I don’t worry about picking up after myself all of the time since I live alone. My apartment gets a little messy, but usually is still manageable, meaning when I get the gumption to clean on the weekend, I can get the place back to par.
But when the thesis, aka the blob, completely took over my life a couple months ago, my little apartment suffered. Soap scum on the sink, pizza boxes under the trash can, Elsie hair in the halls, clean clothes piled up on my sofa in the bedroom, dirty clothes lying where I took them off on the floor, and dishes piled a mile high. Only my closest friends here were allowed to come inside, and even then it was accompanied with five minutes of apology.
Last week, when I was walking back from school, I passed by my landlord who was sitting out on her apartment. “Did you get my message?” she said. “I’m showing your apartment at 3:45.”
Having a full five minutes to make the apartment look livable…for humans…I took a quick account of what were the worst offenses. I took out the garbage, tried cleaning the sink in the bathroom, consolidated the dirty dishes and my clothes (not in the same place).
When the knock came a couple minutes later, I had a bag of garbage in one hand and Elsie in the other. My friend and I took her for a walk while my landlord showed the apartment to the woman who would most definitely not be living here. When I came back, I ducked my head, like Elsie when she gets in trouble, when I walked past my landlord’s apartment. I said, “I’ll have it cleaned up tomorrow.” She, being the nice, diplomatic lady she is, said, “Oh, don’t worry about it…too much.”
I’ve uploaded photos of Elsie during the time I’ve had her. She’s changed so much. Check out this link to see them…
http://picasaweb.google.com/emccarty2007
Who knew that formatting a thesis was such a pain in the ass!
I defend on Tuesday! I’m coming with swords…
The Athens International Film Festival is this week, and so far I’ve seen two showings. The first was The Lives of Others. This was the foreign film that beat Pans Labyrinth at the Oscars. My friend and I both agreed it was a great story - one of the best and most rounded films I’ve ever seen. It’s great to see a movie that accomplishes that without depending on special effects or A-list Hollywood actors.
The second one I saw was a short film competition. The series was titled “Passions of the Flesh” and was not recomended if you are squeemish. Tonight, I found out I am squeemish.
The first four films had to do with various degrees of sex, from the milder film about the nerdy guy who tries to make his ex-gf jealous, to the fruit erotica film (yes, there were bananas and that was one of the least distrubing images- if you really want to see it, google “Filthy Food film” - warning - DON’T DO THIS AT WORK!)
The last film was an hour long movie called Flesh and Blood, and followed a “body modifier” for several years while he…modified bodies. I won’t go into details here. Suffice to say I was exhausted by the end from squinting my eyes and cringing.
So now I’m easing back into pop culture by watching an episode of The Bachelor before I go to bed. Thank god for cheesy lines like “This wine tastes good…like you.” It makes me sleep easier at night knowing I’ve identified one more creep to avoid.