filthy

Happy New Year.

Now that that is out of the way, it's time for some serious bitching. First of all, lemme pose this question... If 4 people live in an apartment, but each person has their own room, then doesn't that mean that while the individual rooms can be fit to the individual occupant's liking, the common area that everyone shares must be suitable and confortable for everyone?

The answer is yes. Whether you agree to it or not. The bedroom is one's personal space--fit for doing any and everything that the person who sleeps there wants to do. If they want to keep it dirty, that is their perogative. If they want to keep it clean, that is their perogative. You will never hear me complain about how dirty someone's room is other than my own. That is their business.

But when my (as well as others') bathroom, kitchen, and living room is trashed by one person, then it's my business... someone else's shit, but my business.

Let me tell you how my apartment looked on the last day of the year 2004: I walk into my apartment already worried... One the phone while I have been at home, Jenee asked me several times if I had been back to the apartment or if Nick had. I kept saying no and kept asking her why she was asking. She kept saying, "Just wondering." Then there was also the fact that it was a college apartment complex and most college students go home for the holidays, so I was thinking that maybe a burglary could have happened. Oh no... It wasn't that. Neither my own twisted mind nor Jenee's questioning could have prepared me for what I saw there in my apartment...

Now remember, when I left, I made sure everything was neat and in its place. Nick even came to clean out all of the perishable stuff from the refrigerator. We both secured things and turned fans and the heat off.

Well, sometime between then and last night, someone had been back at the apartment and just doing things in a completely self centered and inconsiderate way... as if he were the only person (or he and his friends were the only PEOPLE) living at the apartment. The futon (which was broken and couldn't really go all the way flat) was laid out in the DEAD CENTER of the living room. It was turned so it met up with the sofa... so it looked as if someone was trying to make a huge king sized bed type thing. Patrick's sheet was off of it and thrown on the floor (thankfully, 'cause it looked like dirty things were done in that make shift king sized bed). Patrick's blanket was not so lucky. It was in a mess of dirty sheets on the futon. This futon was not made, mind you--the sheets were just sitting on it sloppily... like someone had SLOPPILY rolled around in them. Anyway, there were clothes strewn all over the place. In one corner, shirts... in another, socks... in another, A BRA. WTF? Our high table and stools were pushed way up against a corner and all over the table were sheets and packets of black feathers. Most of the packets were empty--cause the feathers were just lying all over the place. There were also pencils and glue. It looked as if someone was trying to make a drag costume (I mean there was already a bra on the floor). Then, in the kitchen, there were dishes in the sink... and not just a few dishes. There were at least like 5 cups in there... WHO ALL HAD BEEN HANGING OUT IN THE APARTMENT? AND WHY DID ONE OF THOSE BITCHES LEAVE HER DAMN BRA?

Over in the bathroom area (the one that I share, not Patrick and Nick's--lucky them), my side of the counter and my sink were messy. I made sure that I cleaned MY sink and MY mirror before I left. I ended up cleaning the bathroom ALL SEMESTER LONG, so I wasn't going to clean the other side of the sink and mirror this time. When I did that, you shoulda seen it... it looked like a Windex or 409 commercial, where they show the before and after sides. My side was so clean and neat. And the other side had water spots and toothpaste and smudges all over the mirror... Well, when I came back yesterday, I had water spots and toothpaste and smudges all over MY mirror! Someone had been using my sink! It just made me feel for those poor 3 bears when that Goldilocks ho came into their house. The toilet (that I had cleaned just before leaving for the holidays--and that I had cleaned in November... and October... and September) had junk in it. Not even the decency to flush the damn toilet!

I have no idea what the hell happened in that apartment. All I know is when I walked in, followed by Missy and Kiki, I was so thoroughly embarrassed. We immediately got to work on a cleaning campaign that included returning the furniture to the correct spots, discarding all the sketchy and random clothing/drag materials/underwear to the perptrator's room, washing the dishes, wiping down MY SIDE of the sink area in the bathroom, and washing Patrick's poor blanket... 'cause people were supposed to be coming over to help ring in the new year within the half hour.

So once again, I pose the question: If 4 people live in an apartment, but each person has their own room, then doesn't that mean that while the individual rooms can be fit to the individual occupant's liking, the common area that everyone shares must be suitable and confortable for everyone? EVEN IF IT IS WINTER BREAK, ALL THE ROOMMATES HAVE KEYS, AND TWO OF WHICH LIVE IN VERY CLOSE PROXIMITY?

There is no excuse for the mess that was 101-A last night. But frankly, I wasn't incredibly surprised. Like I said, I have been the cleaner of the bathroom for the past semester, and Patrick, Nick, and I have been the cleaners of pretty much ALL the dishes all semester. I guess the thing that took me aback the most was the sketchiness of it all... it seriously looked like kinky feather sex had been had in our living room.