It's all about perspective

At the end of last year, I decided I was going to live in an apartment off campus so I set out and found a cute little studio that had low rent and no heating/water bills. Just internet and rent for this little apartment that allowed animals and was easy to take care of.

So over the 10 months I have lived here, a series of things have gone wrong...multiple times. For example:

• No hot water in the mornings because the hot water heater had a leak. It took them four times before they finally plumbed me into a different water heater.
• No electricity because my whole apartment is on one circuit and plugging things in blows the switch
• No heat, even though I was supposed to get a brand new heater and air conditioner last spring about a week after I moved in, I did not get any heat until mid-December when it was already freezing. I had to use heated blankets and space heaters, which of course blew out my circuit.
• Wires that hang out of the ceiling where a new light was supposed to be installed before I moved in.
• A hole in the wall where the new heater/air-conditioner was supposed to come into that I have to cover with a pillow because it is right above my head as I sleep and it is very cold!
• A bathroom door that is a pain to shut and get out of in a hurry.
• A bathroom thresh-hold that pops right out of the floor and stabs my feet.
• A screen door that gets blown open by the wind even though it is latched because it is so cheap and thus gets highly damaged (if that comes out of my deposit, I will raise some hell).
• Blinds that my cat tore down (okay, this one can come out of the deposit) but it has been over three weeks since I asked them to come look at them and replace them.

And other great little amenities like a tiny sink that is smaller than a bread box. A shower head that screams because it is made of plastic. A bathroom cabinet that is rusty. A closet doorknob that does not work well.

Despite all these things, I figured that most of the kinks had to be worked out by now, and was kind of sad to have to be leaving to two and half months. All in all, I have it decorated just the way I like it, it is private, I have my own stove and my own shower, the Internet is always fast because there are not three thousand people on at once, my closet is huge, there are shelves that store my clothes just the way I have always wanted to store my clothes. It really is a great little place, I figured. Impractical to keep, though, since I do not plan on staying in College Town over the summer, but maybe there would be some way I could work it out....

Then I got an email from my property manager. She informed me that they were going to start showing the apartment (two months in advance!!??!!) which means I have to keep it clean for two and a half months. She said I could of course re-sign the lease if I wanted to but the rent would go up $100.00. I quickly went from being sad they were showing it to other people because I kind of wanted to keep it to thinking "Hell no, I'm not paying $100 more a month for this shit hole!!!"

It's really all about Perspective