Unfotunately this blog post is not indicative of some kind of childish prank that I pulled on my roommate that she has yet to discover. Rather, this is a derivative of a direct quote by said roommate one morning. And as my roommate has no semblance of a sense of humor, I am sad to say that she was quite serious in expressing this sentiment.
Why did this rather rude statement arise? Rent is due on the 5th of the month by 6:00 pm (she probably thinks that this fact is all my doing and my fault). For the month of September, the 5th fell on Labor Day. I had been out of town for the long holiday weekend, during which I remembered that rent was due on Monday. I wrote out a check so that I wouldn’t forget to drop it off at the manager’s apartment when I returned home Monday night. That evening, I arrived home and unpacked and tried to unwind. By a stroke of luck I remembered to go pay my rent. The next day I found out that both my roommates had forgotten to pay, and unfortunately for my roommates, the manager’s decided that this month would be a good month to crack down on late payments (which is really terrible considering that the fifth day of the month fell on a holiday) hence my roommates were hit with a hefty late fee of $75. On hearing this (and also that I had already paid and had avoided the late fee) my roommate H was angry. I felt bad about the late fee, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it, so I escaped to my room. The next morning I got the full story:
She called the managers (way after hours) to complain about the late fee. She was able to talk them out of it (a feat which my other roommate S was not able to do). I was informed that since she didn’t have to pay the late fee, that she didn’t hate me, yet.
H told me that we needed to remind each other about rent being due, and then said that on the 4th that we would put up notes reminding people to pay (my mother offered a brilliant suggestion to this: start a countdown three weeks early and every day say: 25 days till rent is due….24 days till rent is due….)
I felt bad when I learned that they had been given a late fee; I felt even worse the next morning when I had that lovely little roommate discussion. She made me feel ike it was completely my fault—and it’s not! Yes it would have been courteous of me to remind my roommates--but they are in fact adults (even if they don’t act like it) and honestly it didn’t cross my mind because H is so anal and is always bossing me around and telling me what to do and when that I assumed that she had already taken care of it.
Other than taking on the blame which H decided to dump on me, I have some other issues with this morning’s encounter:
1. The wording: She doesn’t hate me, yet. Really? So she’s planning on hating me at some future point? I guess I’ve lasted a whole month without earning her complete and utter loathing, so maybe I can feel good about that fact.
2. The fact that I care that she’s apparently on the road to hating me. Which shouldn’t matter as I find her annoying and blunt and while I don’t hate her (yet) I am leaning past indifference into active dislike.
3. The fact that she was able to talk the manager out of the late fee. That she was able to do this while the pleas of my other roommate fell on deaf ears is a testament to H’s complete and utterly annoying obnoxious personality. Only her incessant whining and complaining could wear down the manager.
4. I understand that money is tight, and that the late fee was expensive, but that should be even more motivation to PAY ON TIME. Learn to be an adult. If it’s hard to remember stuff, write it down! I’ve only lived here a month, but it sounds like paying rent on time is a difficult thing for my new roommates. H needs to grow up, because I don’t want to mother her (especially since if I did my ‘child’ would be older than me).
5. The fact that I didn’t want to mother her and tell her when and how to do grown up things made me question if I could ever be a mother. This one really bothers me and is obviously not my roommate’s fault--but this crazy thought did cross my mind. I honestly had to reassure myself that it would be different when I had my own children (if only because my children will actually be younger than me).
6. It made me feel like a jerk. She made me feel like a terrible person because I didn’t remind her to pay her rent. I think that we are both at fault (with the teeter-totter of blame tilting towards the ground a lot more on her side than on mine). I could have been more courteous and asked if she had paid rent. She could have paid her rent (Problem solved).
7. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if she had actually had to pay her late fee. I really think she might have killed me….
Maybe along with ‘stranger danger’ we should also be teaching the rising generation “roommate danger” i.e. don’t move in with psychos!
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