Pesky abusive roommates won't leave? Just evict yourself!

Though the domestic disturbances (refer to previous entry) have stopped, the drama has not. Brad and Crazy Char, and now Drunk-O-Steve, have basically pushed us to evicting ourselves. But the question is; are we really leaving our first nice home ever?
` Well, we weren't planning on it -- this is actually a bit of a ruse, only we may have to live up to it if we aren't convincing enough.

Yes, for real! Well, let's go back to where I left off in my adventures with my fiance Lucas and our cats, and roommates Johnny (who's relatively normal) our resident alcoholic Steve (a.k.a. Richard 'Dick' Goziña), and our dysfunctional non-rent-paying violent pieces-of-crap PsychoBitch Char and Neurotic Brad.
` After the last police incident with Brad (i.e. his whining 'I don't have anywhere to go with this U-Haul, I just rented it for no reason, and Lucas's bed is really mine and he won't give it to me'), we went hard on the merrymaking for a little while, which I documented for amusement's sake:


December 11, 2009:

Today is the day that Brad originally said he'd be out, but he's taken the U-Haul truck back without using it. I still can't figure it out -- why did he even rent it in the first place?
` I've been guarding the rooms all day while my fiance Lucas was off doing business as usual. In addition to the usual phone solicitors asking for me (because my name is on the cable bill), I've also been getting lots of stalker calls from some guy on both his work phone and his cell phone in succession (the number is displayed on Johnny's TV set), asking for either me or someone named Amanda, and I don't even know any Amandas!
` When Lucas got home with Johnny, Johnny answered the phone, said it's my stalker (for the eighth time today), and disconnected the line.

There's so much stuff going on right now, I don't know what to write next! For today, I went to the gym, then picked up Steve Goziña from work, cashed his paycheck, then he called Lucas and said, "My check bounced! ... I am absolutely kidding you!" which I am sure freaked Lucas out for a sec.
` He bought some beer, a raspberry Arizona iced tea for me, and on the way home, he told me about how he's in the third phase of weaning himself off alcohol, which I'll believe only if he continues to improve.
` After much horseplay with Johnny and Steve and Lucas, they started making up guitar ditties, using a beer bottle as a slide. After that, I watched Johnny do the "I like you but not like you-like you, but I like you," skit, while Lucas looked up at him warily and sank into his chair. To further weird Lucas out, both me and Johnny did the 'Japanese Butterfly Meditation', with Johnny standing in front of the couch and me standing on the couch, flapping our arms frantically in a very un-butterfly-like-way. Hilarous!
` Then we were talking about how Johnny's selling his huge speakers, which Mark... Stoekl or whatever his name is, the bass player from Alice In Chains, had actually used himself. Now Steve Goziña's playing Gallows Pole by Zeppelin.
` Oh that's right! Johnny also has had a song made up about him! "Johnny's shenanigans!/He's runnin' aroundagain!' I am reminded because Steve is now playing "Johnny's a fag." And now Johnny is singing about Steve sucking c... I mean, yeah, the same sort of thing.

We had some adventures going to a few stores, more conversations with the landlord, then back out again with Steve Goziña for some Chinese food. While getting this food, we noticed this hot chick his age at the Mexican restaurant next door who was flirting with him through the glass! Aw, man! Why did I drive off? Steve is still thinking about her! Should I have left him there with his food?
` Back to the room again. It's only nine and Lucas is exhausted, both cats are lying down in here too. Violet keeps licking her foots. I stepped out to throw the Arizona iced tea can outside and Johnny was saying something about loading something, and demonstrated by climbing onto the makeshift dining room table and humping the air above it.
` Then Steve's phone rang and he said, "It's my boss!" and Johnny froze in mid-hump. Then Steve said, "Oh wait, no, it's Rob." and Johnny resumed his pelvic thrusting; "So here's how I loaded it..." Johnny continued. Good grief! You know, last week, he climbed up on the fridge in some kind of indoor mountain climbing thing, but this is much better!
` So now I'm just trying to chill in the bedroom, hoping Brad doesn't go ballistic when he gets home. I don't want the cops here again, but if they are, well, Brad would be arrested.


December 12, 2009:

Most of today I worked on, and finally finished writing the title and description of hundreds of science books, each one on its own index card, in order to expedite my being able to do research, as for the Corrigendopedia and other projects. There must have been fifty left for me to do, but thanks to Amazon.com, I've finished my list!
` Then, Lucas and I went to the gym and then grabbed a sub and a milkshake on the way home. I enjoyed mine by the fire while Steve was using his laser pointer to play with Violet, who seemed bewildered that she couldn't trap it in her deadly clawrs.
` Oh, Brad is home and seems to be angry, as usual.


