiny, it's tile rather than a plastic prefab unit. There's a real closet, with doors and everything. All of the walls are drywalled, not bare brick, so I can hang pictures (and probably clothesline, here soon) wherever I want. I have another apartment on only one side. On the other is the floor's common area, which I'm separated from by a brick wall. It had no furnature in it when I moved in, so this morning I was able to convince the community assistant to let me move the uncomfortable couch that came with the apartment out there. That gave me room to set up my folding table, instead. Now that I've got the furnature mostly arranged, it's time to put things away...

I'd really like a nap first, but that may not actually be in the cards. Not least because I set a bunch of stuff on my bed while I was rearranging the furnature.

"It could work great so long as no other people move in." - Oh, wait.

The third person showed up this afternoon. Her key goes to my side of the apartment and ResLife won't let her swap with the person on the other side who supposedly isn't moving in. They're locked out from making any changes to the database (aside from moving people into empties, of which there are none) until September 14th. This is supposedly a "feature".


ETA: I've discovered that the housing application fee has a similar legal standing to the deposit on a private apartment. The prospective resident has paid to reserve the space for the first few weeks of the term, even if they decide not to move into it. So there may be several empty units, but ResLife is not legally permitted to swap people around until the deposit expires.

In the mean time, the DRC has helped me to arrange for a quiet place to study, so I can be a little less stressy about those first few weeks.

But now the housing situation is really complicated.

I haven't been tracking the roommate saga here, so I'll start with a summary:
- A few months ago, I found out that I'd been assigned to a 2br apartment with one roommate. I was a bit surprised, since I'd been in a studio last year.
- The welcome packets went out in July, and prospective-roommate and I friended eachother on Faceborg. She had some very specific group affiliations about her parents being Palestinian refugees. For a while I was left wondering whether she also had a preexisting grudge, which would've been really akward. She didn't respond to my initial or follow-up "hey, we'll be living together and should sort this out first" e-mails, which didn't help.
- In early August, I finally managed to catch her via IM. It turned out that she's a reasonable person. Not going to throw parties with dozens of people. Observing halal, so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning bacon grease off the stove. Majoring in political science because she wants to work on the Israel/Palestine peace process. (Still also a self-described libertarian conservative, but she strikes me as unlikely to be dogmatic about it.)
- Then her parents heard that this set of campus apartments was the "party dorm" and promptly transferred her to a different residence hall. I figured that I had a new mystery roommate to look forwards to, so I sent an e-mail to one of the residence administrators, reminding them that I needed a roommate who kept kosher or halal, or was at least vegetarian, and asking whether I had one. No response.

That brings us to today... I arrived to find that the computer systems claim I belong in a completely different apartment than the one I was originally assigned to, and that this new apartment is supposed to house four people in two bedrooms. (If so, that would be counter to the disability accommodation letter in my file. I'm supposed to have a single-occupancy bedroom so that I can study without distractions.) The apartment turns out to be furnished for four people, which is further cause for concern. One other person has checked in, but when I finally got to the room around midnight, she said something about wanting to switch to a different apartment. So now I have no idea what's going on, at all.

The nice people at the front desk told me that I could expect someone from ResLife with the ability to figure out what happened and the authority to fix it to be around from 6a onwards. I suppose I should figure out what I would like the results of speaking to them to be. But right now I'm tired, I ache all over, and I can't seem to fall asleep. Not exactly a good state for planning.