Somewhere in the Life Story

My apartment’s property owners caved on the 15% rent increase and gave me the 6% rate increase I requested by letter December 20. It was a low-ball offer I never thought they would take. Tonight I will go home and sign the lease renewal for 12 months — if they actually have their stuff together and the lease is written as agreed. Otherwise, I’m back on track to find a new apartment.

Meanwhile, I’m staring down the barrel of four classes this semester. One of which must be finished by April 25 or I suffer an “Incomplete” on my record.

In other news, my cell phone took a swim on New Year’s Eve and is non-functioning right now. I was heartened to read story after story on the internet yesterday about people who were able to revive their dunked phones with a little TLC. The preferred method is to remove the battery and completely disassemble the handset and rub/scrub/dunk the bits into 90+ percent isopropyl alcohol to clean off any potential residue and drive off the water. I did this last night. These happy-story people also subsequently baked or hair-dried their units to remove any traces of water and alcohol. I did this too. They then went on to reassemble the bits and reinstall the battery to find their cell phones in perfect working order. This step did not work for me. My phone is still non-functioning. But there were fewer happy stories about people who left their handsets alone in a warm place to dry for several days up to a few weeks and were able to revive by installing a new battery. This is my next and last step, scheduled for Saturday or Sunday (currently the handset is sitting on the hot water heater). If this step doesn’t work, my only recourse is to plunk down a couple more hundred dollars for a new/refurb handset. Fart.