December 16, 2009: Forced to leave our own house! Not.

Last night, Brad got the news that he finally has a place to move into... in eight days! And little do they know, Lucas and I are expecting the landlord to post a three-day eviction notice on the door today, so I'm not looking forward for when the feathers hit the fan.

Back to last night's news, Brad and Char whooped and hollered and even I did too! Them leaving is good for all of us! It's close to Brad's job, and there's a park down the street and several nearby shops!
` However, it wasn't long until there was a crisis -- Brad couldn't find his wallet and Char went running down the street, yelling and in general disturbing the public. A few minutes after Char canceled her debit card, which was in the wallet, Brad found it. Unfortunately, this was right at five-o'clock, so the bank was closed and Char couldn't call to un-cancel the card!
` I'd had to get a new debit card myself two weeks ago, so I consoled her and got her to focus on her new apartment and the fact that she'll probably save money not having a debit card for a little while, plus, she won't have to worry about getting a new one for a few years now. She seemed to feel better, which is also good for all of us.

Later on last night, Beer Goziña was also refusing to pay rent if Brad and Char weren't, and was drunkenly ranting that he was going to shoot us all! Luckily, he apparently doesn't have a gun.
` Then, even later, Char was knocking on our bedroom door for some reason, asking us to be quiet. What was she hearing? We weren't even moving around or talking or anything! And why would she even ask us that if we're the ones who are paying for her to live here, since Lucas returned their rent money for the rest of the month so they could move out, which as you'll recall ended in an unexpected disaster!

So today, after Brad gets home and sees the eviction notice, he'll probably blow up, and if one of us has to call the cops a third time, the leaseholders -- that would be me and Lucas -- will be evicted ourselves.
` And another thing, I don't know how we'll pay rent, since Lucas refunded Brad just before he called the cops on us, and Goziña also won't pay, so we basically have two rooms occupied by squatters, thereby preventing us from moving in folks who will pay the rent!

Speak of the devil -- here's some resolution! Still parked in the street near the crackhouse we used to live in, just after Johnny got into his newly-fixed car and drove off to visit his mom in the hospital, Lucas got a call from Steve the landlord, who said he can give us a discount on rent! Whee! Maybe we can pull through!

When we got back home, Steve Goziña was also in a good mood because he found the 18-pack of beer that we all thought had disappeared a month ago. Perhaps at the time Steve had tried to hide it but was too drunk to remember?
` In sad news, Johnny's mom is going to a hospice, and he is understandably upset. As far as Lucas and I go, we probably won't be able to stash our valuables at Johnny's brother's house while we are staying in the hotel.

It's now many hours later, 4 o'clock, and we've changed our plans -- we're no longer going to stay in a hotel room. Basically, we're in the parking lot at the gym, at which I watched part of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince while on the exercise bike, and Lucas and Steve the landlord are plotting our 'escape' from Brad, Char and Steve Goziña.
` You won't believe this -- Steve the landlord has changed his plan from evicting Brad and (and Steve, for that matter) to pretending to evict all of us so that their attacks will stop! It's a good thing that Lucas, Johnny and I are such good actors!


December 17, 2009:

So, back to last night; we were waiting to be served our fake ten-day eviction notice so we could make like we were moving out by Christmas.
` After running around town and exchanging our printer/scanner for one without paper stuck in it (apparently this is the only solution to resolving a paper jam, even though the machine worked just fine!), we were waiting to receive the notice late at night.
` But, as Johnny and Lucas had a gig to play at Tony V's, they didn't have time to wait any longer, though I was too asleep to go with them. However, they soon returned anyway because Tony V, who wasn't there, had apparently forgotten all about them, and the stage wasn't even set up!
` The ten-day eviction notice didn't come until today, and Goziña was bummed out by it. Unfortunately, he also said he's staying until the fifth of next month anyway! Dammit! How will we be able to continue living here beyond ten days without him knowing about it?
` In other news, Johnny got his cat Noll from his mom's house (as his mom will not be returning home), and now our cats are having an interesting time!

When Char came upstairs to wash out her cup, I told her -- in a completely neutral tone of voice -- that all of us were being evicted because of the domestic disturbances and police visits (which, I didn't add, she and Brad were solely responsible for), and she rolled her eyes and said with a sarcastic smile, "Oh well, it sucks to be you!"

