Dishwashing Sekret
Sunday, March 06, 2011, 11:44 AM

We have a dishwasher at work. Actually, we have a full kitchen; oven, microwave, a refrigerator with photos stuck on it, cabinets full of mismatched dishes and unopened mustard and mayonnaise. All we really need is an oven mit.

Everyone in the office gradually fills the dishwasher as the day goes by. At the end of it, the dishwasher is an OCD's worst nightmare. There are coffee cups in the racks below, right between two un-rinsed dinner plates. There are more coffee cups than anything, and some of them are on the side in the top rack. It makes me laugh. Whenever I see it like this, I have to arrange things because I just gotta.

I used to organize my dishwasher like the Dewey Decimal system. All the small and lightweight stuff went up top. Dinner plates on the bottom, equally spaced. The smaller plates went in front of these plates. It didn't look right if they were at the back. Silverware was equally disbursed into the pockets, no more than two spoons to a pocket, dang it.

Before anything went into the dishwasher, though, it was rinsed clean. Lots of people think think this is supposed to be the dishwasher's job, but no. The dishwasher's purpose is to disinfect.

When it comes to the office dishwasher, though, I think it's a case of being chased away by the smell left over from unrinsed dishes. It gets trapped inside, you know, and it's really gross. It makes you want to only crack the door open an inch, toss your dishes inside, and make a run for it. Alllll the way back to your chair, yeah.

That's not the office's dishwasher's dog, by the way. Ours is a Scottish Terrier. His beard is always dirty.

3 Did the Unhingey Jiggy Engage in Unhingenosity
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Who ya gonna call?
Wednesday, March 02, 2011, 10:18 PM

What's the point of having a blog if I can't bitch and rant?

You know what stinks?

Being made to feel as if you are the bad guy when you have to complain about something. 



At 5:20 p.m., there are repairmen outside my front door in a hallway that has a CEMENT slab floor. A bunch of plumbing/cutting tools (lots of stuff I can't identify by name) are stretched all along the front hall and the back hall in front of my apartment. There's a bunch of extension cords, too.

Can you say accident waiting to happen? 

The asbestos ceiling was recently removed from the hallways, so I can see exposed metal in the ceiling. Which is fine, that's not what bothers me. What gets me is that it sounds like the repairmen alternate between hammering the cement floor, whacking metal with metal, and yelling at each other.

It's loud. It's annoying.

I'm told they are off at 6:00.

But they're not.

At 7:30, the foreman tells me, "I'm having issues with my wife."

?

And they're staying (he says maybe until 8:00).
 
I try to explain to him problems with his wife have nothing to do with the plumbing work, and that I'm going to call security if they are still working past 8:00.

So I call for help, because I have a feeling nothing is going to go right. 

I call the apartment complex's answering service. They ask for my contact information and say I'll get a call back.

I call 20 minutes later because I still haven't received a call from anyone. The answering service says they "just" relayed my contact information to whomever, and would I like them to put in another call?

Um, no. I'm hoping just once will do it. And okay. I'll continue waiting. I just want to make sure the repairmen don't plan on camping out all night. The floor's awfully hard out there.  

The repairmen are still here at 8:00.

No one's called.

The answering service sounds like they're getting tired of my calls. That's funny, I'm getting tired of having to call.

The answering service has spoken with the building's maintenance department, who has spoken to the repairmen. "Ma'am," I'm told, "They need to repair the plumbing so you can have water tonight."

Which is the first time I'm hearing of this because as of 7:30, the foreman said they were staying because he wasn't getting along with his wife.

And then no one bothered to call me back, even after I was told twice that someone would call me back.

So I'm skeptical with a capital S. I feel like I'm getting the run around and this is when I really start getting upset.

I'm told no one will be around to give me a call back until 9:00. I'll have to wait for Security, and place another call then. Meanwhile, the repairmen are supposed to be done at 8:59.

Yes, 8:59. For some freakin' crazy reason, it stood out as odd in my mind.

"That's nine o'clock," I say.

"Eight fifty-nine," the girl with the answering service corrects me.

cough

It's 9:23 and guess what?

They are still here.

The water is still not working.

I just spoke with the answering service again. I know they don't want to hear from me any more than I want to call them, but I'm going to see this through. I ask if they've been able to speak to anyone on security. They say yes, and that they gave the person on security my information at 9:06.

I haven't received a call, though.

What's up with that?

It's 10 now.

Still no call. Still no water.

Well, I guess it's a good thing the water pipes aren't LEAKING. Or, that there's nothing that really does require immediate attention.

I want a break on next month's rent. Wish me luck.

7 Did the Unhingey Jiggy Engage in Unhingenosity
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