This is a story all about how my life got flip-turned upside down, I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.
While most of the above is true, I'm not the prince of Bel Air; that's a job for Will Smith. Though my life was flip-turned upside down, so to speak, for the last year.
At the end of April 2005 I did a kind thing: I took someone into my home - even got a two bedroom apartment when I moved - because she was down on her luck. At least, that's the story she fed me.
Countless people warned me. They said "man, I can tell, she's trouble" or "I have a bad feeling about her" and the classic "she's just using you." I told them time and time again, "no, no, she's just down on her luck, it's all good. She's doing this and going to do that." I wish I would have listened to them, instead of believing her. My naivety got the best of me. Never again.
Before I go any further, let me make it clear that she and I were never in a relationship of any kind. I wouldn't have touched that, no sir. And besides, she had/has/almost has a boyfriend equally as wonderful as she. Read on.
The stories she told me are unimportant. What's important is the fact that every assurance she made, tale she told and promise she said she would keep was a self-serving lie in order to get what she wanted.
She lied left and right, to be sure, but that wasn't the end of it. She was irresponsible, to boot. There's a point in everyone's life - usually between the ages of 15 and 18 - that a person realizes there are certain things in life that have to be done, no matter what they are, and that we are responsible for ourselves. Apparently, she'd never passed that stage of her life.
While she lived in my apartment, she went through two different jobs. First, at a fast food restaurant, where the only reason she held the job as long as she did was because the owner's son, and manager, was her semi-friend. Plus, they needed the help and on occasion she proved herself somewhat useful. After she stopped showing up to that job, she eventually found another one entering order data at a distributor, which she also lost several months later.
She was easily the filthiest person I've ever known, besides the Cowan family in the 2nd grade, but they lived on a farm; they had an excuse. Sort of. Don't picture Pig Pen from Charlie Brown, no, that does not do her justice. Her room was a disaster. She left piles of trash scattered about - real trash: empty 2 liter bottles, fast food wrappers, old pieces of food, etc - mostly in her closet or under her bed. I guess the old "out of sight, out of mind" rule applied.
I personally lost several bowls, various Tupperware, and a hand full of silverware to the dishware trap that was her room. I imagine them crying out from the depths of some pile of garbage at her new place, wondering why no one comes to save them from their prison.
Most of this can be traced to her addiction. Not to drugs, no, something worse: World of Warcraft. It occupied her every waking thought. I'm not exaggerating when I say that she would wake up, sit in front of her computer every minute she was awake, went to bed, and then repeated the same thing the next day, over and over. She would make up excuses not to go to work, just so she could play that game. It's all she thought about, cared about, or put effort in to. Whether it was another raid, or a piece of armor, she was all over it. Clean up the cat puke on the floor? Nah, that shit can wait until she's done making an instance run.
At first, I told her that if she made up the difference between the one bedroom apartment I was going to get before she came along, and the two bedroom apartment I got because of her, I would call it even. She did that, for a while. Then she couldn't manage to scrape the couple of hundred bucks a month together to cover her one and only bill. I'll skip a lot of the details in order to shorten an already long story. With the second job she found, I told her because of numerous reasons she needed to fork over a larger portion of the rent, plus half of all of the bills. She did that, too, for a while, then went back to the same old pattern. Eventually I started to shut off her internet access. At first, it worked as a motivation for her to cough up the money. Several times I would pull the patch that went into her room and minutes later I would find money waiting on the kitchen counter. Eventually she stopped paying, and consequently lost access on a more or less permanent basis. She made up several excuses the closer it came time to move, about how she needed internet access to talk to the people she was moving in with, etc. etc. I gave it to her, but not without consequences. I giggle with glee when I think of her frustration at having internet access but being unable to get to World of Warcraft or just about any other online game she could imagine. I got a lot of practice with Cisco's access lists; blocking ports is fun.
Eventually the time finally came. I'd told her that when the lease was up, I was moving out and she had to as well. Her credit was terrible, so she couldn't keep the place on her own. How she conned someone else into letting her live with them, I don't know or care.
She moved out the weekend of the 22nd. Her last load was 4PM that Sunday, and she never came back, leaving her bed, giant wood boa tank, and a floor and closet full of trash behind. It took me at least an extra day to move and clean the apartment because of that. Thanks.
I suppose I could have let this picture speak for itself, and saved a lot of what I wrote, but why not drive the point home? Her room, after the last load she made:
The pile of garbage in the top right corner covered up the multitude of stains she left on the carpet. These were not normal stains. Nay, these stains had a will of their own, a consciousness.
I haven't heard back from the apartment complex about whether or not they were able to completely remove the them from the carpet. I tried my best with a little Bissell carpet cleaner. Since her credit was bad, I bear full financial responsibility if they have to replace anything. Chalk up another mistake I made.
In all, I learned a powerful lesson, one that I will remember forever. Have I changed because of it? Yes. Am I suddenly paranoid that a selfish world is out to get me, hide my dishes, and stain my carpets? No. Well, at least, not all of them.
There are people in this world who carry no regard for their fellow human beings. They only care about what's important to them, and how they can get it. It doesn't matter if they have to take advantage of, lie to, or hurt people along the way as long as they get what they want. They will take advantage of you and your infinite patience and kindness until you're sucked dry, like a dead corn husk. In the end, you have to throw them to the curb. Tell them to fuck off, and never come back. No lesson will stick, no consequences will affect them. It's a lost cause. They, like others of their kind, are useless human beings doomed for a life of monotonous drudgery as they plod along from one place to the other, finding the next nave soul to suck the life out of.
The sad part is, I just skimmed the top.
Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, [I'm] free at last!