Just like that! After all the hard work I've put into consoling her and being caring towards her, and empathizing with her side of things when others wouldn't, and she hears I'm about to be thrown out of my own house (for her bullshit, not mine!), and all she can say is 'sucks to be you'?
` She's never spoken to me like that before (and conversely, I've never spoken like that to her, either)! I've done everything to get on her good side and prevent her from ever hating me, but you know, I think she's hated me all along anyway!

Why the sudden change? I have an idea; as of yesterday, she's had an apartment to move into where she won't ever see me again, so now she doesn't want to pretend she doesn't hate me and won't even be civil with me!
` Let me tell you, if this had been a real eviction for us, I would have probably smacked her bitch-ass face, and I've never smacked anyone except in an emergency! I mean, what a bitch! Can you believe that? I'm telling you, she doesn't act like a human being! She acts like... my dad!

After my daily trip to the gym (during which I saw more of The Half-Blood Prince), Brad came home and Lucas told him the news as well.
` Brad, who isn't a psychopath (but has a tendency to be manipulated by them to the point where he's nearly been murdered), didn't even say anything, which is good; I mean, what is he supposed to say? "I'm sorry my mind games got you kicked out of your house"?
` As long as he doesn't feel resentful any more, that's all that matters, because getting him (and Goziña) off our backs is the whole point of this fake eviction.


December 18, 2009:

I've been rearranging furniture and appearing to pack up my stuff. I am way past feeling weird for tricking these folks into thinking we're in the same boat as them. I've never tried to start a conflict with anyone in this house, so I should not have to put up with being attacked for other people's insecurities.
` Luckily, Steve is always nice towards me, and Brad has been subdued since yesterday. However, the root of this whole thing, Char, is a different story; she's genuinely crazy and needs to go. Preferably to a padded room.

And today, after months of living in the same house as me, she finally blew up at me... though she was also angry at the time.

And to think I've been nothing but understanding towards her and her frustrations whenever she came to me with them, like the time she got pissed about something to do with broccoli and threw a knife in exasperation (luckily not at anyone).
` I have even let her pick out a couple of my psychology books to read because it interests her, though thankfully she forgot about them and left them on the kitchen counter.
` I've always acted like I was on her side, thinking that as long as I didn't try to correct her or help her like Brad and Lucas have (resulting in most explosive fights!), she might not get impatient with me.
` As I found out yesterday, her 'vulnerable' state is apparently also an act, and my sympathy only enabled her to get away with being more bitchy towards me than ever. But then, what was I supposed to do? Be screamed at for disagreeing with her?

Luckily she spends most of her time in her room, so I don't see her but once a day. Yesterday's interaction with her was the "sucks to be you" thing, and that was it. But today, she actually directed her anger towards me. Granted, she was already angry.
` Lucas and Johnny were at the store, when Johnny called me and said to put Noll back in his room. I was just doing that when she approached me with a letter from Social Security, and demanded, "Who got the mail?"
` I said I didn't know, not at all liking to be trapped with her in a narrow hallway.
` She said; "This was on the table downstairs, from two days ago, and no one told me!"
` "Okay," I said, trying to scrutinize the meaning of this. Was that time-sensitive mail, or was she being a time-sensitive female? Seriously!
` Then she showed me that the letter was sealed with quite a bit of Scotch tape. "You don't just send letters taped up in the mail," she said. "It would be nice if I could speak to Lucas about this."
` "Okay..." I said, as the meaning of this began to register.
` "I'd like to speak with him immediately, if possible."
` "Oh," I said, "he's at the store right now."
` "Well, doesn't that just figure?" she growled as she turned and stormed back out of the hallway.
` So I called Lucas about this and he said he had brought in the mail, though he thought she was making up the thing about the tape until I told him I saw the tape myself. In any case, he said, she was just trying to make trouble, and advised me to call the police if she did anything crazy.
` So, I went downstairs, where she was on the phone with her mom, freaking out over how this could have happened. Who had done it?
` I almost walked away, but in light of the fact that she really does hate me, she might decide that it was my doing, so I decided to tell her the truth. Finally, I got her attention and said, through the crack of her door, "Hey Char, I called Lucas and he said he was the one who brought in the mail the other day."
` "Ha! I knew it!" she exclaimed, sending chills up my spine.
` I quickly tried to add, "I've gotten mail taped up like that too," but all I managed to get out was "I've," before she said, "Excuse me, I'm talking to my mom."
` "I'm just trying to say," I said, and the rest of my sentence was blocked out by her screaming, "I didn't ask to talk to you!" and she literally slammed the door in my face!

