Oh, the irony. Sigh.
On Wednesday night, sometime after I went to bed but before midnight, the landlord shut off the power and heat to our apartment (the third floor of his house).
On Thursday evening, I called 311 and filed a report. They couldn't do anything right then (and we have yet to hear anything at all from them). I was cold and it was dark and I was going stir crazy. My awesome friend N let me sleep at her place, which was blessedly full of both heat and light. Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep and only brought clothes, so I was ill-prepared for Friday, both mentally and physically.
On Friday evening, my other roommates called the police. The landlord refused to cooperate. !! Let me say that again so you may see just how unreasonable this person is, and I don't mean disagreeable or irritating--though he is both of those as well--HE REFUSED TO COOPERATE WITH POLICE.
Happily, the heat did get turned back on sometime between Thursday and Friday, which is a plus. I think he only did it because he KNOWS that is highly illegal here in New York.
But for fuck's sake, no power for now four days.
There is a bad wire in the main light of my roommate's room. He dealt with it by just not turning that one on. This worked just fine for four days and should be easily fixed.
The landlord claims several things (all of which are clearly absurd): first, that we misused the heater. What? That doesn't even make sense. Because he is a jackass, he doesn't always turn on our radiators and we must use small space heaters in order to feel our extremities. Also, that due to a radiator leak, the second floor wall (or something) has damage--and therefore the third floor shouldn't have power? Even though everything was fine for five days? And don't think for a second that any other part of the house--where he lives--is without power. Nope, just us. Because, all together now, he is an asshole. Next, that we are illegal. Well, we are not. There's a sublease oral agreement between the three of us upstairs. In addition, there is a lawsuit pending (because, as I said, he is an asshole and now doesn't even flinch about coming upstairs--which is also illegal--to verbally harass whoever is here), so nothing at all can be done until that is resolved.
On Friday eighth period, my only prep and what a relief, I started looking on craigslist for apartments in my area. On Saturday afternoon, I spent about five hours looking at places. Saw six or seven. A couple were quite dodgy or tiny, a couple were cute, and almost all of them were basement apartments. I'm no giant, but I'm tall enough to be bothered by low ceilings. However, maybe I won't care, as long as I have my own place with light, heat, tv and internet.
This afternoon I found a whole bunch more listings to call about. Wish me luck!!
This whole situation is so ridiculously stupid, and the landlord is such an unreasonable asshole, that I literally can't wrap my head around it. It just doesn't make sense!
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School on Friday went well. I did my song lesson about writing intros, and it was so awesome to see the kids bopping around to Simon & Garfunkel and Petula Clark. When it was their turn to try writing engaging intros, I walked around and yelled out, "Boring!" or "Lame!" or "Oh, come on!" Everyone giggled and tried harder. It was pretty fun and I think the kids made good strides in changing their writing habits. Sort of. We'll have to finish up next week.
Going in on Saturday morning, I was totally exhausted, but somehow we all made it through. Ugh. I motivated myself by remembering it's worth a hundred bucks. Pretty efficient motivation, if you ask me.
That afternoon I got my check for October, and the day before we got our Teacher's Choice checks. At first I was really excited about having money to spend on the Christmas trip, or to help pay off the Prague trip, but now some or all may be going to a new place.
I hate moving. I really don't want to move in December, but the beginning of January will be equally a pain in the ass, since I return from Europe on Dec 31 in the evening. There's too much shit going on to worry about packing and moving and buying furniture or whatever.
And now snow is part of the equation! It snowed two inches during the night. It was very pretty and I got to use my snow shovel for the first time. By the time I got in the car to drive around noon, the roads were pretty clear, but I still drove slowly and carefully. It's supposed to snow more tonight and also on Monday night. Makes me nervous a bit. Wish me luck.
I am at the library of my college. I've been here more than an hour already and oh, how I've missed you, internet! Please don't leave me again.
To that effect, I'm thinking about laptops. Funny enough, remember that post about how I wasn't going to start any reckless spending or buy a laptop? But not having a computer at home is KILLING me. Almost more than the power thing. If I had a good battery on a laptop, I could watch movies and stuff and entertain myself even without lights.
Friday night, I went to two bars with teachers. First in my neighborhood with my friend N and my roommate, then into the city for the teacher-blogger fete. It was fun, though I was exhausted. Let's do it again soon! And Nancy, you better not have a date that night, you social butterfly you. :)
Last night I had to go see a movie. Allowed myself popcorn and a slurpee to make a nice treat. I finally saw Harry Potter. It was pretty good, they did a good job of cramming most of the book into a 2 1/2 hour film. All the subplots got taken out, though, like the Rita Skeeter thing, and Hermione's house-elf movement.
No idea how I'll fill this evening. I already got a lot of sleep, nearly twelve hours in fact. I don't think I can afford to keep going out to movies. Maybe I'll sit in the bookstore. Also need to figure out where or what to eat, since of course all our real food has long since gone bad in the powerless refrigerator.
Okay, I've been goofing off for so long. I should really start on the homework assignment that was due on Friday. Bah.
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