Day 5: Does This Strike You As Being The Height of Rudeness?

I found out this morning that I have a doorbell. I know because I ripped from my slumberous state by my landlady pressing it four times in a row.

This was around 9 am. It was the first day in three weeks I wasn't brutally awakened by jack-hammering underneath my bedroom at 7am, and all I wanted to do was rest my hypothyroid-wracked body for as long as possible.

But this was not to be. The landlady continued to ring the doorbell at 10-second intervals, while I struggled to pull myself out of bed. Scarcely conscious and my face ridiculously puffy, I fumbled for a long time trying to put on clothes, the whole time being unnecessarily goaded by the incessant ringing of the doorbell.

Finally, I managed to stagger downstairs. Now my apartment is as dark as a crypt--there are no windows, except for the front door, which is both tinted and covered in curtains. So when I opened the door, my look of evil was completely lost when the sunlight came streaming in and I had to shield my face like a dying vampire.

Landlady then barges in, showing Prospective Tenant what the place looks like. Now, I don't like to be intruded on under the best of circumstances, let alone after being forcibly denied sleep, then blinded. But I especially resent it when all my underclothes are lying around and garbage and bloody tampons are sitting there in varying states of decomposition.

Prospective Tenant was about as horrified I was offended. "I'm sooo sorry!" he told me. "It's so early! We'll go now, I don't really need to see this apartment right now."

Me: "I AM ALREADY AWAKE."

As he checked the layout (i.e., polked around my bedroom, where I keep all my money), the landlady kept repeatedly saying "Sorry" to me as well. It was far, far too early (and I was too far, far too pissed off) to respond with a symbolic "that's OK". Prospective Tenant left very quickly, apologizing profusely for making me go through all of it.

Given that they're the ones who put me in the bottom apartment to begin with--given that they're the ones for whom refurbishing a room takes 3 weeks of jack-hammering with no progress whatsoever--given that they tried to whore out the apartment while I was still living there--I think I ought to get at least 10% off next month's rent. Don't you?

I wasn't very happy about it, that's for sure.