As it is once again raining, I feel the need to natter on.
House situation is becoming quite uncomfortable as the date for the new cook to start draws nearer. House Mom has refused to put out the breakfast food (as is her job, stated in her contract) and is generally unavailable and unhelpful. I scheduled a meeting with her, and did not see her anywhere at the scheduled time, so I took a nap...in the tv room. Afterwards I was told she was looking for me. When? at 3? I said TWO THIRTY. Not a good sign. Honestly, I think she's just ready to wash her hands of the entire job and leave...Of course, then again, she may stay and mooch off us for as long as possible, since she doesn't have to pay rent and gets a salary...
Have become increasingly frustrated with House Issues...what follows is a bit of a rant (incomplete) that I wrote a few days ago. (Tuesday night, to be exact.)
"
... The whole damn problem with this house is that we don't enforce our penalties. If someone doesn't proctor and gets offended when they are reported for NOT PROCTORING, they get off with a slap on the wrist, not a monetary fine. Our standards board is a JOKE. That, simply put, sucks. This is the REAL WORLD, ladies. If you don't actually RESPECT each other, and by respect, I mean DO the things that any good citizen would (in other words proctor/ fulfill your responsibilities) then you should endure the consequences.
If you're assigned two days to proctor over the course of the entire quarter, then FUCKING BE THERE ON THOSE DAYS. It's not too much to ask--this is your home, you should be partially responsible for it's upkeep. I give out the damn proctoring schedule way ahead of time so people can PLAN AHEAD, and put things on their calendars...So why do I have problems with people "going home for the weekend" and not being around? Proctoring is NOT JUST CLEANING!!! From 9pm-11pm, you are supposed to MONITOR the house, clean if necessary, answer the door, etc.
Unless you're attending a bloody wedding, funeral, or some other "life" event (like being in the hospital) then there is NO BLOODY REASON to go home, HONESTLY. Studying is not an excuse, nor is laundry. The problem is partially that Executive board is not willing to recognize the fact that house responsibilities are JUST AS IMPORTANT as recruitment activities and any others. They are on the same level of importance, and need to be treated that way. Especially since our house is not in the best of shape anyway, and needs constant monitoring. Especially when we have things happen, like pipes breaking and intermittant internet services...
I think we need to buckle down on house infrastructure consequences, because they affect EACH AND EVERY ONE of us that live in. We all have to live in a dirty stinky house if no-one cleans it. If people don't put things back where they belong, then we have to deal with crap all over the place. That's stupid. If you use something, ANYTHING, put whatever it is BACK WHERE IT BELONGS, and not somewhere else or close to where it's supposed to go.
I also believe that it shouldn't be under the jurisdiction of the Standards board to punish people for not proctoring. That should be under the authority of those in charge of the maintenance of the House, whether it's the House Mom or Director...(who by the way, is NEVER here...can you say a problem of accountability, anyone?)..."
Yup. That's how things are around here. Mostly, I'm just deriving shitloads of entertainment from all the whinging of the girls, especially when the internet went down for a day. Or when their rooms smell funny (can you say marijuana, eh?) or are "too hot". You fuckin' can't win around here, I've discovered, and the best way to deal with it is to ignore the whinging, and focus instead on what you CAN get done.
After the internet went down, the day after it came back up, I got a rant/diatribe by Danielle T's mom about how they were paying a whole lot of money for crappy "slumlord" living conditions without proper utilites that had been advertised.(That was a direct quote from the conversation.) Thing was, she was TOTALLY right, and I totally agreed with her (which threw her off a bit, I think). I'm just freakin' glad that SOMEBODY cared enough to ask questions and demand to know what's going on. I know my mom does! The only thing I could do was tell her about my plans for what I wanted to do to the house to improve the health of those living there....what follows are my ideas:
1. Remove bars from upstairs windows. They are a fire hazard. Possibly recycle the metal for $$!!!
2. Have driveway designated a fire lane so no-one can park there, and we don't have to deal with the goddamned neigbors starting shit. (Maybe I need to talk to a lawyer about this?)
3. Remove carpet from rooms upstairs and refinish hardwood floors. Girls can bring area rugs if they think that it's too cold, the complaining fuckers. Too bad! Besides, carpet hasn't been cleaned in FOREVER (yuck) and it'd be cheaper to get rid of it than clean/keep it.
4. Install new WORKING thermostats upstairs so that the heaters would not overheat some rooms.
5. Get the heating/air ducts cleaned OUT. They're probably a source of many unhealthy germs, and nobody has a CLUE when they were last cleaned. Health Hazard, anyone?
6. Replace all the windows in the 8-girl, since they're the most crucial (due to the number of girls living there...in case of a fire.)
7. Curtains for the study room. Self explanatory--a pulldown roll-blind.
8. Sell Couches, and move the furniture around in the tv room. Paint stripes on walls (green?) to give room texture. (White=ugly and boring and sterile) Buy Khaki slipcover for other couch, or make one.
9. Throw out old bed parts downstairs in batches. (Another fire hazard).
10. Have asbestos insulation removed from heater ducts downstairs. MAJOR health hazard.
11. Fix the plumbing and hot water recirculation pump. Right now, doesn't work at all (motor is worn out). Source of much carping and bitching and whinging.
12. Get new stove, dishwasher. Maybe some new pots and kitchen utensils?
13. Have dining room rewired for heating systems. Redo the ceiling(ugly tiles have got to go!).
Hopefully some of these will get done during spring break. And summer. Will have to live in hope. As it is, I kinda agree with poor ol' Dante:
"Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'intrate."
To top off my obvious gross incompetence, COMPLETELY forgot to send of the cute birthday card I had for Heather's birthday. Am now completely screwed, and hope that she doesn't wish to kill me outright. Ha, no such luck, knowing me. Bleh. Ugh ugh ugh. I really hate Midterms week, eventhough that's not really an acceptable excuse. Does Spring Sing practice count? Had to miss a shopping trip (this last weekend) to little Tokyo due to practice. We find out next monday at 1230 if we got in. (Oooh, the suspense!)
Blearg. At least this quarter I'm doing better in actually motivating myself to study on weekends, due to realization that if I DON'T, I'll be screwed COMPLETELY. Lots and lots of reading from all of my classes. Eurg. Cannot afford to fuck off. Or slack off. Am in a rut. Realizing that, am doing my best to distract myself by finding places to study--like starbucks (which seems to work, every thursday night after anime club).
Am taking another little sis. Yikes. (More later, due to the fact that I'm afraid said sis will read this---my insane and grouchy rantings).
Have decided that I desperately need to review Kopacki's rules of writing and grammar. I suck.
Hm. Need to go sleep for a bit before finishing all my readings for my history seminar tomorrow (and writing/editing another paper). Wish I really DID have a 25-hour day. Ha.
Dante, you fucker. Why'd you have to be
right?
