Tuesday, May 22, 2007

My contributions to the decline of civilization...

So I am thoroughly embarrassed about me recent dlisted reading habit. I don't even know who half the people are and yet I feel the need to read about their lives? Or, more accurately, about the paparazzi stalking said people. I kind of feel as though I'm contributing to the downfall of civilization. It's like the department of American environments in White Noise where there are professors who read nothing but cereal boxes, and talk about whether they've ever brushed their teeth with a finger and where they were when James Dean died. And frankly, feeling like a character from a Don DeLillo novel? Not so fun.

But anyway, I was reading dlisted at work today and followed a link to Passive-Aggressive Notes from Roommates, Neighbors, Coworkers and Strangers and thought it was hilarious. In part because we all have experience with the writing or reading of such notes.

I went to NYU where they have what they call "apartment-style housing." Essentially you share an apartment with 3 or 4 other people. Freshmen year of college we had a very messy suitemate who, in addition to never doing the dishes, would leave apple cores and knives covered with Nutella etc. on the table cloth. And of course, since there's so few of you sharing the kitchen you always know exactly who the criminal was. But we, being essentially non-confrontational, would leave very general notes. And it's funny how your personality comes out in notes. Mine were always, "Hey guys, our kitchen is GROSS! Let's try to keep it a bit neater." My then-roommate would use cute little sayings like, "Cleanliness is Godliness and our kitchen feels like a sinner."

This was nothing for her, as she also once used what we thought was the messy suitemate's grater to exfoliate her feet. As we found out when we warned our other suitemates not to use it, the grater in fact belonged to Wendy. Thus it ended up in the garbage and Lorraine felt rather bad about grating her feet with Wendy's grater. It was a thoroughly bungled (but very funny) exhibition of passive-aggression.

Also funny, Slate has a photo-essay about lolcats.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Dlisted is something I shamefully read as well...not so often,
and not for very long. But sometimes when my internetting comes to a standstill.

At least it's not Perez Hilton ^^;;;;;

Your apartment was really nice-looing from what I can remember! I wonder which roommate it was ^^;;

Anonymous said...

My roommate from Senior year at NYU used to paint with tempera paints. Guess what she used to dry her brushes after washing them off in the bathtub? That's right. My bath towel. We lived in Alumni and our schedules never overlapped (and she didn't really speak English) so I never confronted her. I just suffered in silence. It was terrible. And that's my story.

Meg said...

Pookie, that is horrible. I don't know what I would do. Well, I would probably whine a lot but I don't know what else I would do. My current roommate (the Wendy whose grater was abused) says that if that had happened to her she would have left her towel on said roommate's bed with a nasty note saying it was now hers and then taken the roommate's towel (although she wouldn't have used it). She would then have kept her own towel hidden away. I'm glad I've never sullied one of her towels as it is clear that she would take such an infraction quite seriously.


Nat, I don't know if you ever met the messy one because we kept v. different schedules and didn't keep in touch with her after freshman year. She's the one who later in the year became suicidal (because she was bipolar not because we were mean, let me point out) so I'm sure I've told you about her before. That situation was both a literal and figurative mess. She was very nice though. Just obnoxious.

Oh yes, Wendy says to tell you that she's started reading the Kushiel books and is liking them very much thus far.