five things that happened today

1. i went into the office for about three hours. i wasn't working today, but decided to go in to escape the renovation noise in my apartment. but my dislike of the noise was soon trumped by my dislike of cooties: the lame new editor was hacking up a lung in the desk beside me (she is newly begermèd, apparently), so i decided to pack up and head back home.

2. upon my arrival back at my building, i met a tenant i'd never met before. she was very nice, and she and her husband live two floors directly below me. they're also planning to move out. "i'm actually pretty excited to leave this place," she said. we compared notes over building issues and neighbour problems. "are the people below you... loud?" she asked me. i said no, that i hadn't really heard them too often, save for a couple of parties they've had. she then explained (since the people in question live right above her) that she and her husband believe the guy below me is beating his girlfriend. she says they've heard loud arguments, screaming, shouting, crying and the sound of stuff hitting the floor. i was shocked -- i've only ever met the guy downstairs once (he came up one day to ask if i had a leak in my bathroom because he'd heard dripping behind the walls) and he was a very quiet, nerdy guy who stood as far away from door as he could while we talked. i've heard random shouts and crying once in a while, but i always thought they were coming from the tenant(s) one floor UP and one unit over from me. weird.

3. i moved my friday-morning appointment with dr. textbook to monday. my appointment is to get all my test results and, since i have a story due on monday, i know i have to get that work finished BEFORE i get potentially bad news about high cholesterol or my thyroid or something fishy in my mammogram. i don't have any real reason to expect bad news, but i know that *any* oddity in my test results will cause me to spend HOURS researching online immediately thereafter, so i want to get my job done first lest i am suddenly hugely distracted.

4. i've been researching buddy-cop films. this is not as fun or exciting as you might believe. :-|

5. the brother of the slowest ripening avocado in the world is, i'm happy to report, not as slow as his compatriot. on sunday night, i took this one out of the fridge to ripen (it was still very green and very hard) and, tonight, it's ripe and ready to go.

[7:13pm update: i have just finished dinner and can now report that the avocado was PERFECT and delicious.]