Pity Party

Cue the violins and cheese...

It has been H-O-T lately! We have a small A/C unit it our back room that I try to use as little as possible. Usually, I wait until 1:00 or 2:00 to turn it on, so it's not running all day. However, it's been so hot recently that I've had it on most of the time. (I feel justified when I sit down, completely still to check emails or something, and sweat is literally rolling off of me.) Not super excited for our next electric bill...

Hmm... do I continue? ...I do...

Remember that washer and dryer we bought a while back? Fantastic, right? Well... our dryer isn't hooked up -- still. It used to not be as big of a problem, because we had a drying rack that we could hang a very small load on... but that broke. And line drying is fine, but I had a sunburn recently, and that plus the very hot weather made line-drying very unattractive.


Oh! This gets even better... So part of the reason why it isn't hooked up is because we can't plug it in! Getting it hooked up isn't something we can just do over the weekend; we need an electrician. (And my favorite part -- our landlord won't pay for anything. His opinion is that if we want it re-wired, we have to pay for it. Peachy.) So we call someone in the ward to come fix it. Dave called him (the electrician) one day, and he said, "Okay, I'll come over Friday afternoon/ evening." ...He never did. Saturday went by... he never came by or called. Dave saw him in church on Sunday, the guy felt guilty, so he came by later that day to look at it... which he did... then he left... and he hasn't been back or called since. So apparently, there's someone out there with all the know-how and materials to get my dryer hooked up... but nothing's happening.

I thought I should go use that electrician's dryer until he got mine hooked up. Dave didn't think that was very Christlike. *shrug*

We really, reeeeally want to move to the mainland. We walked around through City Mill, kind of a home improvement store, and saw all the possibilities of things we could do to fix up our place. But every time we saw something we liked or got a cool idea, we remembered that we aren't in our own place. And -- yet again, I know this is very un-Christlike -- I'm so annoyed with our landlord that I don't want to fix it up, because I know when we move, our purchases and hard work will just benefit him. (Isn't that awful of me? I'm so spiteful.) But seriously, our apartment has been very badly maintained, especially compared to the other units. Frustration! Gah! (That was for you, Breanne.)

We are just itching to get into our own place. I would love to put effort into a home that was mine, and that I knew if I left, I would probably get my money back. *sigh* As we said when we left City Mill, "Someday... someday."

It's just been one of those... weeks, I guess. It seems like all the little irritations -- the bathroom door won't stay shut, the heat, the ants, the dryer, etc. -- just really add up sometimes. I've really come to look at the principle of enduring to the end differently. I used to think it meant reaching some kind of pinnacle, a spiritual, physical, financial accomplishment that you worked really hard to reach, then finding happiness in staying there, staying the same. Now I think enduring to the end means not being worn down by the redundant, monotonous things we face... like dishes. :) I think it means never viewing a point in your life as any kind of pinnacle. There is always room to improve, always something you can be perfecting, and essentially, always something that can make you happier. There is no being stagnant in the gospel. You're either progressing or getting worse. I guess that's what I need to do to be happier with all these little irritations. I just need to improve what I can and find joy in that.