I was just telling my parents that my apartment here is nice and private, that it's in the back of the house so it's away from the road, and that nobody has ever even come up the stairs and knocked on my door. But just a few minutes ago, I heard loud banging footsteps ascend my stairs, heard the screen door being flung open, and forceful knocking at my door. Thinking it could be my aunt, I got up and pushed aside the curtain at the door window, and there was an old man with a dirty shirt and awful teeth on the other side. I'd never seen him before in my life.
I said "Hi, can I help you?"
He knocked on the glass window and said "Open up, I need to talk to you."
I shook my head. "No thanks, you can talk through the window."
He huffed. "I was just at Bruce's [my landlord] and he's not home but he's got something on the stove. You might want to check that out."
I was puzzled, and starting to get freaked out. "What?"
He huffed again, getting more and more aggrivated. "You know Bruce, from downstairs?"
I nodded. I knew who he was talking about. That wasn't my problem.
"He's got his stove on. You might want to go check that out!"
I shook my head. "I don't live there. I live up here. I don't know what you want me to do."
He screwed up his face and huffed for third time. "You might want to go check it out!"
I said something like: "I don't have any right to go in there, and Bruce is probably around."
The weird old man finally just shook his head in frustration and grunted "I'll just go down and turn it off myself."
"Good idea," I responded, shut the curtain, and backed away from the door. A moment later I heard him clop down the stairs.
So I'm concluding that something was totally messed up with this scenario. If this dirty old guy was already in my landlord's apartment to see that his stove was on, why didn't he just shut it off himself in the first place? Why in the world would he need to come and tell me to "go check it out?!" Either he was trying to get me to open the door, or he was a moron. Either way, I'm creeped. Why is my landlord cavorting with creepy morons? And leaving his stove on when he goes out? Is my apartment going to be engulfed in flames at some point here? How freaked out should I be?
I think this is the hardest weekend I've had since I moved here. I really thought I'd have a job by now, that I'd have met people, that I'd be starting to put together something of a life in Ottawa. That isn't really happening, though not for lack of trying. I've sent out probably 30 job applications so far, and been on 5 interviews, with no actual opportunities coming from any of them. I need to give this new-city thing time to work, I know, but this weekend the loneliness definitely hit full force. I'm also completely fed up with this spider infestation. I'm just tired of it dealing with it. It makes my apartment (which I've put a lot of work into at this point, trying to make it as nice and homey as possible) quite uncomfortable for me.
Those of you who have moved to a new city before, did you experience this kind of thing?
The job hunt is still on. I had a one-day contract job at the Canadian Federation of University Women yesterday (my cousin works there and managed to get me a spot for that one day). It was actually pretty enjoyable; it’s been awhile since I felt productive (protestant work ethic anybody?). I have a second interview at Chapters for a manager position on Thursday afternoon as well, so we’ll see what comes of that. It’s retail, and it’s not very good money, but it could be interesting. The discount on books (and christmas gifts!) alone would probably be worth it.
I also seem to be sick. That is unpleasant. It is especially unpleasant because I haven’t gone running in four days due to having visitors and work (I'm training for my first race! so skipping days makes me anxious), and it is a beautiful, cool fall day, and I really want to lace up my shoes and go jogging in the park, but nooo, my body is all sniffly and sore and tired. Six months ago I probably would have pushed through the cold and gone out to exercise anyway, but that would have been a dumb idea, as the extra stress on my body may have extended the cold and made me worse off overall (I am trying to teach myself to be less obsessive, less all-or-nothing, and give myself a break sometimes). My new tactic is to take the day to rest. I’m going to do nothing but sit here on my lovely sofa and watch x-files and gossip girl and drink tea and eat soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and catch up on facebooking and read some novels. And hopefully all this rest and laziness will give my body time and resources to repair itself, and tomorrow I will feel much better, and I will be able to run and jump and skip and actually enjoy (and benefit from) my workout in the park.
Also? I love food. Especially cheese and chocolate. I usually watch my diet very carefully, and have to be somewhat restrictive in order to stay at a healthy weight. But now that I’m running 4-5 hours a week, I’m finding that I am both hungrier, and able to eat more (and richer foods!) without my weight creeping upwards. What a revelation! Being able to indulge in small amounts of full-fat, flavourful romano and havarti cheeses, cocoa-nibbed dark chocolate, little ottawa-maple-candies, pecan and pistachio nuts, and olive-oil infused salads is so pleasurable. It’s all so yummy and healthy! Food!
Last night at around 1:00am, I strolled cheerily into my bathroom, pulled down my shorts, sat down on my toilet, and SOMETHING AWFUL SCURRIED AGAINST MY FOOT and across the bathroom floor.
