where's the meat?
Sep. 9th, 2002 02:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katsterI haven't been posting a lot. I've really not sure of what to say, and I've had a lot on my mind.
My mother's coming tomorrow, to bail me out again. I swore this wasn't going to happen again, but this is before I ended up with Kai as a roommate. Yeah, it's a long story. I guess I'd better introduce my roommates first, so you can sorta understand why this is a problem.
I live in a four bedroom apartment at the corner of College and Durant in Berkeley. This means I have three roomates.
Here's a rough drawing of the place. It's not completely to scale, but yes, the A+B bedrooms are bigger than the C+D bedrooms. Sorry for the size, but it helps the image make sense.
In Room A lives Jesse. Jesse is a graduate student in astronomy and a quadrepeligic. Right now, his sister Julie lives with him, but she's planning to leave any day now. That's already a sticky situation. Yes, he has attendants, but they're not here all the time, so guess who responsiblity for feeding him at times can drop to? And we're supposed to interact with him all the time, which is fine, but it's something I can't be doing all the time, and I feel like I have to put my own studies and my own health secondary to him. Yes, I'm cool about people in wheelchairs, but it's, well, it's hard to live with it and the depression speaking slowly in the back of my head, "That could be you, y'know. If you'd jumped out of that window freshman year and hadn't managed to kill yourself..."
In Room B is Alexie. Alexie is great. I like to talk to her. She's working on a Ph.D in chemistry. She is also afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis. She's very much the introvert, and I have to go to her room to interact with her, but she's great if you catch her and want to talk. Of my three roommates, I like her the best.
The disability office on campus isn't happy about the makeup of our suite. They think Housing stuck all the disabled students together, which is a big no. And then you add in a volitile chemical...
In room C is Kai. Kai is studying optometry (he wants to be an eye doctor.) He's supposed to be on anti-psychotics but refuses to take them, because he insists he's normal. Well, okay, except he's obviously not normal. He spent one night pacing back and forth in front of my door. He often goes multiple nights without sleeping. He insists that we have to tell him to clean up after himself. This is the guy who decided he was going to make eggs, put a pan on the stove, wandered off to his room, and then wandered out the door to the apartment, leaving the burner on. I chewed him out for it, and he then proceeded to do it again. I don't feel like I'm being listened to when I talk to him, and he nearly managed to push me into a suicidal depression one night, which was not a lot of fun. He's also told me that my (mostly working, believe it or not) stabilizer is only putting money in the coffers of the pharmecutical industry, and that his roommates provide cheaper therapy than the professionals.
Oh yeah, it's just a barrel of laughs sharing a corner and a bathroom with him.
I live in room D. You all know me, from reading my journal, and ye know that I'm manic-depressive. I don't hide it. Between the demands being made on me for Jesse, and the way Kai is acting...
Well, we'll see. I think I'm going to move out at some point real soon, this is getting really serious.
*sigh* At least Luns offered, if I can break the lease, to try to find an apartment with me, either in Berkeley or in one of the nearby cities.
So that's what's been on my mind. Help, if you can see any, is welcome.
o/~ wherever I have gone/ wherever I've been and gone/ wherever I have gone/ the blues have run the game... o/~
My mother's coming tomorrow, to bail me out again. I swore this wasn't going to happen again, but this is before I ended up with Kai as a roommate. Yeah, it's a long story. I guess I'd better introduce my roommates first, so you can sorta understand why this is a problem.
I live in a four bedroom apartment at the corner of College and Durant in Berkeley. This means I have three roomates.
Here's a rough drawing of the place. It's not completely to scale, but yes, the A+B bedrooms are bigger than the C+D bedrooms. Sorry for the size, but it helps the image make sense.
In Room A lives Jesse. Jesse is a graduate student in astronomy and a quadrepeligic. Right now, his sister Julie lives with him, but she's planning to leave any day now. That's already a sticky situation. Yes, he has attendants, but they're not here all the time, so guess who responsiblity for feeding him at times can drop to? And we're supposed to interact with him all the time, which is fine, but it's something I can't be doing all the time, and I feel like I have to put my own studies and my own health secondary to him. Yes, I'm cool about people in wheelchairs, but it's, well, it's hard to live with it and the depression speaking slowly in the back of my head, "That could be you, y'know. If you'd jumped out of that window freshman year and hadn't managed to kill yourself..."
In Room B is Alexie. Alexie is great. I like to talk to her. She's working on a Ph.D in chemistry. She is also afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis. She's very much the introvert, and I have to go to her room to interact with her, but she's great if you catch her and want to talk. Of my three roommates, I like her the best.
The disability office on campus isn't happy about the makeup of our suite. They think Housing stuck all the disabled students together, which is a big no. And then you add in a volitile chemical...
In room C is Kai. Kai is studying optometry (he wants to be an eye doctor.) He's supposed to be on anti-psychotics but refuses to take them, because he insists he's normal. Well, okay, except he's obviously not normal. He spent one night pacing back and forth in front of my door. He often goes multiple nights without sleeping. He insists that we have to tell him to clean up after himself. This is the guy who decided he was going to make eggs, put a pan on the stove, wandered off to his room, and then wandered out the door to the apartment, leaving the burner on. I chewed him out for it, and he then proceeded to do it again. I don't feel like I'm being listened to when I talk to him, and he nearly managed to push me into a suicidal depression one night, which was not a lot of fun. He's also told me that my (mostly working, believe it or not) stabilizer is only putting money in the coffers of the pharmecutical industry, and that his roommates provide cheaper therapy than the professionals.
Oh yeah, it's just a barrel of laughs sharing a corner and a bathroom with him.
I live in room D. You all know me, from reading my journal, and ye know that I'm manic-depressive. I don't hide it. Between the demands being made on me for Jesse, and the way Kai is acting...
Well, we'll see. I think I'm going to move out at some point real soon, this is getting really serious.
*sigh* At least Luns offered, if I can break the lease, to try to find an apartment with me, either in Berkeley or in one of the nearby cities.
So that's what's been on my mind. Help, if you can see any, is welcome.
o/~ wherever I have gone/ wherever I've been and gone/ wherever I have gone/ the blues have run the game... o/~
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Errr...
Date: 2002-09-09 09:48 am (UTC)At worst, if Mr. Won't-Take-Meds-Boy does the stove thing again, I'd call security and say I was afraid to live with him. Or the pacing-all-night thing.
See, when I was a counselor at a 1/4-way house, we had a rule. You go off your meds and cope, ok, fine, stay off them. Go off and decompensate, you go back to the hospital. It was a tough rule to follow sometimes, but people have to learn that no matter how horrid the side affects are, the meds are there for a real reason. Psychosis is NOT a condition treatable by abusing your roommates.
And part of interacting with Jesse is saying, "Jesse, I need to study now, OK?" It could be you, but it isn't, because you didn't. I'm not saying you shouldn't act like a decent, even loving human being to these people. It's just, you're not a TV set, you don't need to be "on" all the time...
Re: Errr...
Date: 2002-09-09 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-09 02:42 pm (UTC)If I were you, I would give Kai an ultimatum on behalf of yourself and the others to either take the meds or to leave immediately.
This is just a little helping thing for ya, so please don't bite my virtual head off.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-09 02:46 pm (UTC)