Roommate
Does (did) most of the dishes.
Takes out the trash most often.
Sweeps occasionally (pretty much all our apartment ever gets swept).
Sometimes cleans up in other ways.
Once a week (tops) he might give me a ride somewhere.
Buys toilet paper (though rarely the same quality and not often the same amount) roughly every other time we need it.
Holds responsibility for paying rent to our landlord (actually transferring the money over, I mean, I write him a check and his brother also gives him money to contribute to the rent).
Has the electric bill in his name (for which I pay him 1/3 or 1/2 depending on whether his brother is contributing or not).
Owns the television, playstation, and the majority of games and movies in our apartment.
Has (and pays for) the Netflix account we all use to watch movies and television shows as we don't have cable, satellite, or even a antenna to pick up free stations.
Has been unemployed since the beginning of march (three and a half months after we moved in and we have currently lived here for eight and a half months). Receives unemployment and foodstamps.
Me
Occasionally does dishes. Rarely forgets to at least rinse them. Often wshes/rinses dirty dishes to reuse rather than use clean ones.
Takes out the trash sometimes.
Rarely sweeps.
Sometimes cleans up in other ways.
Enjoys cooking and often makes food and shares said food.
Does not complain that eggs (frequently), spices (frequently), milk (sometimes), coffee (often), butter (frequently), peanut butter (often), and other foodstuffs (constantly) paid for and carried home myself (as I do not, after all, own/drive a car or frequently get rides from my roommate) are used/eaten by other people.
Does not complain that toothpaste and mouthwash disappear at a much more rapid rate than if I were the only one using them.
Buys toilet paper (the kind I wish we had all the time) every other time and then some that we need it.
Has the highspeed internet with which we stream Netflix movies/shows, browse the web, shoot zombies with people around the world in real time (that's all him, not me, I've never liked first-person shooters), and god only knows what else (porn, probably) in my name and pays the full amount for it because after splitting the $30 dollar charge for the first few months I decided to get $54 dollar a month internet just after roommate became unemployed and thought I would be nice and not charge him for it until he became employed again.
Bought a $210 8,000 BTU airconditioner when the weather in combination with our third-floor apartment made living unbearable and allowed the airconditioner to be installed in the living room and not my bedroom.
Covers for roommate and brother of roommate by lending gas money and other stuff between paychecks (which is sometimes not returned in full).
Has been employed for almost two solid years with the same company, makes minimum wage, and manages to keep my head above water despite working part-time.
Brother of Roommate (living with us)
Did the dishes twice just after moving in and once in the past couple days after roommate declared he didn't want to do other people's dishes any more.
Occasionally takes out the trash.
Does not sweep.
Does not clean up in other ways.
Frequently leaves dirty dishes around the apartment, does not rinse his dishes, and rather than rinsing out his glass and using the same one he used for water to hold juice and later water again uses three different ones in one day.
Reuses his towels many times and leaves the stinky things in the bathroom.
Sleeps on our couch (making it difficult to have guests) and leaves dirty clothing around living room not to mention the fact that I cannot use anything in the living room before noon (about which time I am often getting ready for work).
Has bought toilet paper once since living with us.
Never has any money (despite making around a hundred dollars a week more than I do, while my roommate gets unemployment for nearly as much money as I make not to mention foodstamps) and struggles to give roommate $200 bucks to cover some rent and electric.
Attracts emotional drama like a guy who golfs in lightening storms.
So tell me... does that add up? Because somehow it doesn't seem to come out evenly for me. That the guy who makes the most money pays the least for rent and utilities (though he does sleep on our couch, granted)? Funnily enough the months when roommate's brother was basically at our apartment constantly (and I've yet to mention that he works forty hours a week but does them consecutively and gets to sleep while there, of course so he is here a lot) except while working and to actually sleep my roommate did not complain about the dishes. Oh. And when I say "does the dishes" I mean that we have a dishwasher into which dishes are loaded, soap is added, and timer is set and that's "doing the dishes". Oh! And though our apartment has forty to sixty or more me-free hours every week I am rarely alone in it. Am I justified in feeling like I'm beating my head against the wall and wanting to kick out roomate's brother? Yes? I better be.
