Saturday, June 21, 2008

Bored. Hot. Grumpy. Dissertating.

That sums up this week. Bleah. Yesterday I was all about the freezing cold showers; today I'm tired of showers and trying out the fan-with-wet-washcloth setup. It's hot and my apt won't cool off at night. This has produced the embarrassing result that I willingly went on campus and did work today. And was caught at it, too! Also while wearing no makeup and almost no clothes and with my pushed-back sunglasses making a Bride of Frankenstein hair mess. I don't know which part is worse. Hi, dashing and employed fellow graduates! Go show all your cool friends the sights over there, thank you.

And it's not so much sleeping in the heat, or the full moon that seems to blare on in through every rip and crack of the curtains, or even, god help me, the damn neighbors deciding it would be a good idea to play the radio so loud one morning at 5 that people from other apartment buildings up the street joined me to pound on their door; no, it's that I have this problem again ---- the labyrinthitis. Naturally, I toss and turn in my sleep a lot when I'm not. Grr. Is this crap going to just get more and more frequent until I have to be shut up in some bizarre variation on Howard Hughes's reclusiveness? (just as long as I get to be shut up in a gorgeous mansion with film stars, ok? And my own planes carved from cottage cheese.)

I'm melting. My couch is a sauna; even my books appear to be dripping down my hands like wax candles. There's nothing to do in here that isn't horrible punishment, and outside ---- let's see, do I go to the non-airconditioned movie theater or to the non-airconditioned shopping plaza? I think they'd notice if I permanently moved in to my ice cream place and just climbed into one of the buckets.

Grah.

That's all I've got. Even the cats are listless. And Dissertation Buddy isn't available to hang out until 8 tonight. Doesn't anybody have some interesting and fun links or stories or exciting emails or ice cubes they can send me?

9 comments:

Flavia said...

Oh, man! I feel you. Except that in the incredibly hot place that I am right now (highs in the triple digits, baby!), at least my sublet has an A/C.

Dunno that you need any more tips, and I don't think anything truly helps except airconditioning--but the best thing I've found when I have to survive without it during a heat wave is a dishpan of cool/cold water. I sit with my feet in it and read (or when I lived in NYC and had to run off to a job in the morning and it was already humid and gross as hell, I stood in it in front of the mirror as I did my makeup, to keep from sweating it all off instantly).

A spray bottle of water to spritz on additional exposed flesh is also good.

Good luck, Sis--

Belle said...

Well, I did tag you for the music meme. Why is the mall a/c'd? Surely the public library is a/c'd.

medieval woman said...

Wait - the movie theatre isn't air conditioned??

God - I'm sorry it's so hot there - I heard it was 108 in your neck of the woods yesterday. I used to put icepacks in the bathtub so the cats could curl around them during grad school.

Hang in there!

Unknown said...

We got a cooling breeze last night; today, the heat seems gone. Hope you get the same relief, though I was freezing last night from having left my windows open. California will always have the last laugh regarding weather.

Sisyphus said...

Ooh, Flavia, I hadn't even thought about people putting on makeup and grownup clothes and going off to work regularly in this heat... the mind boggles!

How the hell did Emily Dickinson or all those other high-class ladies handle it without air conditioning and with those heavy Victorian clothes? Ugh.

Belle --- the area isn't _supposed_ to get heat waves here so everyone builds like it is not necessary. I guess since it's only a week a year (pre-global warming) that it makes sense.

The mall is an "arcade"--- open air, with an arch of fabric to provide shade as its "roof" for the main walkway. Everyone leaves their door open which means that nothing is cool (plus so much power is wasted).

I should do the ice pack thing for the cats. They ran away from my ice cubes last time, but I'll try again.

Since a lot of our neighborhood stuff (inc my apt) is "historic" stuff from the 20s, nope, no air conditioning. I think the movie theater in the suburbs nearby has AC.

And! When I got home from ice cream at 11 pm last night, my car thermometer (bourgeois, I know) said it was 95 degrees outside in my parking lot! I have no clue how bad that made it _inside_ my place!

And zunguzungu, send the cool weather and breezes! Yes! Not the nasty Santa Anas that were kicking up last night!

Susan said...

Sis, didn't you know why those Victorian ladies kept fainting? Add a corset in, and it takes about two seconds!
Cold shower before bed. One friend swears by showering in pjs, not drying and climbing right into bed, though I think that's for little ones who have plastic protectors over the mattress : )

kfluff said...

Ooh, and as a former desert dweller, I'll suggest the pioneer version of cooling: wet washcloth on the back of the neck. I don't know that I'd do it in public, but if you have to be in a home without air conditioning, so be it.

I'm the queen of procrastination, but I contend that there is no working in these kinds of conditions.

Anonymous said...

i have that problem as well! i thought i was the only thing. they told me it could last your whole life. nice. i'll just be so dizzy i can't keep my eyes open when it occurs, i'm sure that won't have any negative impact on my work or driving...

also, curse this damn heat. i vote for moving to canada.

Sisyphus said...

Susan, I knew about the fainting, but how can they be so damn _cheerful_ and accommodating if they're hot and sweaty? And how could they be not sweaty? After all, "horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow," so we know sweating was beneath them.

Justme, I'm sorry we share the same affliction. I hope that it magically goes away for both of us! I hate being dizzy!