I realized not too long ago that a month ago, I had quietly passed an inflection point with my roommate: he has now been unemployed living with me longer than he has been employed. Hurray!...
I've noticed how this particular irritation leads to me being even more irritated with minor things than I would be if he were going to work at least five days a week. Things like not doing the dishes. I don't care if you didn't make them, you're home ALL FUCKING DAY you can at least do the dishes in your copious spare time since I sure as fuck know you're not using it to find work. You could also get the mail because why not? You're here and it's certainly not a long walk. You could take out the garbage when it gets full for the same reason. [I've been forgiving of the recyclables because our town seems to have suspended pick-up since the first snowstorm a month ago and this complex provides far too small a receptacle for our papers and cans/glass/plastic. I'm tempted to just throw them in the dumpster now...or buy twine. I guess the latter would be more respectable, wouldn't it?].
These little things only irritate me further when he demonstrates his priorities. I mean, congratulations on your eighth consecutive hour of television/movie watching. Congratulations on finding the time to work on various writing projects that you're pathologically incapable of finishing. Congratulations on your restful eight plus hours of sleep. I can see why he wouldn't have the time to handle a few chores. Perhaps I should stop being so demanding: there's only so much one man-child can do...
Could you put your dishes in the sink please? And rinse them out? And while you're at it, do it for your yogurt and soup cans too. I love scrubbing out the rust rings the latter leave in the sink. Thank goodness for non-stick cookware and that's all I'll say about that. Thanks again for doing half the dishes. Do you have some sort of bizarre phobia about washing pots still on the stove? They're cool now I assure you. Sigh...
But the one thing I've noticed that's been irritating me when it never has before and I fully blame it on his deliberate unemployment is when he replaces a paper towel or toilet paper roll, he does so in a way that it rolls under instead of over-the-top [officially I take the Ann Landers assessment: when they have designs printed on the paper, they're printed so as to be viewed from an over-the-top rolling method...makes sense to me]. I've found myself reorienting them, when for the first sixteen months living here, I didn't care. And now every time I see he's put it out that way, I get mad and start having angry daydreams. I'm cool now so writing about this is making me giggle because it's just that stupid to ever be mad over such a thing but let me see it after coming in from getting the mail and doing the dishes first thing upon waking (when he had all fucking day to do them) so I can cook something to eat and it's infuriating. So ridiculous... :-)
Just a few more months left on the lease. Then I will leave. It's not worth fighting over now even though the way he blithely accepts this arrangement is really tempting me to. I hope I can afford living in this area by myself...
ADDENDUM: I noticed he recently got rid of his Chinese food container hoard. I loved washing those every day too. I guess better he use plasticware rather than my ceramic dishes since I've got it on good authority that there was a real possibility he would've broken at least one of my dishes by now. I've so far gone unscathed in that department (jinx!!!). But doing the dishes the other day, I've noticed he has a habit of using this utensil when making pasta dishes instead of a regular spoon.
Seriously, there is NO need to use this kind of spoon when making pasta for yourself. It's more of a serving spoon but he has a hard-on it seems for using it and especially with sticky, cheesy dishes. This is one of the hardest things to clean outside of a whisk with dried up egg...another utensil he has no business using unless you're trying to whip up like a dozen eggs at once. USE A FORK! If you're making long-stringed pasta for more than just you, this utensil is suitable for serving it. Otherwise, just dump it on your plate or use a spoon without all that surface area. Holy fuck...
1 comment:
Oh, I remember the toilet roll thing. Slowly started to drive me nuts. My OCD mother didn't like the roll being backwards because as you pulled, the whole paper would rub up against the wall or cabinet the thing was mounted on, and you could get microbes, dust or paint dust on the paper you rub your ass with, and therefore, your ass. I guess this is a what-you-were-brought-up-with thing, so it didn't bother me nearly as much as this did:
Hey, at least he's still replacing them on the holder. When we were roommates, he eventually stopped doing even that much. Instead of putting a new roll on wrong, he just put a new one out on top of the holder. That is, if he bothered to replace it before the next time it was needed (of course, usually not by him). I guess now that he's been unemployed for over a year he's finally found the time to put the paper on the ring. =P
~Bob's anonymous soul mate (remind me to get another soul)
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