jethrien

Last night, I woke up a bit before midnight to the sound of falling water. Inside the apartment. Now, we've had a lot of trouble with the bay windows in the bedrooms--there's something wrong externally, so that water will leak through the wall and in through the top of the window. Not the glass, mind you--through the plaster. It's been fixed periodically, but it's an old building and there's clearly a structural problem.

So I checked the windows. They were dry. But I could still hear the water. We turned on the lights. No water. But you could hear it--it was definitely not outside the building. And then we realized that a very large amount of water must be sluicing down between the inside and outside wall, forming a puddle at floor level. (And then God knows--continuing down below us?) You could actually feel the vibration of water hitting water through your bare feet on the floor, or by touching the wall. But there was nothing to be done--nothing was leaking through into the room. So we tried to go back to sleep.

We went out for a few hours today and came back--enormous stains have appeared on the walls and ceiling of the corner. We've called the landlord, obviously. We moved all the furniture and photographs and the computer. We laid down towels where the floor is starting to get damp.

It's really unnerving. I'm sitting on the other side of the room and I can hear the water coming in. It's started to leak through the window plaster again, too. I suspect they're going to have to cut out a chunk of the wall to fix this. Thank God it's not actually our investment or responsibility.

In other news, I'm losing the battle with the building mice as well. We've tried multiple kinds of poison and multiple kinds of traps--it appears they're too smart to fall for it anymore. I'm trying to keep everything scrupulously clean. The food's all bagged--it wouldn't keep them out, but it would make it obvious if they ate anything. They're not--they haven't eaten anything at all I can find. They just run around and shit on the counters. (I sanitize them every day now.)

You're supposed to put down steel wool in the holes they're coming through. There's just one problem--they're coming in through the stove. They climb up in through a hole somewhere behind the permanent cabinets, which I can't reach, and then climb in through the stove itself and pop their little mousy heads up through the burners. I've seen them do it. And I can't possibly fill the stove with steel wool without worrying about fires and electrocutions. I opened up the top today and vacuumed out the mouse poop. At least the heat seems to fossilize everything. But oh man, I'm going through so much rubbing alcohol these days. Ewww ewww ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

But at least I'm not worried about the long term structural integrity of the building. It's not going to fall down at the moment. And ten years from now, it's not going to be my problem.

In other news, I'm out of the running for Dogboy and Justine, post-callbacks. I was surprised to get a callback at all--I completely blew the song in my initial audition, but the people casting were at least familiar enough with my voice (I've worked with all of them before) I guess they decided to call me back anyway. It was kind. Also kind, they had me sing before doing any of the readings. And came to the conclusion that my voice really just isn't going to work for this part, so none of us had to continue wasting time. I'm not that surprised--the other actresses called back all seem to have brassy belts, which I just don't. As much as I'd love to have a sexy, jazzy belt, my voice is sweet. Doesn't matter how much I darken my vowels, it still sounds like I should be singing Irish folk songs. (I'm not complaining--it's just not going to work for this part.) It's a pity--I would have loved to sing more of Mithrigil's music, but all told, I'd rather them find the right person for this part, which is pretty clearly not me.