January 15th, 2016

A complete list of everything that went wrong for me on Thursday

1. Did not discover hot water wasn’t working until after gym workout.
2. Had to take awkward sponge bath; cats watched, looking horrified.
3. Developed migraine.
4. Dispiriting work meeting.
5. Found all colleagues dispirited by work meeting, all in different ways. Upside: we can’t all be doomed. Downside: no one available for cheering-up role.
6. Migraine worsened.
7. Myriad other small work problems.
8. Decided to go home early to cope with migraine; when boarding bus, driver closed door on me. Like, I wasn’t trying to squeak in in a hurry; I was standing in line and he saw me, but his hand just jumped or something and the door whacked me in the face. He nodded wryly but did not actually apologize.
9. Upon arrival home found that not only had hot water not been reactivated but heat now not working either. But it’s all scheduled to be back by 7:30, per mysterious voice over PA system.
10. Yes, my building as a PA system. It is like living in a high school.
11. Spend part of evening sitting on kitchen chair in front of stove, despite migraine and wanting to lie down, because bedroom is too cold.
12. Eventually feel better and make dinner, but are unable to wash dinner dishes because hot water did not return as scheduled.
13. By about 8pm, sitting on couch under duvet trying to edit novel.
14. Voice returns to PA but is garbled, and we can’t understand what it is saying.
15. My hope the PA is that it is saying the heat/hotwater is back, but as I go to check, power blacks out.
16. Mark runs down then up 10 flights of stairs to investigate electricity issue. Mark has a chest cold and this was not, in retrospect, a good idea.
17. RR finds a trickle of warm water and does dishes by flashlight.
18. Heat is still not on, apartment is freezing, it is too dark to do anything but go to bed and hope Friday will be better than Thursday. So we go to bed at 9pm.