Too pooped to party, but too in love with a paycheck to go home

I got to bed late last night, as will become the usual now that I'm back in school, and I'm starting the caffeine intake so I can make it through class til 10PM. So if I sound less than coherent, I blame the coffee.

Without going into too much detail, I am less than pleased with my landlord these days. I sent him an updated list of outstanding work that still needs to be done in our apartment - things like making the heat and air conditioning work, updating the apartment by increasing security measures, etc. - and he called me at work to tell me that if I want all these amenities, "Then maybe this isn't the right building for you." In other words, move out.

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me hate him more. If he isn't complaining about how he can't afford to fix things in the apartment, or asking me to "just run to the hardware store" and pick something up, he's telling me to move or get marriage counseling (yes, he actually suggested that too). Uh, I don't care about your problems - you're the landlord, THAT'S YOUR JOB.

If I actually had the money and time, I sincerely would go ahead and move out, but the DC rental market is on the rise as far as cost is concerned, and apartments are now $100-300 more expensive than they were just last year. The equivalent of my apartment, in a halfway decent location, seems to be running at about $1600.

So I guess that my landlord is stuck with me, bitching, moaning, and all. I'm sure he's excited about that - just about as excited as I am. In fact, if nothing happens to improve the situation here, I'm about a millimeter away from calling the DC Housing Regulation Authority.

Other than that, I'm still working with my realtor to buy a new place. We still haven't decided if we want to live in DC or move out to the suburbs. It all comes down to price, and location vs. amenities. In the city, what we can afford will likely be small, poorly assembled, and in a transitional neighborhood. And although we haven't looked in MD or VA yet, it appears that we would be trading convenience for space, a yard, better construction, longer commutes, and a decent neighborhood. Oooh, pick me for the two-hour commute! Pick ME!

Attention world: Ryan is on sabbatical

Since starting grad school and re-realizing that I am a slow reader – not to mention a procrastinator – I just thought it would be nice to warn you that I cannot be counted on for any kind of consistency. Not in emails, not in blogging, not even in scooping the kitty litter.

So if you are looking for that responsible Ryan of yours, she is on hiatus. At least until mid-December, when she is allowed out of her gilded graduate cage for a few weeks to celebrate the holidays.

I can't believe...

...that Steve Irwin is dead. Although I never knew him personally, I feel a connection to the people I invite into my living room on a regular basis - whether these people are in fact in my living room, or whether they are just flickering images on my television set. Had it been possible, Steve was the kind of guy I would have wanted to befriend and I am saddened by his family's loss.