Good morning! The start of a new week — hopefully a drier, cooler one in my apartment.

This weekend’s problem with my air conditioner can be traced back two years. [Insert wavy flashback lines.] The summer after Paul and I moved in to this apartment, the A/C broke. The then-maintenance guy poked around in the attic for days, fixing nothing. We baked while he went home to his (presumably) nice, cool place each night.

The apartment owners finally bit the bullet and bought us a whole new A/C system, but that one didn’t work either. More attic-poking followed. Finally, the maintenance guy told us a valve or bobber or other thingamajig was malfunctioning — an important part, we were told, but not necessarily critical. I have no idea how A/Cs work, but this thing keeps the system from overflowing by shutting the whole operation down if the water level gets too high.

He removed the malfunctioning thing and the A/C worked. “This is something I like to have in place, but it’s OK without. The chances of your A/C overflowing are very small.”

Mmhmm. That’s precisely what happened this weekend. All hell broke loose in the attic (well, the A/C drain clogged, and that’s close enough) and water came pouring through the ceiling of my linen closet. Literally pouring. When I turned off the A/C, it slowed to a fast drip.

But all that water and no air made for one very warm, very humid apartment. It was like a rainforest in here without any trees or brush or interesting species. … OK, I guess it wasn’t like a rainforest at all.

I hung all the soaked towels and blankets over chairs to dry. What remained after I ran out of chairs was spread on the floor. I think everything is dry or almost dry now.

This morning — after the pre-alarm alarm at 5:27 but before the first real alarm at 5:30, I was out of bed, feeding the cats and preparing to sort through the last little pile of still-damp toiletries to see if anything could be salvaged. Then it was off to the Dumpster, towing six heavy bags of stuff I couldn’t save. Then I made a quick stop for breakfast (I mean, as long as I was out of the house anyway), then started blogging, and now it’s time to get ready for work. I’ve accomplished more in the past two hours than some people do all day, and it feels great.

This is such a pop-tacular and not-very-Kate-like song (even to me!), but it’s sweet and gives me the warm-fuzzies. A smile set to music.

From “Fireflies,” Owl City, Ocean Eyes, 2009:

You would not believe your eyes
If 10 million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep.
‘Cause they’d fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You’d think me rude but I would just stand and stare.

I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep,
‘Cause everything is never as it seems.

‘Cause I’d get a thousand hugs
From 10 thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance.
A foxtrot above my head,
A sock hop beneath my bed,
The disco ball is just hanging by a thread.

(The rest of the song is all rainbows and unicorns, too.)

I’m a smidge nervous this morning because I’m having after-work coffee with a PR exec. I’m keenly aware of how awkward I can be, which is why I so rarely go out — and never for work stuff unless it’s critical. I’ve been fretting about wearing this or that. Time to quit putting off the inevitable, pick an outfit that’s … not horrible, and go to work.

Fingers crossed that I don’t embarrass myself more than once or twice.

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