Enjablog

Day 2: Saturday, 8/20/2005

Spend the morning doing the run thing, so get back to my place with Ian in the early afternoon to shower and stuff. Go up to check my email and whatnot before getting clothes together to shower. We have trouble getting my internet connection consistent. It keeps flickering on and off. Maybe there’s something wrong with the router? Or maybe it has been moved or something?

Head downstairs with Ian to check the router and see that ScholarshipWinner has the sliding glass door open again. I let her know that I was having trouble getting a connection and that I was just going to reset the router. It would be like 30 seconds. She says she was having trouble as well, so she had to resort to using an ethernet cable. Wait a few seconds to make sure the lights all turn on properly and start heading back toward the stairs.

“Oh, uhm, ScholarshipWinner? Would you close the door so it’s not open while the A/C is running?”

“No. It’s stifling down here. I had a friend over before and he agreed with me.”

What? In the basement? That’s the coldest place in the house. Five to ten degrees colder than the rest of the house (at a constant 77 degrees) and decidedly colder than the 98-degree heat advisory in effect outside. I’m appalled. I don’t even know what to say. A rational, normal person would say ok to that. A rational person would understand simple thermodynamics enough to know hot outside + not as hot inside = leave doors closed. Give her a look of confusion and walk upstairs to regroup.

Discuss with Ian what kind of person would react like that. What kind of person leaves an open trash bag in the middle of the kitchen, while simultaneously complaining that my upkeep of the house is filthy? What kind of person piles someone else’s things in a corner to “clean up” while distributing their own things wherever she pleases? This is getting out of hand. Maybe she needs some boundaries set or she hasn’t had a roommate in a while and doesn’t know how to play nice with others. Something must be done.

We go back downstairs and she’s lounging on the couch in front of the TV. She glances over at us briefly and goes back to the TV. We sit down on the adjacent couch and ask if she received the email we sent her the night before. She says yes. Ian begins by explaining to her that this is Sonny’s house and while he’s gone, there needs to be some amount of respect for his space in his absence. He barely gets through a sentence before he’s cut off by ScholarshipWinner telling him this has nothing to do with him. He has no say in anything going on here.

“Well, I

live here, so I do have a say. Simple things, like a request to not have doors and windows open while the air conditioning is running doesn’t seem like I’m asking a lot from you.”

“Fine! Fine. Whatever.” She storms over and slams the sliding glass door shut.

“That’s not the point though–”

“I don’t care what you have to say. My agreement is with your brother. You have nothing to do with that. If he has any problems with me, he can take it up with me himself. You have no say here!”

My mouth is literally hanging open at this point. Ian regains his composure first and we both leave her to watch more TV. Call Sonny, let him know what’s going on. Tell him how out of hand things have gotten in the past 10 minutes. He says he will send her an email and see what her side of the story is.

Parents call and arrive shortly thereafter. They meet her and support our opinion of her. We have a meeting upstairs and evaluate the situation. What is her goal here? Keep reminding ourselves that she is not a rational being. Decide that at this point, it would be best for me to leave the house. If she is already this short-tempered and openly hostile, it would probably be best to leave before things get worse. Go to Home Depot, pick up a new lock for my room, get back, install the lock, pack my things.

Hour 36: Vacate the premises.

• download The Damned United movie