Showing posts with label electrical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electrical. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Long-haired Freaky People
You may recognize the title as part of the opening line in a song called Signs
by the Five Man Electrical Band. If not, that's okay! It was written over forty years ago and I suspect a good percentage of you are not that old. But if you like your music retro or you have to listen to oldies for some reason it's a pretty good song. I used to have it on my iPod, in fact, even though it was written a full two decades before I was born (my enjoyment of both oldies/classic rock and alternative rock seems to be a constant source of frustration and confusion for Pandora). But the point of that? Of course there's a point; I have lately been considering growing my hair out. Not to be fashionable in any way or because I think this will particularly improve my appearance. I'm certainly not doing it because I feel nostalgic about my long-hair phase growing up. I've been considering it because my nephew's mother said she would quit smoking if I did.
I've been thinking about it for over a week. I thought I should maybe do the logical thing and weigh the pros and cons. Pros: My nephew's mother quits smoking. Cons: I have to grow my hair. This was far less helpful than you might think. Hair clearly ought to be less important than getting my nephew's mother to quit smoking but obviously there's a reason she thinks my hair is important enough to me to be worth it to her to help her quit smoking. So what follows this will be a history lesson about my hair. This may seem to imply that I am a huge narcissist so I must assure you that this is not true (although my ego, on the other hand, is another story).
When I was young I had the same haircut for years. Why? Because I was a little kid and I didn't care much. It was short. It didn't get tangled up in things or require lots of brushing. I had what my mother always referred to as a "cap cut" which, judging by a google images search, does not actually mean anything. When I got older my oldest brother and I both had our longest hair style (not coincidentally) at around the same time (when I was twelvish). My oldest brother grew his hair out because he was going to go into the Navy but he had to wait quite some time before actually going to Basic (which I believe was mostly to do with how long you have to wait after you stop taking ADD medication before you can enter but when you score in the 99th percentile they are willing to wait) so in the meantime he decided to grow out his hair. In his entrance photo thing he has hair more than down to his shoulders and looks a lot like I imagine the protagonist in the "Signs" song does. At the same time my hair was the longest it has ever been.
The problem lies not in the teasing or anything like that or the fact that it bothered my mother. 'Hair is hair. It grows.' That's something that my mother would say. It didn't bother her how we wanted it cut or if we wanted to dye it. The problem is the quality of my hair. Jared and I both have thick hair (an unusual quality for a redhead) but where his is sort of coarse and difficult to get a comb through sheerly because of the thickness my hair is.... not like that. While I have many strands of hair, making it thick, each individual strand is very, very fine. Add in the fact that I actually liked to play outside in the woods with the sticks and the pitch. Or I would sleep on it without plaiting it or putting it in a ponytail at least. And I hated brushing it. Hated it because I have a sensitive scalp and I can't just yank the brush through the tangles the way my mother does hers. So basically my hair was a tangled mess that, as I could not braid my own hair, and didn't want to brush it, required the attention of another person a lot. And for some ungodly reason I kept it that way for quite a while.
I finally had it all cut off between seventh and eighth grade and I remember moving my head and marveling at how light it felt. I'd actually had enough hair to cut off to donate it to Locks of Love so some little girl or boy has a pretty red wig that used to be my awful unkempt hair. But since then I haven't really had it long enough to need a brush. I prefer a hairstyle that looks like it's supposed to be messy because my hair sort of does that anyway. I don't keep it super-short because my hair grows fast and if I wanted it that way it would require constant cutting. Because of my bad experience with long hair I'd prefer to keep more or less the same shaggy mess I've had for years.
