the new place

Well, I'm all moved in. It was hard work with only two of us and over 30 degree weather. But, here I am in the loverly new apartment. It's veeery tiny, being just a bachelor, but I love it anyways. It's clean and bright and has things most people take for granted, such as multiple electrical outlets and some actual storage space. My neighbours are nice and none of them seems to be on the run from the law.

I don't have a bed yet so I'm sleeping on the floor, which is hardwood and not especially comfy. Figured I'd wait until I was sure the bugs were gone before investing in any new furniture. Happily I do have a sofa. I bought it for $50 from a friend at work and it will at least give me something to sit on until I can afford a nicer one.

The only real downside so far is that I don't have the phone hooked up. I made an appointment for them to come Friday afternoon and waited at the door to the building for three hours but they never came. I was pretty pissed off until I realized I'd been sitting at the wrong door. My building's a bit confusing, and as some of you know, I'm rather spacially challenged. So now I just feel like a tool and I'm embarrassed to have to call the phone company from work tomorrow and explain myself. I'm really missing my phone. I didn't realize how much I rely on it to feel connected with the people in my life. Plus, the apartment buzzer goes to my phone number, so I don't even know when people try to visit me. My only form of contact is e-mail. I hope the phone guy comes back soon.

Packing

So I finally bit the bullet and started packing today. I bought big Rubbermaid-type bins to use instead of cardboard boxes. It's an expensive alternative, but cardboard boxes are a great place for bugs to hide and I didn't want to take any chances. I'm thinking I can sell whatever ones I don't want after the move.

I was all psyched up to start earlier today, but then I became overwhelmed with how much there is to do and the tough decisions I have to make about what furniture is safe to keep and what is too risky and needs to be thrown out. It's really difficult to decide. I'm thinking the dresser is too risky because it's next to the bed, which was the main area of bedbug infestation. But I'm considering taking the bookcase because it's in the living room. Realistically, though, there's only a foot between them as they're on opposite sides of the same wall. So what makes one okay, but not the other? When you live in a 400ish square foot apartment does it really make sense to try to decide the fate of furniture based on what room it's in? The thing is, my furniture is less than a year old and it's very hard to think of throwing it out and having to replace it. On the other hand I'm desperate to ensure that I don't bring any bugs with me. This is also complicated by the fact that I haven't noticed any bedbugs or bedbug bites for about two months now so maybe they're all dead/gone.

Thanks to Jenn I was able to break free from my paralysis and at least start packing the things I knew for sure I was going to take. Thanks, Jenn! I guess I have about two weeks to mull over the furniture. I'd love any opinions others may have about what to do with it.

poor face

Just when the scars from my falling-bed episode were starting to fade, I did another number on my poor abused face. Well, it's not like I had much choice. I got up Monday morning, walked into the bathroom and blacked out, falling and hitting my face on the cast iron tub. Sound familiar Jenn? Yes, it's the same kind of fainting epsiode that I suffered when you were visiting two years ago. I was hoping that was a one-time thing, but no luck.

I lay on the bathroom floor fading in and out of consciousness and bleeding from the nose and forehead for about 20 minutes. Finally I was able to come to long enough to get to the phone and call Arej to take me to the hospital. Apparently I'm suffering from something called Vasovagal Syncope. It's quite common, especially with young people. Your body reacts to some trigger by slowing your heart rate way down so that not enough oxygen gets to your brain and poof, you're out cold. There's only a second or two, if any, warning before you faint. I just hope that if it happens again I'm somewhere soft and safe. This is when it doesn't seem wise to live alone.

So I got a very good knock on the head. I'm suffering from an ever-present headache as a result. I thought I might have broken my nose because it seemed to have a bit of a curve in it, but now I think it's just swollen. I'm starting to get rather black eyes, especially on the right. Plus I have a cut on my forehead and a swollen, bruised chin. That said, I'm told I don't look too bad. I think my face is so angular and shadowed anyway that people can't really notice the bruising.

good news

So I was getting quite discouraged with the apartment hunt. A lot of what I was seeing was less appealing than my current place and much more expenisve. It's ridiculous how much you can spend for a crappy apartment in Toronto. But after looking at many places and just not feeling it, I finally found one I like. It's not quite as conveniently located as I'd hoped for, but I should be able to walk to the subway in 15 minutes or there's a bus stop very near by. It's a nice area, within walking distance of downtown and the building looks emaculate. The suite is a bachelor, so it's not huge, but it's bright and clean and has some personality (hardwood floors, nice moldings, etc.). It's $800 a month, utilities included, which means it'll be about $130 more a month than I'm currently paying for a one bedroom. But it's so much nicer. I don't think a bug would dare to set foot in that place.

