cinaed

I turned in my final assignment for grad school today.

That means next up, graduation!

And maybe eventually posting on LJ/DW again!

(Note to anyone contemplating grad school: do NOT take three seminar courses in your final semester. It is a BAD IDEA.)

So for those of you new to my journal, I share a house with four other people as I get my Master's. Three of the four are perfectly pleasant, quiet, cooperative people. The fourth one is Charles.

Charles, some of you may recall, is the gentleman who doesn't understand how electricity works. A few months ago he screamed a five-minute tirade at me because he'd been leaving the lights on in the hallway and shared bathroom even when no one was using the hallway or bathroom, and I had been turning the lights off to save electricity. The landlord spoke to him and Charles got, not perfect, but better with the light situation.

Cue these past few weeks-- not only has Charles fallen back to leaving the lights on 24/7, but he has decided to start mucking around with the temperature for the house. As in, he turned the heat up to 80 degrees. Now, this temperature thing? Is in the basement. The heat? Rises. So 80 degrees for the house turns into 90 degrees in my bedroom.

I am not exaggerating. It has felt like a sauna in my room. I have been having trouble sleeping, and it's been a bit difficult to breathe at times because the air is so thick and I can't figure out how to open my windows. There are three of us on the top floor, me, Charles, and J. I spoke to J yesterday and he has also been having trouble sleeping.

So today at around 7:30 PM I left a polite note next to the temperature dial. It said, "Please keep the temperature at 70 degrees. Anything higher makes the upstairs uncomfortably hot."

Cue 9 PM. I can suddenly felt the air thicken with heat in my room. I went downstairs. Not only had Charles thrown a hissy fit and left EVERY light in the house on, but he had thrown my note away and turned the heat to 82 degrees.

I freaked out. I called my landlord. I probably sounded a bit hysterical on the phone while talking to the poor guy, but it was so hot. I have been so miserable in this heat. It's been affecting my appetite and my sleep. I explained what had been going on, and that J was also suffering from the heat, and that this was definitely a waste of electricity-- which the landlord pays because we're all paying a flat-rate with utilities included- anything more the landlord has to pay.

The landlord thanked me for letting him know. He's going to be in tomorrow to speak with Charles. From the way he worded things, I am about 70% certain he's going to ask Charles to leave. I mean, this is probably wasting so much money for the landlord. Plus literally everyone in the house has complained about Charles in the past few weeks, even the new girl who has been here all of five days. It's not just me.

...

And even as I typed this, I could feel the heat coming back. Charles has obviously set the heat back up to 80 degrees. Jesus Christ. *facepalms forever*

Ugh, so I rent a room in an apartment. I recently switched houses, keeping the same landlord. The landlord is great. Unfortunately, he neglected to mention that the housemate in the room next to mine is a) a neat freak, b) passive-aggressive, and c) a patronizing douchebag.

Cue this morning, when my landlord knocks on my door to tell me that the douchebag housemate has been griping to him about how I keep our shared bathroom disgusting, that I leave dishes in the sink all the time, and that [Housemate] is always the one who has to put the trash out for garbage day.

...Well.

One- the douchebag housemate NEVER actually spoke to me about any of this, so it's a little difficult to resolve any issues when he has never brought them up to me.

Two- I told the housemate when we first met that I was raised without a dishwasher so I tend to let the dishes soak for an hour or two and then put them in the dishwasher, so not to worry about it if he wanders downstairs and sees dishes in the sink. But since he ignored that and kept cleaning them before I came back downstairs, I just started washing them and putting them straight into the dishwasher...last week. So he's griping about stuff I stopped doing.

Three- The bathroom is fine. Like, I had my landlord look at it and he went, "Well, I guess the toilet and bathtub need a bit of a scrub, but I guess [Housemate] expects a higher level of cleanliness."

Four- I would gladly put the trash and recycling on the curb, but I've worked the previous Sundays, which is when we put the garbage out, and by the time I've gotten back to the apartment after my shifts, the trash has already been taken out.

I just-- what a douchebag. Our rooms are literally side by side. If you have an issue, you TALK to me. Don't bitch and whine to the landlord about it and expect me to be a mind-reader when you have problems.

Ugh. So this should be a fun year with the neat freak jerk next door.

So the first few weeks of March were just as awful as February. No, really.

1. A storm fried my personal computer EVEN THOUGH it was plugged into a surge protector. Also, the storm happened in the middle of the night, which is not fair, because if I'd been awake I would have turned my computer off. My writing is all safe on a thumb-drive, but I have over 40 hours of music saved on that computer from a period of five years. Uuugh. My music. :(

2. I got to spend $1,500 on my car as part of the 100,000 mile tune-up-- they had to replace like three things and they also found a leak in something, so...yeah. I mean, my car is running so smoothly now, and the car repair shop is letting me pay them in three installments of $500, but damn, I had wanted to spend my tax refund on myself, not my car, you know?

3. Last Tuesday, I got diagnosed with an ulcer. An ULCER. I am twenty-four years old, people, how do I have an ulcer? Come oooooonnnn. :( I am on generic Protonix and also taking liquid Maalox, which seems to be doing the trick-- I was literally in tears and shaking every time I ate for about a week, because the pain was that intense. Hopefully a month of the Pantoprazole will do the trick.

So you're probably going, "How can Ace call March a win after all THAT?"

I have two words for you:

Graduate school.

I got accepted into grad school! THE school I wanted to go to, the one that has people looking impressed when I tell them I'm attending the library science program there, the one that's close enough to my hometown where I can occasionally go home on the weekends!

I got the news Friday and pretty much floated around work that day, wearing a big stupid grin. Even burning my hand with hot soup didn't diminish my happiness! (Much.)

I thought I should post the links to fics from my non-Stargate or CSI fandoms.

( Harry Potter )

( How I Met Your Mother )

( Miscellaneous- King Kong, Torchwood, House, Life, Darkwing Duck, RENT, Earthsea, The Magnificent Seven, Leverage )