At first I thought it was a mouse. It was about three inches long, and brownish, and fast. and gross. Too gross to be a mouse. I got up and chased it across the room (I pulled my pants up first, in case you were wondering), and spent about ten minutes trying to trap it under a cup while I shriek/squeaked "eeek! eeek! eeeeeeeeeek!" I would have screamed, but people were sleeping.
This is what I eventually came face to face with:
Creepiest bug (actually, the internet informs me that these 'house centipedes' are not actually insects) I've ever seen. Also, biggest. And fastest. Put creepiest and biggest and fastest together with BUG, and you have Sam's Nightmare. I researched this little monster, and apparently they love to eat spiders. Well now I understand why he's here: I still have a major spider invasion problem. And I'm glad Mr. Totally-gross-Alien-Bug is eating these spiders. The problem is simply that he is way creepier than any spider has ever been.
Why can't I have no bugs at all? Or more reasonably, like most apartments, just, you know, a few?
On a less gruesome topic: I had a job interview today, and another one tomorrow. Holy nervewracking batman. And though I think the one I had today went well, the job itself sounds kind of hellish. 55-60 hour workweeks (with regular night and weekend hours), no overtime pay at all, and only 13 bucks an hour. And pressure! Apparently working as a city counsillor's executive assistant is high stakes shit. Or maybe they were just trying to scare me. Either way, even if I am offered this job, I'm not 100% sure I'll take it. Hopefully tomorrow's job will be a little more appealing.
Strathcona Park (and living two minutes away from it): Today in the park I saw people fishing all over the place, and watched a woman catch a decent sized bass, right on the river bank. I also saw a whole bunch of dads with their babies and toddlers. No moms around, just the young fathers and their little ones, some leading their tykes by the hand toward the wading pool, some pushing babies in jogging strollers, others just walking with their kid dozing in a sling. I don’t know if it’s a biological reaction or what, but seeing men happily taking care of their children makes me melt, big time. Insanely cute.
Jogging: I was feeling grumpy and blue this morning, due to new-city-loneliness and the ever-growing spider infestation that has kept me out of my spider-ful bedroom (once I see huge fat spider ickily crawling across my sheets when I turn down my comforter to go to sleep, there is no longer any way I’m sleeping in that bed) so that I am now sleeping (or rather, not sleeping) on the sofa. I decided that a short jog might cheer me up. Of course, a short jog usually turns into a long jog once I finally get out there, which is what happened today, and by the time I’d been pounding the pavement for ten minutes I felt 100 times better. Oh, how I love endorphins.
Dark Chocolate M&Ms: I was never a big fan of M&Ms, but this summer my mom brought over a cute little surprise picnic of sushi, iced tea, and a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms. This candy is impossibly good. 70% real dark chocolate, a rainbow of fun M&M colours, and a pleasant little candy-snap when you bite into the shells. Something about being able to eat just a tiny handful at a time really appeals to me. I’m totally addicted to these. Is it bad that I’ve been routinely stopping by the corner store on the way back from my jogs to stock up on candy?
Duffy: I usually like to exercise to something with a strong beat and energetic lyrics (ala Gwen Stefani and Ashlee Simpson), but lately I’ve been yearning for something more mellow to jog to. Duffy fits perfectly. Most of her songs have a fairly smooth beat, but her voice is intense and passionate, which I find really drives me when I’m working out. Plus, she’s awesome.
I am tired of the interlopers. This evening I watched two big black ants crawl up to my ceiling. Then I went to the bathroom and saw at least half a dozen triangle bugs (I'm not sure what they actually are, never saw them in Sudbury, but they're gross and everywhere!) in the sink, on the wall, on the floor. My kitchen is still housing a handful of fruitflies, and I don't go a day without seeing a spider in my bedroom. It's getting to be overwhelming, and I'm consistently having nightmares about creepy bugs in my bed, crawling over me, sneaking into my ears. I've taken to sleeping with my comforter pulled right up over my head, with just my eyes and nose peeking out, and all the way over my toes at the other end. This is not a comfortable way to sleep. I get hot. I want to move. I want to breathe.
Anyway, I now have a semi-solution. Kayla suggested that I get a mosquito net/canopy for my bed. This way, I can at least be sure that no buggies will crawl on/into me in my sleep, and I will rest so much better! Plus, I will have a pretty canopy over my bed, and I will feel like a princess. I ordered one online... now, here's to hoping it gets here soon so I can relax.
In other news, the bell repair man came today, to try to sort out why my phone has been buzzing and staticky and calling 911. Apparently, some birds had built a nest on my phone line pole, and were basically sitting on my telephone wires. I imagine that is neither good for the wires, nor the birds. So bell-repair-man-Scott took the nest down, and hopefully my phone is fixed. I do feel bad for the birds though. It must be a lot of work to build a nest, so to have it all destroyed so quickly must be incredibly disheartening. That is, if birds experience that particular emotion.
