and the last shall be first, weak shall be made mighty, etc., etc.

two three things this morning:

1.  i put cmshaw on a bus a little more than five hours ago; by now her plane should have left the ground and be over the irish sea somewhere, i'd imagine.  it was a good visit!, and i'll be home in two weeks from tomorrow, so yay!

2.  i first complained about the poor water pressure in the shower on my hallway on july 20.

today, after seventeen weeks and six days of lodging my complaints with ever-higher-ranking people in the college office, assuring them that i am not simply a spoiled american but really just someone who expects water to come out of a faucet when the faucet is turned on*, mentioning that i was accustomed to better pressure not only in the states but also across town from here for a year in a building only three years younger than this one, showering further down the hall or downstairs or even at the gym, and finally threatening to withhold rent, the damn thing is fixed, and how!

a week ago this past thursday they told me the go-ahead had been given to install some sort of pump to actually make the water run up here, and it should be finished by the end of the following week.  and sure enough, at the beginning of last week some guys were in there installing things -- and then when they were done, a sign went in that said please not to use the shower until an electrician came in to deal with the wiring.  the sign went up on wednesday, and the electrician came and did some work but apparently not enough on friday, so there was no shower over the weekend or yesterday morning.  but now, omghuzzah, it has gone from literally not working at all to being, i have no doubt, the best shower (pressure-wise; it's still too small, but what can you do) in the building.

*which i suppose would qualify me as a spoiled american if i were living somewhere other than western europe, but never mind

hooray for keeping at them.  i imagine my erstwhile lawyer-bosses would be proud.  ;-)

3.  thinking good thoughts for emrinalexander right now.

tuesday evening roundup of happiness

i'm still high on the fact that the shower was fixed, y'all.  seriously i don't think my hair has been this clean for months.

also, last monday i sent a note to the tutor for graduates at Other College by university messenger mail, and since then have heard nothing.  so this afternoon i sent her an e-mail apologizing for e-mailing her directly, but i wanted to be sure the note got there safely, check if there were other materials she'd like me to send along, or if there was someone else i should be contacting, etc.  and a bit later got a note from her saying she hasn't been in to college for a bit but will be there tomorrow so she assumes my note will be waiting for her.  in short:  PHEW, she is not ignoring me!