saturday -- yesterday -- started promisingly enough. the hardwood floor fellows -- three indistinguishable vietnamese guys in their late 20s -- appeared on my doorstep at 8 in the morning and kicked me out of the house so they could start sanding the floors and be done by noon. i moseyed down to bucks and grabbed a coffee and a rather cold and unappetizing croissant, and then went to meet grace and kinjal and the housemate who were headed down to ikea for a furniture run. (incid: they don't have ikea in hawaii, or target, which i find incredibly bizarre. those renegades! i bet dubya doesn't realize hawaii is part of america.) the mall was packed with rich penn undergrads throwing wads of cash in the air and watching the bills float to earth like confetti on the fourth of july, and fussing parents with enveloping archangel's wings. welcome to one small handcrafted section of my own personal hell.

ihop, then back to the house where i was hoping we could sit down for a while, but the floor guys had decided to be all gung-ho and start the refinishing ahead of schedule, which meant the place was a poison gas chamber and no one could go inside. at almost exactly the same time it dawned on me that the housemate and i were out on the streets for the night, the other housemate showed up with his parents and a trailer full of barang in tow. we had a little monty python moment out on the sidewalk where grace and kinjal and the housemate and the other housemate and the other housemate's parents and i all introduced ourselves to each another while trying not to choke on the acetone smell that had now started permeating the entire compound because of the industrial-sized fans the vienamese guys had turned on to ventilate the house, and then we decided that at the very least we should try and get the other housemate's furniture into my room (downstairs) so that they wouldn't have to drive the trailer all across town again. this meant Being Busy, always a good thing in times of awkwardness, and i put on my very best "I'M IN CONTROL AND KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON" demeanor, and yelled at the floor guys, and called the contractor and yelled at him for no real good reason, and bristled like a boar, and carried very heavy boxes up and down stairs, and nearly threw out my back. this was a rather impressive display, even for me, and everyone left happy, even the other housemate who had to squat illegally at his old apartment last night without a bed.

this only left the problem of not having anywhere to live for the night. fortunately, kinjal was nice enough to offer up her futon bed (god bless her soul), and her place doesn't become truly crazy until today, when three more people descend on her looking for sanctuary. the floor guys finish today, and hopefully the air in the place will be breathable by tonight, or else i may have to get kicked out to jared's or something. i console myself with the fact that this is very close to where the madness ends (although it's also very close to where school and eight billion responsibilities begin, but that's another worry for another day).