While most of the above is true, I'm not the prince of Bel Air; that's a job for Will Smith. Though my life was flip-turned upside down, so to speak, for the last year.
At the end of April 2005 I did a kind thing: I took someone into my home - even got a two bedroom apartment when I moved - because she was down on her luck. At least, that's the story she fed me.
Countless people warned me. They said "man, I can tell, she's trouble" or "I have a bad feeling about her" and the classic "she's just using you." I told them time and time again, "no, no, she's just down on her luck, it's all good. She's doing this and going to do that." I wish I would have listened to them, instead of believing her. My naivety got the best of me. Never again.
Before I go any further, let me make it clear that she and I were never in a relationship of any kind. I wouldn't have touched that, no sir. And besides, she had/has/almost has a boyfriend equally as wonderful as she. Read on.
The stories she told me are unimportant. What's important is the fact that every assurance she made, tale she told and promise she said she would keep was a self-serving lie in order to get what she wanted.
She lied left and right, to be sure, but that wasn't the end of it. She was irresponsible, to boot. There's a point in everyone's life - usually between the ages of 15 and 18 - that a person realizes there are certain things in life that have to be done, no matter what they are, and that we are responsible for ourselves. Apparently, she'd never passed that stage of her life.
While she lived in my apartment, she went through two different jobs. First, at a fast food restaurant, where the only reason she held the job as long as she did was because the owner's son, and manager, was her semi-friend. Plus, they needed the help and on occasion she proved herself somewhat useful. After she stopped showing up to that job, she eventually found another one entering order data at a distributor, which she also lost several months later.
She was easily the filthiest person I've ever known, besides the Cowan family in the 2nd grade, but they lived on a farm; they had an excuse. Sort of. Don't picture Pig Pen from Charlie Brown, no, that does not do her justice. Her room was a disaster. She left piles of trash scattered about - real trash: empty 2 liter bottles, fast food wrappers, old pieces of food, etc - mostly in her closet or under her bed. I guess the old "out of sight, out of mind" rule applied.
I personally lost several bowls, various Tupperware, and a hand full of silverware to the dishware trap that was her room. I imagine them crying out from the depths of some pile of garbage at her new place, wondering why no one comes to save them from their prison.
Most of this can be traced to her addiction. Not to drugs, no, something worse: World of Warcraft. It occupied her every waking thought. I'm not exaggerating when I say that she would wake up, sit in front of her computer every minute she was awake, went to bed, and then repeated the same thing the next day, over and over. She would make up excuses not to go to work, just so she could play that game. It's all she thought about, cared about, or put effort in to. Whether it was another raid, or a piece of armor, she was all over it. Clean up the cat puke on the floor? Nah, that shit can wait until she's done making an instance run.
At first, I told her that if she made up the difference between the one bedroom apartment I was going to get before she came along, and the two bedroom apartment I got because of her, I would call it even. She did that, for a while. Then she couldn't manage to scrape the couple of hundred bucks a month together to cover her one and only bill. I'll skip a lot of the details in order to shorten an already long story. With the second job she found, I told her because of numerous reasons she needed to fork over a larger portion of the rent, plus half of all of the bills. She did that, too, for a while, then went back to the same old pattern. Eventually I started to shut off her internet access. At first, it worked as a motivation for her to cough up the money. Several times I would pull the patch that went into her room and minutes later I would find money waiting on the kitchen counter. Eventually she stopped paying, and consequently lost access on a more or less permanent basis. She made up several excuses the closer it came time to move, about how she needed internet access to talk to the people she was moving in with, etc. etc. I gave it to her, but not without consequences. I giggle with glee when I think of her frustration at having internet access but being unable to get to World of Warcraft or just about any other online game she could imagine. I got a lot of practice with Cisco's access lists; blocking ports is fun.
Eventually the time finally came. I'd told her that when the lease was up, I was moving out and she had to as well. Her credit was terrible, so she couldn't keep the place on her own. How she conned someone else into letting her live with them, I don't know or care.
She moved out the weekend of the 22nd. Her last load was 4PM that Sunday, and she never came back, leaving her bed, giant wood boa tank, and a floor and closet full of trash behind. It took me at least an extra day to move and clean the apartment because of that. Thanks.
I suppose I could have let this picture speak for itself, and saved a lot of what I wrote, but why not drive the point home? Her room, after the last load she made:
The pile of garbage in the top right corner covered up the multitude of stains she left on the carpet. These were not normal stains. Nay, these stains had a will of their own, a consciousness.
I haven't heard back from the apartment complex about whether or not they were able to completely remove the them from the carpet. I tried my best with a little Bissell carpet cleaner. Since her credit was bad, I bear full financial responsibility if they have to replace anything. Chalk up another mistake I made.
In all, I learned a powerful lesson, one that I will remember forever. Have I changed because of it? Yes. Am I suddenly paranoid that a selfish world is out to get me, hide my dishes, and stain my carpets? No. Well, at least, not all of them.
There are people in this world who carry no regard for their fellow human beings. They only care about what's important to them, and how they can get it. It doesn't matter if they have to take advantage of, lie to, or hurt people along the way as long as they get what they want. They will take advantage of you and your infinite patience and kindness until you're sucked dry, like a dead corn husk. In the end, you have to throw them to the curb. Tell them to fuck off, and never come back. No lesson will stick, no consequences will affect them. It's a lost cause. They, like others of their kind, are useless human beings doomed for a life of monotonous drudgery as they plod along from one place to the other, finding the next nave soul to suck the life out of.
The sad part is, I just skimmed the top.
Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, [I'm] free at last!
[Edited on May 11, 2006 1:06AM]