Sometimes you just take things for granted. From this past few days, I have come to appreciate many more things. Here’s the list, not in any particular order.
1. How much fun it is to get into a large box or a plastic storage tub.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
2. Even more fun than that is once inside a large plastic storage tub, your friend pushed you at high speed down the aisle in the middle of WalMart.
See Exhibit B. With big ol’ Erik behind it. Oh I wish Brandon had a video capture on his phone!
3. Pixie Stix.
You all know by now that sugar is my drug of choice. THIS is my cocaine. A few tubes of these and I’m like squirrel on caffeine. (For those who’ve seen “Over the Hedge”, you’d know exactly what I’m talking about!) Celeste has seen what the concentrated flavored sugar could do to me yesterday when she brought in the Stix. Poor thing…
4. Frozen Yogurt.
What a blessing to those who don’t digest dairy product well! I mean, I ate 2/3 of a large serving that was left from visiting Penguin’s in Redondo Beach over the weekend. Usually, that amount in ice cream would’ve killed me. But not frozen yogurt!
5. Green Giant Simply Steam Frozen Veggies
When buying the entire bag of frozen veggies means that you’re going to eat it today and forget about the rest of the bag until doomsday, this small serving makes perfect sense. Perfect serving size for 2. Steam up in 4 minutes in a bag. Fantabulous!
6. Vanilla Soymilk
Soymilk itself is a blessing to me. (See #4). Being able to drink out of the carton because you’re the only one in the house drinking soymilk is such an empowerment. And no glass to wash! (By the way, that is my pre-breakfast. A few gulps of soymilk, another gulp with my vitamins, and a few more gulps after that. It would hold me over until a few hours into work.)
7. Giving someone a surprise present.
Last night we went over to my “Aunty” house to deliver her birthday present, a vase of chocolated covered strawberries arranged like they were flowers. We left it with her family so she could see it when she got back from work. She loves it–and sent a photo to prove. Then today, we surprised Big Boss with a present. You see, Big Boss mentioned a few times that he wanted to uproot his Bose sound system to bring to the office. Something to keep him company when he works late or on the weekend. So, our department got together and got him this for his birthday today.
8. A Hot Shower.
As you read about the lack of hot water over the weekend, we didn’t get it back until today’s afternoon. Last night, as I delivered the present to Aunty Tim’s house, I also mooched the shower. After days of boiling water and hauling pots and pans in and out of the bathroom, I believe I deserved a break. (Oh yes. 4 ranges on full power with 2 pots and 2 deep skillets of water. It took many trips to fill 1/3 of the tub, just enough to get in and stay warm while getting cleaned.)
Now, hold on to all the good feelings, folks. I’m about to start on the hot water issue. Literally.
Saturday, Brandon called the Apartment Manager to let her know about the broken water heater. She said the guy was already out but he needed parts which would be in on Monday. That was that.
Monday morning, still no hot water. Brandon got a call from the Manager, yelling at him and accusing him of filing a report /complaint with the police against her because the propety’s hot water wasn’t fixed. “I’ve been managing this place for years and I never have any complaints against me until you showed up,” was the extent of what she said to him.
Yep. This lady has it in her head that we are out to get her since we asked her grandson to close the window if they happen to smoke weed.
Oh yeah, she ripped us a new one for “accusing my grandson, a Cal State graduate with a good job, not a bum, of smoking weed.”
News flash, grandma. I know people who graduated from Harvard Business School, making banks, and THEY smoke weed. And they smoke good shit. Not the skunk ass your angelic stoner grandson “does not smoke”, the one with a horrible stench drifting out of their apartment window into ours. Funny, how the weed smoke stopped billowing into our place after we had that little talk. Anyways, after that, anytime we called with a request to get things fixed, we either get attitude or sometimes, like our A/C, nothing gets fixed.
With this water heater thing, it seems the broad must’ve smoked the entire stash of her grandson’s weed to get this level of paranoia.
Apparently, there’s something about the law that if you don’t have hot water for for certain days you are supposed to file with the City. Or something like that. And someone did file a complaint. on Monday and, as we found out later, another one was filed today.
But it wasn’t us. Brandon calmly communicated that point to here and that she should probably get the copy of that complaint from the City. Now, with this nutcase on our back, Brandon called the City to ask what they could do to calm her down. He left a message.
Today, someone at the City returned his call. The City cannot give out the name of the person who filed the complaint but they can let the Manager knows “no, it’s not Brandon” if she asks. The City also informed us that the Manager indeed has called them earlier, also yelling at them along the line of, “They can all boil their own water if they want hot water. I’ll get this thing fixed whenever I feel like it.”
I have a feeling we’ll be moving again next year. Unless something changed. Oh, I don’t know, like we get a new apartment manager who’s mentally stable?
All in all. As of this afternoon, we have hot water again.
And finally,
9. A warm bed. With Brandon in it.
Good night, my darlings.