On the last day of my spring vacation (on the evening before I was supposed to return to work), I slipped on some water in the hallway near the kitchen. I had slipped 2 times before. The first time, I thought leaving the mops there would stop the leaks. No. The second time, I thought putting newspapers down would soak up the water. Again, no.

I don’t know who I was madder at, me for slipping again, or the landlord for his, “oh, I didn’t know there was a leak” attitude. I called him the very next morning – I was worried that I would be bothering him if I called him at night. During the phone call, the landlord told me that he would handle the water problem. Two days later the water was back on the floor.

Today, the landlord knocked on my door asking about the rent, acting like nothing happened. At that time, I was not interested in talking (or thinking about) the water on the floor. And that leads to the next problem…I got sick.

I think it was either a serious cold or a minor flu. Since I didn’t have a runny nose, I am guessing flu. I think it started on Wednesday when I returned to my shoebox, I felt chilly. At the time, I thought I was cold because there was no heat. Now, as I am typing this I don’t remember what kept me awake (sweats or chills), I just know that I could not sleep. And the next morning, I was a mess. It took every ounce of strength I had to get out of bed, and about a 10 minute break for every action I did. On the train ride, I was minutes from passing out.

Luckily for me, the two wildest boys in the class were absent on Thursday which made the day fairly decent. Although, by the end of the school day I was so weak, I had to lie on the rug in the classroom. After about a 10 or 15 minute break (and a few left over school lunch peaches), I had strength for another half hour. In my shoebox, it was another night of chills and sweats, but the next morning -- I still had the throbbing headache, but I was feeling a little better. Unfortunately for me, the two wild ones decided to show up.

Today (Saturday) I spent the whole day in bed. After a couple of days of no appetite, and no taste buds, my appetite came back. For the last few days, I was too sick to do any cleaning, and my neighbors seemed to not notice. They were their same messy selves. I had to clean the bathroom. There were footprints and clumps of long hair all over the bathroom floor. I don’t mean to be sexist, but shouldn’t a woman be cleaner than 3 men. Once I was able to relax in the bathtub, I tackled the kitchen. My neighbors seemed to have something against an empty sink – There seems to always be dirty dishes there. Aside from the sink, someone made popcorn. And yes, they managed to make a greasy mess. How does someone make a mess with popcorn (other than the trail of dropped popcorn leading out of the kitchen)? Which is worst, someone leaving a trail of popcorn, or someone too blind to see the popcorn and steps on the fallen popcorn? My neighbor has a bad habit of making pots of over-cooked starchy foods, eats it once, then leaves it for weeks (till mold starts to grow). After spending about a half an hour cleaning the stovetop (and the greasy exhaust filter), I decided that I did not want to risk messing up the stove top. Although I had a taste for fried chicken, I decided to bake the chicken. Guess what? The young lady (I am assuming) left pile of something in the oven which started smoking when the oven started to heat up. I had to turn off the oven and clean the oven before I could bake my chicken.

My taste buds have not fully returned, but they returned enough.

Post Date Sunday, May 21, 2006 6:45pm