And to think she had confided in me and I had been friendly towards her when she pulled this crap on other people and then spun it so that it seemed like they were being unreasonable! I might have tried getting her to ask questions about all this, but there's no way in hell I was going to risk getting on that scary bitch's bad side!
` But, as it turns out, I have been on her bad side all along and she's never let me know until now! What a naive fool I've been all this time, and she probably thinks the same!
` It's like the story of the frog who lets the scorpion ride on its back; the scorpion stings the frog, and both animals drown! I guess the moral of the story is; it's dangerous to be accepting of people who think it's okay to be assholes, because then they're going to think they can do it to you, too, no matter what the cost!
` Only thing is, I'm not supporting her anymore, so she can sting away and it has no effect whatsoever on her!

So; anything positive happen today? Well, as a matter of fact, I later on went to the gym and they were having a Christmas party, so I partook in the veggies, cheese, cookies, nuts, apple cider, and eggnog. There was also water with lemon slices and water with cucumber and strawberry slices, and I was tempted to fill my water bottle up with them, but decided against that.
` Plus, when I finally got upstairs I found that The Half Blood Prince was playing once again, and managed to see the exact hour I had missed in between the parts I'd seen at the beginning and at the end. So, in my roundabout way, I've seen the whole movie!


December 19, 2009:

Poor Johnny. His mom has been in a coma for the past few days and is hovering around death. His entire family is taking up practically the whole floor of the hospital, which has been kind of a hassle for the employees.
` It seems they won't be clogging up the place for very long.

How about something not depressing?

Instead of Harry Potter again at the gym, I turned on my mP3 player and listened to, I think it was, episode 114 of the podcast Skepticality, where Derrick and Swoopy were interviewing the hosts of another skeptical podcast called Monster Talk.
` Not surprisingly, they were talking about how sensationalist TV shows like MonsterQuest don't allow serious scientists who actually study phenomena like Bigfoot and Nessie to ever say more than one or two sentences because (shocker!) those shows manufacture mysteries (e.g. "no one can explain this!") in order to rope in more viewers.
` They're just trying to make a buck, but in a way, it makes no sense: How is it that the Discovery family of TV channels that profess to be associated with science and history make stupid shows about monsters and the paranormal and then don't let actual scientists get involved? Why would they do that?

One of the hosts of Monster Talk was relating one of the experiences he'd had being interviewed for an episode of MonsterQuest. This one was about El Chupacabra, something he knows a lot about.
` He spoke with Joe the producer about using all this material he had on the subject -- presumably things like known information of what all known chupacabras are discovered to be, like dogs and other animals -- but they didn't even acknowledge it on the show!
` Not only that, but two scientists who were similarly ignored on MonsterQuest were later interviewed on Monster Talk and this time were able to tell the listening audience about what they didn't get to say about extinct animals and genetic analysis, which were their fields of expertise!

These are only the three most recent cases of tons more I've heard from experts in trickery, psychology, earth sciences, etc. who have similarly face the problem of sensationalist shows not acknowledging all the documents, videos, etc, they bring with them, and editing their hours of interview footage down to what's called 'token skepticism' of only a few seconds of sound byte that is specially selected just to make them look like an ignorant ass.
` It is this treatment of such experts that used to make me think they were indeed ignorant asses, but this is merely what the makers of such shows want you to believe, so that you view the commercials on their station. That's what commercial TV programming is, really, just filler to get you to the next commercial!

Come to think of it, this is still depressing stuff!

Now, I don't expect most people to care about such biases in the entertainment industry (well, it's not like they're called the education industry), but this treatment of people who know a subject back and front, but can't be represented in credulous entertainment TV because they basically know too much, is rather disturbing to me.

So, after the gym, I was going to make some spaghetti for the both of us, but poor Lucas was so painfully hungry (being on a diet and all) that he couldn't wait long enough, so we wound up in the drive-thru at Taco Bell.
` Basically, this crazy woman in the dorky square vehicle in front of us took literally fifteen minutes just to order three tacos, while Lucas laughed at her for evidently having some kind of mental problem, then began twitching and finally honked his horn, which had no effect to her rambling and rambling on. It was just... incomprehensible.
` Then after paying for four items, it wasn't until we got home that we found only three in the bag. Lucas was too hungry to be pissed for long, though.

Well, I'd say that's sad, maybe pathetic, but not quite depressing. That's good enough for now. It's eleven o'clock, so I predict that there will at least be nothing more to make this day worse.