My first realizations

In my first apartment, away from the concept of being taken care of by others, I discovered there were quite a few things that I didn't know. I also discovered there were quite a few subjects I was quite ignorant on. I've lived on my own for about a year now, and there are still weekly phone calls to my grandma beginning with the phrase "I have a question." She says I should record it to save breath.

The first thing I discovered was that I didn't know what a pilot light looked like, so when my water heater's pilot light went out I didn't have a clue as to what I was supposed to do about it. I read the directions on the side of the water heater, but I still couldn't get anything lit. I tried and I tried and ended up going without hot water for an entire weekend until the Emergency Maintenance guy deigned to come over and fix it. I watched him closely and the next time it went out it only took me 2 hours to get it lit. After that I became a little pro.

I also discovered that I had no clue how to trigger a mouse trap. I bought some cheap-o mouse traps from the Family Dollar and discovered that every time I would set it the trigger wouldn't go off, or that when I set it the trigger would automatically go off before being touched. I had to wait until my grandparents came for a visit so they could show me how it was done (it took my grandma at least 5 minutes to figure the cheap ones out). I come from the country where there's just as much garbage outside as inside (so the mice stay in their element instead).

I think it's amusing that I think these are key skills in living on your own, but really I think they're all amusing in some way or another.

I've got a lot more where this came from, but I won't give it all away just yet. Have a good day!