Next Step: Vending Machines That Don't Eat Your $&#*$& Money

My apartment complex, apparently moved by the realization that I will soon be leaving them, has taken the opportunity to spiffy the place up a bit.

Their first step was to redo the laundry area, replacing the washers and driers with ones that they own. The benefits of this are three-fold:

1. If there are problems, you can now contact the office for maintenance, instead of having to call the 1-800 number for the old laundry maintenance company.
2. The complex now offers change for the laundry in the main office, therefore no longer necessitating residents to squirrel away quarters in preparation for laundry day.
3. Probably most importantly, the acquisition of new equipment means that for the limited time I have left here I no longer have to worry about playing the laundry equivalent of Russian Roulette, since with the previous driers only one out of six would work well enough to dry a load in one go, and you never could tell which one it would be beforehand.

The other big change is a massive repainting of the buildings, including the stairway railings and front doors. While this does make the place look a lot nicer, the shiny paint looks like it's some kind of perpetually wet, never-gonna-dry brand, so I'm insanely cautious when entering and leaving the apartment. I am glad that they managed to get the painting of my building done while I was at work, so I didn't have to have the shock of glancing out my window to see the face of one of the Eastern European handyman staring back at me from atop his ladder. I have enough trouble sleeping at night as is.

While the massive re-beautification project right as I'm about to disappear is a bit disappointing, I'm probably getting out at the right time: I have visions of coming home to find a note on my door from the management saying "We'll be installing new carpet in your apartment at 9:00 AM tomorrow, please have all your crap moved before then . . . or else."

Either that, or a "We're sorry, but your car is a horrible, horrible eyesore, and has been disposed of so as not to distract from our lovely green and brown color scheme."