Chaos Theory

The theory is that everything must happen at the most inconvenient times. For instance, everything in our apartment starts to fall apart right before we move out. Why not right after?
First our toilet seat cracked. Random, right? And not such a big deal. But we didn't want to ask the landlord to replace it because of our whole illegal-subletting-thing. I swear, from this day foward, never to sublet from friends again. I eventually replaced it and now it looks clean and beautiful and only cost $10. Plus, I was proud of myself. OK.
Last night, I was drifting off to sleep, feeling cool breezes wash over me, when suddenly the air conditioner made a loud and disturbing sound. WHAA WHAA WHAA...then the compressor (or something) shut off, and all you could hear was a fan. A few moments later it kicked in again. Still, I was disturbed. It had never made that noise before, and it didn't sound right. Last year it didn't always work so well, and Joe and I had discussed how it probably needed a filter change. Discussed, but never did anything about because suddenly it was winter again.
I woke up this morning at 5:30 a.m. and realized I couldn't hear the air conditioner. I went downstairs and I could hear the fan, but not the compressor. I turned it off, waiting a minute, and turned it on. Again, only the fan. Shit. I'm guessing it made that noise again, which is what woke me up.
Then Joe gets up and starts freaking out a bit. Alex's sister bought this air conditioner, and of course Alex insisted that we have to sell it and put that on our heads (OK, Joe's, but I'm the one who has to hear about it). If we don't sell it to the incoming resident, they are throwing away money because it's only 3 years old and cost $800, blah, blah (which I'm not sure I believe) etc. And we can't remove it, because then there will be a giant hole in the wall, open to the outside.
Joe tried to open the front of it, but it wouldn't budge. Finally I saw a small, handle-like hole on the front of the AC, with slots on either side.
"That's it," I said. Joe pulled and it slide up and out, like the lint trap from the top of a dryer. And it was just as disgusting as a lint trap too. It doesn't look particularly disposable--the filter part is attached right to that plastic handle, so Joe tried to wipe off some of the dirt with a damp cloth until we could see through it again. He put it back in and the whole thing started right back up like normal.
Sigh with relief.
It runs a lot quieter than before. I was terrified that that noise was the sound of the motor burning out. Who knew it was so easy to fix?
What's next?