Early 2010 Frustrations and Adventures

2010 is off and running. New people. New prices at the Signature. New adventures and frustrations.

Here are a couple.

Is that a roll of quarters in your apartment?

I live in an apartment complex with over 200 units. Most of the units are studios (I have a corner unit, so a one bedroom) and so there are a lot of people packed into a relatively small space. Some of these people are old guys (even older than me!) who have seemingly lived here for decades.

Some of these people are actually young women.

Oddly enough, with few exceptions (including one pretty spectacular one, which shall not be blogged about any time soon, if ever) I rarely see the young women in my building. I think that TM2000 and other visitors see more, in the elevator or at the main entryway, or whatever.

Well, I finally spotted one of the elusive creatures on Friday night.

TM2000, Flowers, Archangel and I had been prefunking at my place. We had decided to roll out and, waiting outside of the elevator on my floor, was a young woman. A young woman who was carrying a laundry basket and wearing what appeared to be underwear. Maybe they were pajamas. Either way, they could have functioned as underwear.

We all got into the elevator and she asked me if it was too late to do laundry, and I said no. She asked if there was a quarters machine in the laundry room, and I, again, had to say no. She held out a small stack of bills, helplessly, and I knew I had to help her.

So I let the guys out in the lobby and Miss Underpants and I went back to my apartment (hehe... this sounds like the start to a much better story). I knew I had about 30 quarters in a partial roll and I said she could bring me back the remainder the next day.

Saturday afternoon she knocked on my door and handed me $8 in bills and about 10 quarters. I handed her back a five, but she was pretty assertive in having done the math correctly. I will leave it to you, the gentle reader, to decide if she did or not.

I guess we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

I have no voice and I must rage.

For the past week or ten days I've had a lingering sore throat situation. It hurts, it doesn't. It hurts, it's raspy. Etc.

Last night I met up with Flowers and Ice at the Signature and my voice was... gone. It had somehow worked during my Miss Underpants-related windfall, but it decided to stop doing so when I was in public.

I consider myself a good listener. I'd like to think I don't need to be the center of conversation and/or attention. I enjoy communicating in nonverbal fashions as much as the next person.

But having no voice SUCKS. I started off trying to talk when there were just three of us, but by the end of the night I was writing stuff down and handing notes... or attempting to speak in extremely deep tones or extremely squeaky ones.

Making things even worse was that we spent time in two karaoke bars. Allah was getting back at me for my personal opinions on showing the Prophet in cartoon form, clearly. But it's all akbar.

Today, the day after my silence, my throat hurts and I have avoided testing my voice out. I'm going to Cinebarre to catch a flick and eat some delicious grub. As long as I don't have to talk much, it should be a good time.