Packing up, moving out, and a story about her roommate

So this past weekend I spent helping a girlfriend pack up her stuff (she's moving out of her current residence). I'm such a good friend, ain't I? Well, actually, I had several incentives for helping her pack up:

• (1) It gave me an excuse to not go to this party.
• (2) It was my chance to permanently "borrow" some of her wild art around the house. She's quite a traveler, you know, so she has all this stuff of collectibles and souvenirs from around the world. I'd always wanted to "steal" (with permission) that strange neon toy she bought in Japan. And one of those dolls she got in Russia. I also wanted that embroidered Thai fan she never uses anyway. This was my chance to go, "say, girlfriend, mind if I keep this for a while? You might break/dent/tear/behead/deform it in the course of your moving. Besides, it's bad luck to...er, cage them all in a box. Them things have spirits, you know? Their spirits might quarrel when, uhm, locked up inside a tight box. Then you'd have bad luck. Wink, wink."
• (3) She also has quite an artistic streak, so she has these other quirky "works of art" she created herself. They're the kinds that if you put 'em on display in your house, they'd elicit some curiosity among your guests. ("Oh, look at this cute little thing...er, what is it, exactly?") In other words, a conversation starter. If nothing else, I could always use some of her unconventional decors to annoy my mom. (I live in my parents' house, but not quite. I'll explain someday in a separate post.)

Let's talk about her roommate. I know that nearly everybody who's ever had to live with a roommate has some horror stories to tell, and this is hers.

Oh, look at this cute little thing...er, *what* is it, exactly?

As already mentioned, Girlfriend has an artistic streak. Not surprisingly, she has clutter everywhere. She has a tendency to be super messy. Her desk is messy. Her closet is messy. Her drawers are messy. Her share of the apartment is messy. Her entire room is messy.

In contrast, her roommate is a tidy freak. Well, almost (I'll explain why only "almost" in the next paragraphs). She has a stack of Febreze and different scents of Lysol disinfectants in her cupboard. Her stuff are well organized; she has a box or drawer for everything. She probably assigns a category for each and every one of her things, then she arranges them neatly. She also has boxes and boxes of a variety of Swiffer wipes and dusters (which she never shares with Girlfriend, I learned. Meh, fair enough).

Now, you'd think a tidy freak like that would be extremely hygienic. No. And that's where Girlfriend's problem with Roommate begins.

(Warning: some gross descriptions ahead. Sorry, but Roommate's story is strangely amusing to me, and I had to get it out of my system. But please don't proceed if you're the type who gets easily offended. Thanks.)

Never mind that she freaks out at the sight of dust on furniture, or of shoes not being aligned properly in the rack, or at the faint smell of leftover food in the kitchen. Those things I'd consider tolerable. But Neat n Tidy Roommate--and I've witnessed this myself, having spent the weekend with her and Girlfriend at their shared apartment--she doesn't fold nor wrap her pantyliners after use. She just dumps them carelessly in the bathroom trashcan, the glorious yellowish traces of her femininity wide open for every guest to see.

Here's more: the bathroom mirror is decorated with li'l dots of pus and blood stains. Roommate has terrible acne, so that explains that. It also explains why she stays too long in the bathroom (according to Girlfriend). She seems to have this bad habit of squeezing her pimples but not wiping the mirror clean afterward. I have a sneaking suspicion that she has an obsessive-compulsive disorder of some sort -- she can't stand the sight of dirt, the pimples on her face included. And yet for some strange reason, she has no problem with the bathroom mirror being grossly sprayed with her pimple fluids. Nor does she seem to care about her stained pantyliners being so visible. What's up with that? What's up with that??????

If you've read this far, you must be totally grossed out by now. I'm sorry, I really am. I couldn't help it; I'm intrigued yet repulsed by her. I don't understand how a lady obsessed with cleanliness could have such weird exceptions to her own rules. Ick.

To Girlfriend, you made a smart decision there by leaving your roommate. And oh, thank you for the doll and fan... and for listening to my rants about that thing. :)


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Tags: :: a day in her life :: drama and confrontations :: strange silly chick ::
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