Wednesday, March 28, 2007

what's more fun than pizza?

There's a David Sedaris quote I like to invoke from time to time and it goes, "You either have good experiences, or good stories."

Some background info: there are five of us in the flat: Nastasja, a nice, quiet, if somewhat humorless female German grad student; Eryn, a nice, friendly event planner; Chris, a bartender/musician and is probably best described as your prototypical frat-boy; Renee, a bartender/musician and former ballet dancer who is fairly serious about his music and whom I rarely see; and the there's me. Eryn and Chris are a couple.

As some of you may know, I've had some problems with a couple of these flatmates in the past weeks since moving in--loud arguments at 5am, loud sex at 3am, loud sex at 9am, loud Gun'N'Roses at all hours, etc. Well, last night we reached a new high or low. There was a raised voice argument (not shouting just loud talking) between Chris and Eryn. The argument was punctuated every 5 to 10 minutes by a door being slammed, feet stomping down the hall to the bathroom, and another door being slammed and more loud talking in the bathroom. And then there was the return slamming, stomping, and slamming back to the bedroom, and then again back to the bathroom, etc. This went on for 20 minutes or so. Then the Gun'N'Roses started. After a few minutes of Guns'N'Roses, I finally decided to get out of bed and say something. So I walked over to their bedroom, and pound a couple of times on the door. It opened. "What the hell is going on?!? It's 5am and I'm trying to fucking sleep here." Immediately Eryn apologized, while Chris slammed the door in my face. I quickly opened the door and start to say something, but before I really get anything out Chris burst through and gives me shove, yelling at me to never enter his room, to show some respect, and threatening to kick my ass. At this point, I've a hunch that the man has tossed a few back. Eryn is trying to hold him back and stop him from kicking my ass. Chris, I should note is about my height, but he has about 20 extra pounds of muscle on me, so I'm in no hurry for this to devolve into fisticuffs. He continued yelling things like, "Do you wanna go? C'm'on lets go!" and "I'll kick your ass right now!" To which I replied, "I didn't come out here to fight, I came out here to get you to be quiet so I could get some sleep! Have some courtesy for the people in this house." He then, still shouting, said something, to the effect of, "My girlfriend hates you. You don't even say 'hello,' to her when you walk in the house. Show some respect!" His girlfriend, meanwhile, told him to "stop it," and persisted at her attempts and keep him at bay while he continued his macho-chest beating, with further assertions that I should show some respect in his house, which I countered with the fact that is not his house, but rather we're all renting the space. The pinnacle of the exchange--for me at least--occurred somewhere in the middle of this when Chris threatened to kill me in my sleep.

It's not long after this that I asked him if he's drunk, which he denied, while Eryn nodded an affirmative. I then turned and went back to my room for some rest, which I eventually received, but only briefly because the construction started up around 7:30am.

Chris has since texted me an apology. I'm not particularly afraid for my life living in this flat, but I will say, that I don't have a lot love for it and subsequently don't spend a lot of time there. I get the feeling, based on this exchange that Chris doesn't like me very much, which is fine as I don't particularly like him. However, I don't feel I've had much opportunity to offend him--with the exception of tardiness in completing a couple of house chores that he seems particularly keen on people accomplishing on time--as I'm never really around.

In any event, all signs are looking good right now that I'll become a caretaker at 128 starting sometime in April, so my time in my current flat is coming to an end (fingers crossed). I should know by Monday for sure. I'm hoping to have a conversation with Chris and Eryn sometime soon so that we can clear the air a little bit. I'm not looking to be BFFs, but it'd be nice if we got some things out in the open while we're all calm and collected.

* * *

In happier, but less fun news, Brendan and I went out for pizza last night. It was delicious. We also had cake, which was also quite tasty.

4 comments:

brendan said...

yeesh... happy birthday to you, huh. Chris always struck me as a douche. Let me know if there's trouble again before monday.

Emiko said...

yeah, let brendan know. cuz he can kick chris' arse. 2 times, twice on sunday.

but wow, you've been having some time, eh? how come you never told me about it? i um.. would have offered you to sleep on our couch.... in japan... (ok. i feel bad. it's cuz i'm always yapping yapping yapping about me.. isn't it. it's always about me! again, i have managed to make the conversation about me.... )

hope you get your thing at the 128. but will you have a hot shower there??

see will, living with emiko is a breeze compared to somethings. you either come out with a good experience or a good story to tell. so true. take care, and lock your door?

ymathew said...

happy belated birthday, killer. what the hell is with those maniacs? buy some pepper spray, too.

ymathew said...

um, sorry. viewofscaffolding=snarkgirl. long story.