By the way, since giving notice I also had cockroaches and some other weird bug. The cockroaches came from a suite down the hall. Apparently the guy moved out a few weeks ago and the place was totally infested. So my apartment had to get sprayed yet again. Plus, the last few days the building has smelled randomly of doggy doo. I was wandering around last night trying to figure out where it was coming from, but couldn't narrow it down. I actually found some dog doo in the second floor hallway about a month ago and told the landlords. What are people doing letting their pets use the hallway as a toilet?

In other news, I seem to have gotten rid of the bedbugs finally (knocking on all kinds of wood). Hopefully they don't come back before I move.

Okay then

Thanks, Jenn and Leone for your insight and advice. I had pretty much decided to give notice at the end of March no matter what, and your comments helped confirm that I was making the right decision. I just don't feel confident that the bugs won't come back, even if they do go/have gone away. Plus, there's been a lot of other problems with my suite since I moved in.

So I'm kind of excited about moving and having a fresh start. The reality of looking for something is starting to seem daunting, though. It'll probably be better once this silly course I'm taking is over and I have one less stressor in my life. One more class and I'll be done. Yay!!

Things at work are hectic, but good. I'm getting to do a lot of line editing, which is awesome because that's the kind of work I most want to do. Some of my other work is piling up, but I'll get to it eventually. We're supposed to get a couple of interns soon, so hopefully they'll be able to take care of a lot of those tasks for me.

Well, that's all for now. I'll let you know what happens with the apartment hunt.

what to do?

Okay, this is one of the rare times in my life when I actually want other people's advice. I may decide not to take it, but I'd like to know what people think.

So here it is. My apartment has been sprayed four times: twice by the pros and twice by me. And I still have bedbugs! After I sprayed last time I sealed up around the baseboards in my room with caulking, thinking that maybe that's where they were coming from. In the process I broke my bedframe. It wasn't in the best condition anyway, but still... Now I've gotten to the point where I just feel defeated. I started out all determined that I was going to get rid of the bugs, but I think they're winning. So I'm contemplating abandoning all my furniture and moving to a new place. The only problem with this idea is that buying all new furniture is rather expensive and I'm rather poor.

I'll have to get them to spray again no matter what, but I'm trying to decide if I should just give notice at the end of the month or if I should wait until the end of April and see if the bugs are finally gone by then. Maybe my caulking job really did the trick. Plus I'm going to throw out my bed frame since it's broken anyway. Maybe that will get rid of them. Isn't it worth saving myself from buying new furniture and moving? But if I wait until the end of April and then I still have bugs it'll be July before I can move out. You have to give two months' notice in Toronto. I wonder if that still holds true when your apartment is infested with bedbugs.

I really hope all who read this will post their thoughts. Do I give my notice now, or wait til the end of April?

no good title

I just can't think of anything catchy right now. It's Friday, so my brain has officially shut down for the weekend. Mainly I just wanted to give an update. My head is doing much better. I still have red marks on my forehead, but they fade a bit each day. The swelling's gone now, thank god. I had a bit of a puffy yellow-green eye last week. My neck is still stiff, but it's not bothering me much. My shoulder was bothering me this week and I thought it was because of the bed falling on me, but the chiropractor said I sprained a rib. How do you sprain a rib?

As far as the bedbugs go, I didn't get any for two weeks after the last treatment, but then they came back :-(. I decided to spray my bed frame myself because I didn't want to wait another two weeks for the pest control people to return and I didn't want to have to turn my whole apartment upside down again, either. I don't think I've had any bites since then. I'm a bit worried about how much of the toxic stuff I inhaled, though. It seemed to deplete my system and I caught a cold right afterwards. I've been keeping that in check fairly well with Cold FX.

Let my misfortune be a message to you all. If you see an old lady burning hair in the park, let her be.

It really does seem like my life is one problem after another lately. But despite that, I feel pretty good.

I finally got inspired to get back in shape. I went to the gym three times this week and worked out for an hour or longer each time. I also started being a bit more selective about what I eat and trying not to overfeed myself. Because of those changes I'm feeling a lot more positive about myself and life in general. Thanks, Jenn, for helping to inspire me :-).