Good and bad things arise when you live at UP.

The cable quality is terrible. Some channels are okay. Some are unwatchable. Most are somewhere in between.

Nearly every channel has some audio or visual issue. The HD channels come in terribly, but at least I get to see how much better they would be than the standard, if they actually worked.

But the maintenance people are always helpful and nice.

Unfortunately, I know this because my room flooded.

I lived in UP for the last two months of summer while I worked on my internship. Both my roommate’s parents and mine wanted us to live in UP, so we signed that lease. Two weeks into my internship, I slept in on Saturday, desiring a slow, quiet weekend. I finally sat up at 11:45 a.m., put my feet on the floor and stood up.

Uh-oh.

Worry immediately hit me, as the carpet was soaked from the middle of the floor to under my bed, my main storage place.

Luckily, nothing was damaged – besides my Office poster and Miami Dolphins beanbag.

I’m allergic to mold, so I’m very grateful for maintenance’s help getting the moisture out of our apartment.

Another problem I almost ran into (literally) was when the gate nearly killed my car. Don’t follow other cars out too closely or it’ll give you a good scare.

For some reason, the grass nearest my apartment is always wet. Absent exaggeration, it is wet whether the weather is wet, dry, humid or windy (a typical day in Abilene). I’ll never know why that grass refuses to dry.

The laundry room has a ton of washers and dryers, a welcome change from the dorms, when the entire dorm only had four machines. Unfortunately, so far in my three-month residency here, I’ve always had to re-dry or re-wash at least one laundry load.

One time, I went in to do laundry, and all but one washer was taken. Later, 11 of the 14 dryers were running, all with the exact same time remaining.

Did someone really take that many machines at once? I don’t even know how that’s possible.

The best part about living in UP: I save money on gas, and I am forced to exercise by walking across campus. I lived in Smith-Adams last year, which meant I ended up driving every day I didn’t leave 15 minutes before my 8 a.m. classes started. Which means I drove every day.

Before I moved here, I had heard primarily negative things about UP. I had also seen its ads and promotions where everyone looked happy. It’s no walk in the park, but it’ll do. I just wish the cable was worth watching.