Unwind

I am so incredibly glad that it is the weekend. I don't know why, but the last two days have just dragged. My co-worker Amanda turned around this morning and expressed amazement that it was only 10 a.m. She thought it was at least 12:30 and was ready to ask me why I hadn't left for lunch yet. Yes, it was one of those days. Another co-worker had 2 inches of water in her basement and the sump pump wasn't working because they lost power. I heard her call her husband and tell him ComEd had a recorded message on their phone that it will be 2 days before power is restored. I also heard her call everyone else she knows to tell them about the situation after she had gone around to tell each one of us in the office individually about it. This may have been a factor in it being one of those days.

It had some bright spots too. Mark was on his way to work this morning (he does not have Friday classes so he is continuing his internship of Fridays) and the traffic was all backed up because every traffic light was out on the road he needs to be on. Then he gets to the courthouse and security is out front directing everyone away because the power is out there too. This meant that Mark could meet me for lunch and not be rushed. He could also do some errands, like running to Target and getting some Kleenex. I had asked him to pick up an extra box for me to bring to work and he offered to drop it off for me (Target is just down the street). I accepted and then he showed up with the Kleenex and a Caramel Macchiato. I have a very sweet and thoughtful husband. (Right now he's picking up Chinese take-out for dinner too.)

Things just feel so weird right now. I haven't been affected by the storms too much. Work and home and the path between has escaped without much damage. I still had to hold up towels and a bucket to the living room window last night because water was coming in AGAIN. It was leaking in by the sliding door too. This is at least the fourth time this has happened, and we notify maintenance and all they ever say is that it is happening because the water is coming straight down the side of the building because the gutters are jammed up and they can't do anything about it except clean out the gutters the next day. Well first of all, if the gutters are such a problem maybe they should clean them out more often. Second of all, this doesn't happen at the bedroom window, and unless every other apartment is having the same problem there must also be a problem with the way the living room window and the sliding door are sealed. They are not interested in fixing that at all. I keep complaining because, as I said last time, as long as I'm there and know what is happening I can do something about it to minimize the damage, but what happens when we get a storm like that and I'm at work? Or what happens if it rains like that in the middle of the night and I don't wake up? I'm going to have two gallons of water in the carpet causing all sorts of damage to my apartment, my things, and very likely to the apartment below me. Apparently, I overreact.

Speaking of overreacting, I obviously am once again more concerned about safety than some people at work. It is customary to put extra food or goodies on the counter in the kitchen for people to help themselves too. One of the things that has always bugged me is that they will serve food for some event (usually organized by marketing) and then they will bring leftover sandwiches and meat upstairs and leave it on the counter. I have no idea how long that has been out, but I usually figure that it is probably already been almost 2 hours. Today that happened again. I noticed the food when I came back from lunch a little after 1 p.m. I went in the kitchen at 3 p.m. and there was still a little food left and it was still sitting out. I threw it away because no one should be eating Skirt Stake or Lemon Chicken that has been sitting out for at least 3 hours. Geeesh.