See–you think I am talking about a job, like should I get a job or should I not? But, no. I am not talking about ME working. I’m talking about things in general working…

Every morning I wake up and begin this new little “game” where I walk around and see what is and is not working that day. This allows me to plan for my busy events. No electricity? Well, that’s a day for reading, writing in my journal, and Sudokuing. No internet? That’s a day for writing blog entries and saving them, or learning how to doctor photos so I look 23 years old again (seriously, though, I really have learned how to remove all my wrinkles). No toaster? Well, that’s a day for cereal. You get the idea.

But I draw the line at the TV. It is 100 % unacceptable for us not to have a functional TV. Granted, there isn’t much to watch on TV here. Here is a list of the stations we get in English:
1. CNN News
2. CNBC Business News
3. Animal Planet
4. Discovery
5. Discovery/History
6. Discovery Civilization
7. National Geographic

They usually play about 6 hours worth of programs, then play those 6 hours again and again and again. So, with such boring TV, why must I have it? The short answer is I don’t know. I just know that the sound of the TV in the background while I work relaxes me. You know where this is going….

Yesterday, the TV stopped working. No channels, only that gray/black/white static stuff. So now the toaster, DVD player, and TV aren’t working while the internet/phone, and electricity work sometimes. Ok, I’ll admit it. I got mad. Really mad. The problem is that there is nobody to get mad at. At home, I would simply call the cable company (and the internet, electric, DVD and toaster companies). But here, I can’t. There is nobody to understand me in English and I don’t understand them in Bulgarian.

Mark finally called the landlord on his vacation. We were feeling all guilty about interrupting his week off, until he called back and explained the problem. You see, in his haste to get to vacation, he had accidentally forgotten to pay the bill. Hopefully it will be working by tomorrow afternoon, he says.

I say, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

p.s. The good thing about all this is that I am now an expert in downloading movies and TV shows off the internet and burning them on to CDs…every cloud has a silver lining, blah blah blah.