The Vexing

All cold and no heat make Bee go crazy...

She's only smiling because the cold is Outside

This is November.
I recall a freak snow storm that excited students who had never seen snow before so much that they reached out to touch it.

I was freezing back in September.

Coming from a part of the world that's practically next door to the equator, and starting school on the east coast in the Fall was in a word, Difficult.
I've been wearing layers since I got to school and I still have classmates who wore just a T-Shirt to school this morning. I get it. I'll acclimatize eventually.

For now, at the very least, I'd appreciate some heat.

In my apartment, heat is included in the rent. For the first few months, I got over the lack of heating and took the fact that I was uncomfortable as my body's cells yearning for the caress of the sun. But Now, with snow around the corner? Me thinks its time for a wee bit of warm.

The day the radiator first rumbled and the heat started, I must have been the happiest happy room owner in the land. Spaces were thick with radiator love and I was feeling it. What I was not feeling was the way the radiator sounded like it housed a large man with a wrench and a vengeance, gunning for me-life. Similarly, my roommate wasn't feeling the leaking radiator on her side of the apartment, or how it caused the floor beneath it to buckle.

So we called maintenance. And in a Mighty Mouse-esque display 'In the maintenance man came to save the day' He brought new knobs and replaced old ones. He spoke radiator-speak as we danced a 'no more problems' jig and thought all was well.

Until the evening. When we realized that we no longer had heat. A quick call told us stories of a backlog and a wait-list, I guess when some people fail, they like to fail all the way. My roommate slept in a wool sweater that night. I opted for an oversized sweatshirt and a cocoon-like sleeping arrangement.

The next day, I woke up and rushed out with more that half a thought to the looming cold that swirled around me and took me captive when I slept. I went to school and cut through the weeds of classes and team meetings and felt like I barely made a dent. Exhausted, I went home to practice my part of the presentation my team was working on. I kept my coat and scarf on.

As the night went on, I started to shiver, and trudged away at my task. By 1 am my leg was practically ricocheting on a hinge, in a failed attempt to kept me warm. When I could no longer concentrate for lack of warmth and excessive movement, I went to bed.

By this I mean I simply removed my scarf and coat and dove under my comforter, boots and all, in a last ditch effort to not freeze. I can comfortably say it was my most miserable weather related to date. Sweating bullets in Naija* has nothing on a night on the east coast without heat in November.

A Day Later we found out that the 'heaven sent' maintenance man forgot to reset the boiler.
For the entire building.

Apparently the other tenants are from Siberia.

Here's to fleece and wool, without which....

*Naija, if you didn't know, is slang for Nigeria. The country.