i visit my apartment building’s basement a fair amount. the laundry room’s down there, as is bicycle storage, and so is the building’s side exit, which i use a lot to go to the supermarket or the dry cleaner. plus, i’m friends with the super and that’s where he hangs out. anyway, the super (i assume) recently put a sign up on the elevator motor room — and boy, was it ugly! he used those gold shiny press-on letters and it looked really bad, so bad that it made me wince every time i walked by.

so, being the civic-minded guy i am, last wednesday i whipped up a replacement sign and taped it on the door over the old one. i just couldn’t stand walking by that eyesore any more and figured i would do everyone a favor. this was in the midst of a 10-hour day finishing up an illustration assignment, and putting together a 12-page booklet for CUNY, and getting ready to go out of town for a wedding, and deciding to go see Revenge of the Sith at the midnight premiere. no one can tell me i don’t have my priorities in order!

thing is, i’ve done stuff like this before, what i think of as good deeds but are really just my neurotic need for neatness and order. like whenever i end up borrowing someone’s computer and obsessively rearranging their desktop icons or their application folders — because it just makes more logical sense my way! it’s a bad habit to get into, but i can’t stop myself.

well, it’s almost a week later and my sign’s still there, so i guess i didn’t upset the natural order of things. but if the super asks you who did it, please don’t tell on me!