clean my closet

well, sort of. it basically happened on its own when the closet rod fell. most of the stuff doesn’t fit me anymore, so Brian (yes, Brian, not me, so really, he cleaned my closet) boxed it all up. he re-attached (yes, Brian, not the landlord) the closet rod, and there’s hardly anything hanging from it now.

i suppose it was worth it, but i’m not sure which part: the closet rod falling, Brian boxing up my clothes, or gaining the weight that made it so i’d have to get rid of those clothes in the first place.

not really. but my closet rod fell. surely it’s a sign that i really need to clean my closet. not really. it just means that “ABCD Management’s” shoddy work shines through once more: the rod wasn’t long enough to span the width of the closet, so they nailed a board to one end to make up the difference. the nails finally gave way and the board came crashing down.

it isn’t because there’s too many items of clothing hanging on the rod. i had already gotten rid of things once or twice in the 4 years we’ve lived here, so there’s actually less stuff hanging there.

but you see, 2 Sundays ago, when everything was at least 100 (degrees, heat index, humidity) and the hottest day so far this year, our power started going on the fritz. every 10 minutes or so, the circuit breaker to which our a/c is plugged into would shut down. we weren’t running the vacuum, and neither of us uses a hair dryer. further, we have had the same a/c unit since we first moved in. if anything, it doesn’t cool the apartment as well as it used to.

Brian called the landlord’s cell number but got a recording that sounded like the service had been cut off. he then left a message at ABCD Management’s office. he left another one on Monday. and Tuesday. on Wednesday. Thursday. on Friday. and Saturday.

on Sunday, i tried the cell phone again, and actually got through. i paged her. she didn’t return my call. every time the power went out, i paged her until she finally called back to assure me that the electrician was coming Monday morning. when he hadn’t arrived by noon, i called her, and called her, and called her, until he got here around 3pm.

i don’t know what he did, but it seemed to work. fortunately, he left his cell number and told me to call him if the power went out again, which it did later that night. i called him, and the next day he showed up, with a friend this time. Brian came home early and we left so we wouldn’t be in the way.

everything has been fine since, except for the hole in the living room ceiling that the electricians made to check out some wiring-maybe there was a ceiling fan there at some point-and one of the walls where the cheap drywall broke off in pieces.

not only has my closet rod fallen, but it appears that our apartment is literally falling apart as well.

it’s not that it’s dirty or disorganized. what i really need to do is get rid of the clothes i don’t wear because they no longer fit me.

i have been thinking about doing this for almost a year, and i can’t bring myself to do it because then i’ll be left with very few items of clothing that i can actually wear. i find that depressing.