Pleasantly Surprising

Generally, I am what most people would call cynical about life, but I would prefer to think of myself as realistic. This means that I don't always assume people are bad, but I don't always assume they're good - realistic. Well, I had a problem in my flat. My neighbors are unpleasantly loud a good deal of the time. Luckily, they moved out for the summer about a week or so ago. Good times. Well, they are attacking me still. I woke up yesterday to a quiet, but persistent fire alarm. It was quiet enough to not notice right away, but loud enough to be able to pick out at any given time once you were aware of it. Now, my neighbors weren't there. No smoke, no fire. So now what? I figured that the alarm must be attached to the fire department in some way and the situation would rectify itself. Off to the gym I went. I came back and it was still going. I went to work, and various other places... still going. Alright. This morning it was still going. So that makes 24 hours solid of fire alarm with no one caring. I emailed my housing contact, unsure of even who to call. Clearly it wasn't an emergency, except that it was driving me slowly and steadily insane.

My contact is naturally out of the office today. Of course. But she included an email to contact "if urgent." Well, I declared it urgent. I emailed the random man who would surely not care and not consider this his duty (okay, slightly cynical). Then I went off to the gym. By the time I got back, the infernal racket had ceased, the man had emailed me to say that he was on his way, emailed to say he had been there and he had left me a letter and his business card in my door to apologise profusely for the inconvenience. I am pleasantly surprised.

Second and much shorter pleasantry: I put away most of the dishes at work because these people are useless at cleaning up after themselves. It's cool. I like to be the one putting away the dishes anyway - I'm better at it. :) As I was ducking and dodging through the people in the kitchen (who would conspicuously not helping put away dishes), a guy said, "Do you do a lot of dancing?" I assumed he was joking and laughed and gave some kind of affirmative answer. He then pressed to know what kind of dancing. If he had to guess, he would say ballroom. What? I had to apologise and tell him I was kidding. I had no formal training in dancing and was actually rubbish at it. He seemed surprised as well as those around him. I do not permeate an air of grace. I know this. But it's nice to know I'm getting better at hiding my clutzy nature.