Sunday, November 27, 2005
The Killer TV
It really does not pay to be cheap. But when you're in Paris you have to cut corners every once in a while so that you can survive and not end up like the guy pissing into the gutter of the metro or the other guy who was having a nightmare while sleeping on the benches and flailing his crutches about.
Because everything in Paris is expensive, except for their baguettes, I have been quite economical when it comes to doing my laundry because I only wash my clothes once in three weeks and when I have to do them, I go to Jeremy's apartment and use his washing machine and detergent. In return, he only asks that I sew some of his clothes, which I don't mind because it helps kill the time.
I had planned this weekend to be my laundry day and since Jeremy told me he would be out of town celebrating Thanksgiving Day in London (which is fairly odd since when did French people celebrate thanksgiving with English people?) he gave me the keys to his apartment.
Unfortunately, he had forgotten to give me the keys to the front door of his building so I had to wait with my backpack and bag full of clothes for someone to open the door. I looked like a bag-lady and was seriously contemplating just going to a laundromat, which would have cost me 5euros to wash my stuff and more for drying, when a gentleman came in and we both got buzzed in by his friend or something.
Anyway, I went up and did my laundry and while waiting I happened to notice that Jeremy has a DVD of The Virgin Suicides. I made myself at home and proceeded to watch the movie which, I must say, was really quite bad and too much of a 'trying-to-be-something-inexplicable-but-a-work-of-art-but-really-it-is-just-a-lot-of-sex'
movie.
Unfortunately, I was making myself way too at home and decided to smoke a cigarette by the window while watching the 'making of' in the bonus section of the DVD. I cannot stress how I feel like hitting myself on my forehead at times when my cigarette addiction proves to be my downfall. I say this because I had decided to turn the HUGE TV towards the window when it slipped off the tiny TV stand and fell on me. Flashbacks of the TV falling on me when I was 4 and which caused my tiny leg to fracture crossed my mind and I was suddenly caught in a weird squat position of holding the TV with my legs. Luckily, I could hold onto the TV long enough for me to place it on the ground but for all the mana in heaven I could not put the big-ass TV back on the stand. All the wires had snapped out of place and whipped around my face like the snakish hairs of Minerva. At this point, I really, REALLY needed a cigarette. I was making quick calculations as to how much I would owe Jeremy for his TV when I realized that I am incapable of making any mathematical calculations, quick or slow and decided that I should just inhale as much nicotine into my system and pray that I would die of an asthma attack.
But, as usual, my prayers are never answered and I ended up taking a nap.
When I woke up I decided that waiting for my laundry to dry in Jeremy's apartment was way too boring to not try to fix his TV and watch another DvD so I figured out what wires went where and broke one of his 'input-output' jacks. "Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!!" i kept thinking but that didn't make the thing stick back together. So I decided to just smash it all into the jack and finally got the TV to work albeit with a fuzzy image. Luckily, the DVD machine still worked.
By this time I was way too tired to go home and since my laundry was still wet I decided to stay the night at Jeremy's apartment. This morning, I went home with the half of my clothes which were dry. I sewed up the clothes Jeremy had left out for me. Folded his laundry because I figure that is the least I could do for transferring his heavey TV from the stand to the floor. I took a last look at the monster of a TV and vowed that when I have enough money I will buy a TV that is small enough for me to carry and to hell with a big screen.
I wanted to leave a note for Jeremy to explain his TV's current position but could not find pen and paper since Jeremy seems to have wiped out everything before his departure. So, I will just settle for the humourous reaction and scolding that I will receive Monday morning and pray that he lets me do my laundry at his house again.
It really does not pay to be cheap. But when you're in Paris you have to cut corners every once in a while so that you can survive and not end up like the guy pissing into the gutter of the metro or the other guy who was having a nightmare while sleeping on the benches and flailing his crutches about.
Because everything in Paris is expensive, except for their baguettes, I have been quite economical when it comes to doing my laundry because I only wash my clothes once in three weeks and when I have to do them, I go to Jeremy's apartment and use his washing machine and detergent. In return, he only asks that I sew some of his clothes, which I don't mind because it helps kill the time.
I had planned this weekend to be my laundry day and since Jeremy told me he would be out of town celebrating Thanksgiving Day in London (which is fairly odd since when did French people celebrate thanksgiving with English people?) he gave me the keys to his apartment.
Unfortunately, he had forgotten to give me the keys to the front door of his building so I had to wait with my backpack and bag full of clothes for someone to open the door. I looked like a bag-lady and was seriously contemplating just going to a laundromat, which would have cost me 5euros to wash my stuff and more for drying, when a gentleman came in and we both got buzzed in by his friend or something.
Anyway, I went up and did my laundry and while waiting I happened to notice that Jeremy has a DVD of The Virgin Suicides. I made myself at home and proceeded to watch the movie which, I must say, was really quite bad and too much of a 'trying-to-be-something-inexplicable-but-a-work-of-art-but-really-it-is-just-a-lot-of-sex'
movie.
Unfortunately, I was making myself way too at home and decided to smoke a cigarette by the window while watching the 'making of' in the bonus section of the DVD. I cannot stress how I feel like hitting myself on my forehead at times when my cigarette addiction proves to be my downfall. I say this because I had decided to turn the HUGE TV towards the window when it slipped off the tiny TV stand and fell on me. Flashbacks of the TV falling on me when I was 4 and which caused my tiny leg to fracture crossed my mind and I was suddenly caught in a weird squat position of holding the TV with my legs. Luckily, I could hold onto the TV long enough for me to place it on the ground but for all the mana in heaven I could not put the big-ass TV back on the stand. All the wires had snapped out of place and whipped around my face like the snakish hairs of Minerva. At this point, I really, REALLY needed a cigarette. I was making quick calculations as to how much I would owe Jeremy for his TV when I realized that I am incapable of making any mathematical calculations, quick or slow and decided that I should just inhale as much nicotine into my system and pray that I would die of an asthma attack.
But, as usual, my prayers are never answered and I ended up taking a nap.
When I woke up I decided that waiting for my laundry to dry in Jeremy's apartment was way too boring to not try to fix his TV and watch another DvD so I figured out what wires went where and broke one of his 'input-output' jacks. "Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!!" i kept thinking but that didn't make the thing stick back together. So I decided to just smash it all into the jack and finally got the TV to work albeit with a fuzzy image. Luckily, the DVD machine still worked.
By this time I was way too tired to go home and since my laundry was still wet I decided to stay the night at Jeremy's apartment. This morning, I went home with the half of my clothes which were dry. I sewed up the clothes Jeremy had left out for me. Folded his laundry because I figure that is the least I could do for transferring his heavey TV from the stand to the floor. I took a last look at the monster of a TV and vowed that when I have enough money I will buy a TV that is small enough for me to carry and to hell with a big screen.
I wanted to leave a note for Jeremy to explain his TV's current position but could not find pen and paper since Jeremy seems to have wiped out everything before his departure. So, I will just settle for the humourous reaction and scolding that I will receive Monday morning and pray that he lets me do my laundry at his house again.
# posted by Mare @ 3:52 AM 
