when i first moved into this apartment, the fan in the bathroom was so loud and rickety when you turned it on that i was terrified and switched it off so fast the skin on my fingers almost fell off and i've never used it since. the ceiling sounded like it was going to fall in - you would be doing the same thing in my place. boycott the fan. it's that simple. open the window when necessity demands air, freeze your butt off during the winter for about a minute, and everything (including the level of oxygen circulating in the apartment) is smarmy.

HOWEVER, over the past few months, (i.e. since the cold weather set in) there have been odd scratchy sounds, scampery sounds, emerging from the vicinity of the fan in the ceiling. i have distractedly checked the bathroom floor on occasion, thinking that whatever beasty is inhabiting that horror-filled space would drop signs of its existence through the (albeit dusty and blackened) cracks of the fan covering. whatever's living up there is either really good at housekeeping or (in an extension of excellent housekeeping) does its business outside.

in -15 degree weather. what kind of animal IS this?

that's rather terrifying.

god, there's a monster living in my bathroom ceiling.