Poetry Slams, Canadian Music and a Smelly Apartment

First of all, I feel disgusting. I have not had a thorough shower in about 4 days now. We were a bad apartment, paying our gas bill late, as in a day after they cut us off. Our roommate paid the bill in full, plus paid extra to have our gas switched back on the same day. This was Friday. Our gas was not turned on Friday. Nor Saturday. Nor even yesterday. It has been a very hot weekend, and I feel so sticky and gross it's not even funny. I have managed to wash my hair in our roommate's shower. He bought one of those massaging shower sprayers, so I just aimed it directly at my head. The water was cold, but being that it wasn't on more sensitive areas of my body, it felt good. We also can't cook. The gas runs our stove, oven and hot water heater.

Our maintenance must be lazy as hell, or perhaps not very bright. Every time I speak to someone at the office, they say we are on the re-connect list for gas. They put me in touch with maintenance. The maintenance guy almost always says we are NOT on the re-connect list, we're still on the disconnect list. There was an exception...our roommate talked to a guy on Sunday night after hours who said he would come out and see what he could do, but he was in some parking lot, waiting for AAA to come unlock his truck. He'd locked his keys inside. This guy was refreshingly honest, and we were hopeful, but he never came. I just want to get clean. I just want to make a pot of soup. And now I just want our roomie to get the $25 back that he paid for SAME-DAY RE-CONNECTION on FRIDAY. Grrrrr.

This weekend, I found a used copy of "Picaresque" by The Decemberists for $8 at our local indie record shop. This is probably the best $8 I've spent in a very long time. If you like folksy storytelling in your songs along with a hefty helping of excellent instrumentation, you must buy this album. Some people may find Colin Meloy's voice kind of irritating, but I find it endearing.

Last night, Matt and I traveled to Baltimore for their weekly poetry slam. Matt was the featured poet, so he got paid for doing a 20 minute set of poems. I found out another poet I know down there has diabetes, Type 1, and she uses an Animas insulin pump. She mentions it non-chalantly in regards to a poem that Matt performed. I have to suppress the urge to ask her 50 questions about her diabetes. Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it. We don't all like discussing what's wrong with us. She's only 18, and quite the poet and performer for someone who has just graduated high school. I know if somebody asked me to keep a diabetes blog when I was 18, I probably would have turned them down. Back then, diabetes was my own personal business. At 25, I find talking about it is the best way to find support. I hope our friend is doing well. I hope she has someone to talk to, and if she doesn't, I hope she finds someone before she's 25. If I had known about the Diabetes OC back in college, maybe I wouldn't be so screwed up now.

But this isn't some kind of self-pity party. In fact, I've got something to celebrate! Speaking of poetry slams, who is the ONLY (and therefore, cutest) girl on the 2007 Delaware National Poetry Slam Team? Why, me, of course! This means making travel arrangements, making sure I'm traveling with enough supplies, and making sure I have a letter from the doctor saying it's okay for me to have needles/small containers of liquid/electronic devices strapped to my body on the plane. Austin, Texas, here I come! (Other team members include Matt, our roomie, and two other friends...what a great summer it's going to be!)

This has been all the Hannah-News that's fit to print. Catch you later on.

PS--Have you voted in the Funniest Diabetic Poem Contest? Maybe you should! There are rhymes, parodies, haiku, and just general silliness. The winner gets an iPod Shuffle! Plenty of your favorite OC-ers have entries, so go vote!