The 10 Degrees of Nasty

1 Nasty is water that’s been tepid since Spring Break.
2 Nasty is dishwashers that leak all over the kitchen floor,
3 …and still don’t manage to clean the dishes.
4 Nasty using all the towels in the house to clean up the spill, and having no time to laundry, so that the body-drying instrument of choice becomes a rag.
5 Nasty is the presence of a roach near the front door
6 Nastier is the presence of a roach in the kitchen by the sliding glass door
7 Nastier still is the presence of a roach in the bedroom, under the window sill
8 Nastier even still is the presence of a roach in the bathroom, under the sink
9 …or in the bottom of the shower in the morning
10 But nastiest of all is the cold shower taken in the morning, during which the presence of a roach is discovered on the ceiling above the head of the one doing the showering, especially when the one doing the showering had, during a routine check, not discovered this presence before entering the shower.

All these nasty things were tolerable, without a blog entry to mark their occurrence. But at the roach in my shower during my shower I draw the line. This is nastiness to the 10th degree.

I understand that the water heater is broken, and that the fixit men aren’t sure how to fix it. I understand that the dishwasher doesn’t work, and haven’t used it again. I washed my towels, but am patiently waiting for hot water to wash them again before I use them to dry myself off. All is understandable.

It’s practically summer, and the roaches always come inside during summer, to get out of the heat. They are ingenious little bugs (or big ones), and can crawl through the smallest cracks under and around the most tightly sealed doorway or window. So I can forgive the ones that crawl across my threshold and partake of the proverbial dust. I understand that my sliding glass door is, by its very sliding nature, not sealed against the bugs. I am not “fine” with roaches that come in my bedroom window, but a little Raid fixes them right quick.

As for the bathroom… well the things are called waterbugs, or drain-somethings elsewhere, so I can see that without a problem. The occasional roach under the sink or in the bottom of the tub is … not acceptable, but at least logical. What is absolutely not acceptable, logical, fathomable, tolerable, or any other patience-like –able is that this roach (solid black and about quarter sized, though not round) was nowhere to be seen when I stepped into my shower, or when I soaped up. But when I tilted my head back to rinse off shampoo, there he was. Big, black, ugly. Right above my head. I check my shower people. Before I step into it. Always. This thing came from somewhere while I was showering. During my shower.

The bug is dead now, of course. And my hair is clean of shampoo, a standing testament to my lack of girly squeamishness. I did an admittedly quick finish up job in there, and cursed the thing to the ends of the earth, telling it that if it fell on me, I’d see it visited with the torments of roach hell. And when I had gotten out, dried, dressed, and shaken the Raid, I did him in. I left him in the bottom of my shower as a warning to other roaches, and he lies there even to this day. (Note: not that long, really. The whole incident happened at about 7 this morning, and I’m cleaning the bathroom this evening on schedule.)

But all those other things have led me to believe in the last week or so that I am not, in fact, remaining in this apartment another year. Yes, the location is good. It’s excellent in fact. But the plumbing has been wonky most of this school year, my cat got sick from a maintenance man’s carelessness (not to mention the heater and lights he left on), and the communication is severely lacking between complex and tenants. I’d narrowed my options down to about 10 apartments to actually go visit, and last night AMS and I did some visiting. Yes, at night, to get a feel for the atmosphere.

One of them failed outright. It’s right by a high school (which I know to be hellish from personal experience), there’s a ghetto complex right behind it where mammas yell obscenities and threats at their boys (not a stereotype: just what we heard as we walked around) and incredibly dim lighting. It’s up against a rather busy and run-down street that looks much less kind at night. It’s off the list. There’s a reason so much space is so cheap.

Another of them is very charming, and feels homey and lived in at night, but the parking lot is a nightmare of tight dead ends and random outlets onto a busy street. It’s got a duck pond, and is very close to Wal-mart, and I’ll drive by and see the parking lot in the day sometime.

The third is very dark in places, and very well lit in others. It’s kind of run-down looking in some areas, and well kept in others. I’ll need to see it in the day, and know where in the complex I’d be living.

The fourth and last one we got to was big and slightly impersonal, but as quiet as anything, well lit, with logical parking and a good location. I’ll drive by it in the day, as with all but the first.

And that’s the last post until Monday, as I’m pulling a Lady Lazarus again this weekend.

Love and Peace (and lots of apartment shopping)