Appliances & Other Bullshit
The first week our roommate was here was frought with tension and dancing around each other and me really waking up every day wanting to accommodate her in what had to be a tremendously stressful situation. That changed. In the morning she would laboriously climb the stairs to our kitchen hugging and puffing like a sleestack to make her coffee and her English muffin. One morning, this happened.
You know, you should really get a nicer coffee pot.
Why?
So when company comes you have something nicer to use.
Rude.
Later that day she came home with a new coffee pot for my kitchen. It is, by the way, THE EXACT SAME MODEL. The $20 Mr Coffee 4 cup situation. But hers was in black, mine is white. My countertops and backsplash are already black. I absolutely hate more black things on the counter.
Fast forward 4 weeks or so when we finally gave in and put the tacky makeshift kitchen on a folding table together in the basement so she would'’t have to come upstairs. By that time it was obvious she was in a lot of pain doing alll the stairs and we just did it. We had an extra toaster and we had an extra microwave at the office. so it came together nicely. There were no thanks (obviously) but over the course of a few weeks she was really settling in to it (stocking the area with food, etc) so we felt we did the right thing.
This week this happened to S.
You know, that microwave isn’t very good. It’s only 600 watts. My old one is over 1000 watts. It is taking me a lot longer to cook my microwave dinners.
S said “Oh, Really?” and walked away.
Then today our roommate did her Sunday errands. She picked up a prescription, she went to the house to get her paper, went to the house to grab some nasty smokey things that she needs then went to Walmart. Ask me if she wore her boot for her broken foot? Nevermind. You already know she didn’t. Why bother going to Tria to get a boot for your broken foot if you’re only going to wear it watching murder on TV - certainly not when you’re out walking.
I knew she was home when I heard the door slam, her sigh and then I started upstairs to see S clenching his jaw and T running at me to give me the rundown/tattle. It seems our new roommate was
Really in so much pain from the walking after all those errands. She wasn’t going to be able to carry all her groceries in from the car and in fact left the locked inside of it so even when we tried to help we were locked out.
Carrying a bunch of crap from the house that she “needed” in the basement. I think we’re up to 5 rubber scrapers.
Feeling some additional pain in her shoulder because she found a better microwave and it was just too heavy for her to get off the shelf. I mean, sure. Give that a go but make me carry in your latest stash of crackers. And honestly… BUYING A BETTER MICROWAVE? So rude. We spent s lot of time cleaning this one out. If it isn’t good enough just come upstairs and use mine. I have a great microwave. So great. And my kitchen is beautiful. C’mon up and cook your Stauffers in it.
Oh fun, and she bought another perennial for the garden.
Her painkillers kicked in and she suddenly good enough to start critiquing everything.
You should get a rubber mallot to pound down these pavers.
Is that grass going to get raked finally?
I talked to the week guy. He said the reason the grass is so green is because of all the weeds in it
Oh good, you vacuumed down here.
What should I buy T for her First Communion? She already has so much crap just piled in the corner I don’t want to buy her more.
Well, we agree on the last point. Also, you bought her much of that crap. Including a gold cross in advance of when her first communion was supposed to be (because you wanted to be first with that). Double also, we cut her play space IN HALF so we could create a living space for you. Because there was a fire. And because if you had only been willing to spend a few hundred dollars on an insurance policy you could be living somewhere else right now.
Yikes.
This week THIS WEEK is the week we should get the full scope of work and initial claim back from insurance so we can fully understand what is and isn’t covered and I can immediately start taking action on what needs to be done. I have been obsessing over this task. Not having this has launched me straight into the grey zone of inaction where I hate to be. Our new roommate hasn’t even asked about it in weeks. As if it doesn’t affect her - or - she knows that it will be magically taken care of for her.
So she can lay off the grass and the weeds and the pavers and the microwave.