Last night, I went to the bathroom after midnight. I flipped the switch, there was a pop, and all the lights in the bathroom and kitchen stopped working.

I tried replacing the lightbulbs, but that didn't work, so I just did what I could to get ready for bed, hoping that the power would be on by the next morning.

It wasn't, so I called my landlord and told him about the power outage. He described a red and black switch I had to flip to restart it. I couldn't find one in the area and I asked about the switches at the apartment door. He said those weren't it, and he'd get someone to come over and fix the problem. On New Year's.

My apartment is an absolute mess, so I tried cleaning up. I cleared everything from the kitchen and bathroom counters, scrubbed the sinks, wiped down the stove that I hadn't touched in ages, and threw a bunch of clutter out. I didn't do anything about my desk or living room furniture, though. I was going for sanitary, not immaculate.

The landlord and another guy came over. They saw the mess. I apologized for it, but now I'm wondering if I could get kicked out for having a messy apartment.

They found the switch -- the one by the door that they said wasn't the right switch when I asked about it. Power is back on, thankfully, but then I had to throw out all the food in my refrigerator, and go to the store to replace the groceries and the lightbulbs I had used up for the bathroom lights in case another one does burn out. It ran up to more than 100 dollars (including the groceries I needed for this week.)

I caused all this trouble and waste, and risked getting kicked out of my apartment -- all because I was too stupid to know how to turn on a switch.

Classic Stupid Winterglen.