living with stress

i've always felt i have the ability to manage my stress pretty effectively.

but that's probably only because it's in my nature to let all my stress build up to a point of no return. and with the amount of things i've had to face this semester between school and living here, it's beginning to get the best of me now that it's exam time.

several things happened yesterday that made me feel rather uncomfortable:

1. corey found a mouse in our garbage
now, i'll admit that sometimes our kitchen is not the cleanest. bur our garbage doesn't normally pile up or be left for significant periods of time. it rarely smells. and we keep all our recyclables on the island until someone decides to take them out. so where the fuck did this mouse come from?

well, it could be from the number of our interior/exterior doors that don't close properly. the little fucker could have came in through any one of them. corey was emptying the garbage last night and the mouse jumped out at him. it ran somewhere, either behind the stove or dishwasher. we don't know. there was so much mouse shit behind the garbage. now i'm more afraid that i'm going to get a late night mousey visitor while i'm asleep. we have moved our garbage from underneath the sink to the island counter in hopes that charles will leave our apartment. perhaps we may even catch him and keep him as a pet? 

2. water dripping from the bathroom vent
last night, there was this constant stream of water/pee flowing from the bathroom ceiling vent for a good... ten to fifteen minutes. luckily, the bathroom vent is mostly over the toilet; so the majority of the water/pee was going into the toilet. we're not sure why this was happening but eventually it did stop. 

3. bathroom ceiling starting to bend
this may be connected to the water dripping from the bathroom vent, but the ceiling around the vent is beginning to curve and bend, like what happens when there is water damage to a wall. it's been getting worse over the last few months.

again, i'm sure this has something to do with the renovations upstairs... but i still constantly hear people doing things.. like living and not renovating during the evening hours. i wonder what's actually happening up there. 

4. full garbage chutes 
the superintendent seems to disappear on weekends and is 'off duty'. this causes problems in the use of our garbage chute on the floor. it gets backed up to an insane degree and is not always resolved by monday morning. my neighbours either need to learn how to use a chute properly (and keep their recyclables like a normal person) or the garbage needs to be emptied on a daily basis, even on the weekend.

those are just my apartment troubles from last night.

my exam stress is 4 exams in 3 days, and a 5th exam on the 5th day. with the two most difficult on wednesday. my bigger problem is my professor who teaches two of my classes this semester who thinks that:
1. it's alright to fail me on the midterm by two marks and tell me he wouldn't look at it again.
2. it's alright to insult me by saying my handwriting is illegible (but yet, nobody in the class can ever read his writing).
3. it's alright to circle words on my midterm that he didn't agree with but mean the same thing and giving me zero or half marks.

it's not as if i asked to be on his bad side; i attended class and participated. i did well on quizzes and assignments... for the most part. if i can get an almost 90 in the multiple choice section of the midterm; fail the short answer section that is based off of the multiple choice questions because he "couldn't read my writing" or didn't agree with the words i used to describe my short answers; and bomb the problems section of the midterm.. there's seriously an issue with his marking and teaching. and when 95% of the class needs to approach the prof after the midterm to discuss marks... it is definitely not a student problem.

i need to at least pass his exam on wednesday in order to make sure i'll pass the course (despite passing and doing well on everything else in his class). so, i'm a bit stressed over that. but i'm studying. i just hope i won't freeze up wednesday morning.

tomorrow: open book law exam.
tuesday: ridiculously easy english exam.
wednesday: project managamenet exam (need to pass); business exam (study and i'll be fine).
friday: EMS exam (would appreciate doing better on the exam than the midterm.. but who knows with that prof).

is it friday at 10:30am yet?

apartment trouble

if someone asked me what the three integral components of a 'good' apartment would be, i'd tell them that it's:

1) location;
2) location and;
3) fuck, i don't even know what the third is because i can't focus with all this fucking drilling.

it started off back in september when they decided to renovate both the apartment below me and down the hall from me. they were hammering and drilling constantly. and the sound of people dropping things. the amount of times i heard something drop was ridiculous. the times of renovations seemed to vary -- usually between before 8am but never after 8pm. yes. 12 hours of drilling. this went on for days, weeks, and then months. it got to a point where i had tuned it out completely. or so i thought.

and then -- all of a sudden -- i didn't have to tune it out anymore. it had stopped. i slept well for close to a week. well, for the week that i didn't hear the crazy man outside screaming profanities at 4am. yesterday, the drilling started again. it woke me up before 9am on my day to sleep in. this time, it was from above me. now, i was certain there were people living up there for the last 2 months. i've heard them arguing and dropping shit. i 'veheard an animal -- cat or dog -- running around. i may have also heard them having sex; but that could have been the apartments next to me.

i understand that renovations are a great thing. hell, our apartment looks awesome. but the 12 hours of drilling gives me a headache. i try to drown it out with music. sometimes, i'm successful. other times, i'll leave my apartment to go to school and the drilling will just be in my head. it doesn't seem to matter where i am in the apartment too, but the majority of the drilling seems to take place above my room; the place where i'm supposed to get the most done.

over reading week, i locked myself in my apartment in order to study and write my assignments for two days. i'm surprised at the marks i received on those assignments since it was so difficult to concentrate while they renovated the places next to me and below me. i imagine that several of my sentences had coherent thoughts followed by a string of durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

many of these renovation woes also shut off my water for hours without any warning. i believe it was 4 days in october and so far, twice in november. luckily, i was never home for the 2 days this month -- or perhaps i was and i just didn't need water. i mean, i'm by no means a shut in (despite what needed to be done over reading week) but like most people, i enjoy being home and hanging out. i get work done here. distractions are usually minimal. the internet works unlike the internet at school. yet... with the constant drilling, being focused is a serious problem. and there is so much work to be done in the coming weeks.

at least there are 2 days on the weekend when the drilling stops. i just need toronto to shut up on weekends so i can get some sleep.

cue the wubwubwubwubwub at the loudest possible volume. fuck you, renovators!