On the other hand I am an adult and I do own a brush so I ought to be able to keep my own hair tangle-free. My hair also isn't really short (as I mentioned) to begin with and it grows fast so I figure I can have it down to the specified length by about December. I wouldn't lose my job (or not get one like the guy in "Signs") and if the appearance bothers me immensely I suppose a hat and some hairpins would fix that. There's no huge downside other than my reservations. Six months of annoying hair versus helping my nephew's mother quit smoking? I think I know which one I'll choose. I think I'll need to invest in some hair elastics. After all: "Hair is hair. It grows."
by the Five Man Electrical Band. If not, that's okay! It was written over forty years ago and I suspect a good percentage of you are not that old. But if you like your music retro or you have to listen to oldies for some reason it's a pretty good song. I used to have it on my iPod, in fact, even though it was written a full two decades before I was born (my enjoyment of both oldies/classic rock and alternative rock seems to be a constant source of frustration and confusion for Pandora). But the point of that? Of course there's a point; I have lately been considering growing my hair out. Not to be fashionable in any way or because I think this will particularly improve my appearance. I'm certainly not doing it because I feel nostalgic about my long-hair phase growing up. I've been considering it because my nephew's mother said she would quit smoking if I did.I've been thinking about it for over a week. I thought I should maybe do the logical thing and weigh the pros and cons. Pros: My nephew's mother quits smoking. Cons: I have to grow my hair. This was far less helpful than you might think. Hair clearly ought to be less important than getting my nephew's mother to quit smoking but obviously there's a reason she thinks my hair is important enough to me to be worth it to her to help her quit smoking. So what follows this will be a history lesson about my hair. This may seem to imply that I am a huge narcissist so I must assure you that this is not true (although my ego, on the other hand, is another story).
When I was young I had the same haircut for years. Why? Because I was a little kid and I didn't care much. It was short. It didn't get tangled up in things or require lots of brushing. I had what my mother always referred to as a "cap cut" which, judging by a google images search, does not actually mean anything. When I got older my oldest brother and I both had our longest hair style (not coincidentally) at around the same time (when I was twelvish). My oldest brother grew his hair out because he was going to go into the Navy but he had to wait quite some time before actually going to Basic (which I believe was mostly to do with how long you have to wait after you stop taking ADD medication before you can enter but when you score in the 99th percentile they are willing to wait) so in the meantime he decided to grow out his hair. In his entrance photo thing he has hair more than down to his shoulders and looks a lot like I imagine the protagonist in the "Signs" song does. At the same time my hair was the longest it has ever been.
The problem lies not in the teasing or anything like that or the fact that it bothered my mother. 'Hair is hair. It grows.' That's something that my mother would say. It didn't bother her how we wanted it cut or if we wanted to dye it. The problem is the quality of my hair. Jared and I both have thick hair (an unusual quality for a redhead) but where his is sort of coarse and difficult to get a comb through sheerly because of the thickness my hair is.... not like that. While I have many strands of hair, making it thick, each individual strand is very, very fine. Add in the fact that I actually liked to play outside in the woods with the sticks and the pitch. Or I would sleep on it without plaiting it or putting it in a ponytail at least. And I hated brushing it. Hated it because I have a sensitive scalp and I can't just yank the brush through the tangles the way my mother does hers. So basically my hair was a tangled mess that, as I could not braid my own hair, and didn't want to brush it, required the attention of another person a lot. And for some ungodly reason I kept it that way for quite a while.
I finally had it all cut off between seventh and eighth grade and I remember moving my head and marveling at how light it felt. I'd actually had enough hair to cut off to donate it to Locks of Love so some little girl or boy has a pretty red wig that used to be my awful unkempt hair. But since then I haven't really had it long enough to need a brush. I prefer a hairstyle that looks like it's supposed to be messy because my hair sort of does that anyway. I don't keep it super-short because my hair grows fast and if I wanted it that way it would require constant cutting. Because of my bad experience with long hair I'd prefer to keep more or less the same shaggy mess I've had for years.
On the other hand I am an adult and I do own a brush so I ought to be able to keep my own hair tangle-free. My hair also isn't really short (as I mentioned) to begin with and it grows fast so I figure I can have it down to the specified length by about December. I wouldn't lose my job (or not get one like the guy in "Signs") and if the appearance bothers me immensely I suppose a hat and some hairpins would fix that. There's no huge downside other than my reservations. Six months of annoying hair versus helping my nephew's mother quit smoking? I think I know which one I'll choose. I think I'll need to invest in some hair elastics. After all: "Hair is hair. It grows."
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