So with a week remaining, little bumps have risen up in my path. Nothing’s insurmountable, but some are just annoying.
This past week, for some reason, the management of my apartment building put a lock on the fitness room door. It’s a key entry thing and says “Members Only.” Well, a sign in the room has said that for the year I’ve been there. Since it’s in the lease and all, my assumption is that by virtue of living there, I’m a member.
After all, that’s pretty much how I’m known to the many people floating around who service the building. I walk down in the morning, my MP3 in ear and sarong in hand for the post-workout swim and everyone smiles and waves.
When I see workers (and there’s a variety, from janitors and desk people to guards, car attendants and the like) they always make this pumping iron motion and say “Fitniss?” Yes, fitniss. Eleven months now.
So, upon finding the locky thing on the door, I simply found someone to let me in, and they did it, no question. Of course, no one seems to know the combination of the lock, and no one knows how to officially sign up to be a “Member Only,” so letting me in turns out t be most easily done by tripping the circuit and cutting the power to the door, letting me in, and then turning it off.
The second day this happened, the hear guy let me in. He also instructed me specifically to not let anyone else in, as I’d done the day before for the Chinese man who is in there almost as regularly as me.
I’d wondered what to do if someone I recognized knocked on the door, like Spider-Man (who’s gone missing) or Grunter (who seems to have switched back to evenings), but so far that hasn’t happened.
What did happen is some guy I have never seen before knocked and knocked. Without getting off the bike (which restarts when you stop even for a second), I motioned him down the hall. He continued to knock and I ignored him.
But at the end of my 60 minutes on the bike (I hate this. God, the bike is boring.) he was still there, and had enlisted a small group of workers to whine to. (I found this out later.) One of them let me in as the guy was berating me for not opening the door.
I told him, and them, that he head guy, Erwin, had specifically told me NOT to let anyone in, so that’s why I hadn’t. I asked where he was, but it was a holiday so he was gone.
Anyway, it got ugly but I left to swim. Life’s too short. The kids who worked there informed me the guy was a jerk, but I’d already figured that out for myself. And I swear, to my knowledge, I’ve never seen him before.
He wasn’t there today, fortunately. In my experience, there are fewer people on weekends than during the week, so maybe he won’t be around tomorrow, either. And that’s assuming I can track someone down to let me in, which seems to be getting harder.
And again, no one knows how to initiate someone into “Member” status. I hate to pester people in the morning, but sheesh, is it so hard?
Since I only have seven days left, at this point if I can’t get in I’m not going to sweat it (ha, ha) but I really wouldn’t mind paying for a week or whatever. But no one knows.
Next week I’ll be spending enough time in the office, though. I have to pick up my final bill and get all that straightened out. I’ve told them I’m leaving. I planned on doing that Tuesday, but I just realized that I don’t get my living allowance (the money I use to pay my bills) until Wednesday, so I can’t pay that until Thursday. Ah, complications!
But some other stuff is coming together. I did my last official grocery shopping today (except for plane food; that’ll come next week) and am cooking my last batch of rice/garlic/onion/carrot soup-ish stuff now. I managed to time both the macaroni and alfredo sauce as well as the peanut butter and bread to run out at the same time and am low enough on everything else to where if I can’t give it away I won’t feel bad if I just toss it.
Haven’t gotten to the doctor because I learned that office no longer takes my insurance up front and when I went for my appointment I hadn’t brought any money with me. After all, I’d *just* done the lab work 10 days before and didn’t have any insurance issue then.
So that’s my off-day assignment, if I choose to accept it. I won’t die, or at least I’m fairly confident I won’t die, if I don’t go.
I’ve also been interviewing for several AmeriCorps positions. This is tough, because I have been trying to figure time changes and manage to be both on time and on my game at hours like 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.
I miscalculated the last interview, though (really? Indy isn’t in the central time zone?) and the lady had gone home, as she should have. That was Saturday morning and I need to get back with them. Oops. Embarrassing error.
Skype has been fairly reliable except for one phone number it doesn’t like.
I’m getting psyched about the possibility of an AmeriCorps assignment. It’s essentially another year of service at the poverty level, but it’s doing good and living somewhere else for awhile. I’ve talked to some really nice people.
So far, I’ve had four interviews and all have their advantages. The challenges are really about the same: living on something like $800 a month. However, I’m pretty sure if anyone can do it, I can.
I had to turn down another interview because the timing didn’t work out and one place found someone else, which, honestly was welcome. That one, which was in Utah, sounded good but it just didn’t feel right for me. I was honestly relieved to get the email that they’d named someone else because I didn’t want to turn them down.
Choices to make. No pressure there. It’s only the future.
So who knows what next week will bring. I am off Tuesday and have a few things to do, but mostly I’m hoping to chill out a bit.
My packed day today cleared up a bit when a 1 p.m. appointment fell through. I was fairly relieved, though. I got back home from the grocery store at noon and just crashed until 2:30 before heading down to the cinema to see “Hunger Games.” (Excellent choice.) The little fallback store where I’ve bought my little Polo mints only had one roll, though. Horrors. It was a fairly innocent habit and now it’s gone.
I’m down to the “last” whatever. The last meal for the week is on now; tomorrow is the last Sunday, etc.
So the countdown has begun.
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