Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2003
9th grade orientation, posted at 5:39 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today was a better day. It was the first day of the 9th grade orientation, and being in front of a group of young minds again was enough to get me in a good mood. Even though they were a bit scared and shy still, they still made me laugh with their hesitatation, their uncertainty, their openness. My session was entitled "Active Reading," and we went over the first page of Their Eyes Were Watching God and then a bit with their summer reading text, Of Mice and Men.It reminded me that I still want to be here in Baltimore, that I'm a genuinely happy person, and it was a necessary reminder. I've been feeling so down lately, ridiculously so, and it was a kick in the ass for me. I also reminded myself that I made $300 today. Even though I won't be seeing it for 2-3 weeks, it's still nice to know that some things are looking up. Of course, it doesn't help the $458 I need to renew my car insurance by Saturday, but I'm going to cross that bridge when I get to it.
I'm holding onto a lot of anger right now at my former roommate, a guy who I thought was a friend, who moved all of his stuff out when I was in Michigan. He gave me ten days to find a new roommate, apparently isn't paying utilities, and really screwed me over. I think I'm generally a good judge of character, and his treatment really suprises me, and it makes me even more angry because it was so unexpected. I want to do things that are so out of character, like going over to his work and keying his beautiful SUV that he make $500 payments on every month, or sending him a profanity-laced e-mail, or, hell, simply kicking his ass. Because I could. I won't, but I could. I'm not sure what I'll do. He still might pay something, so I'm worried about pissing him off too much at the moment. Maybe I'll write his parents a long letter explaining how he screwed me over.
Oh well, another learning experience: Never trust people. No, just kidding. But always get a deposit.
Luckily, roommate prospects are a plenty right now. Option one is a fresh-out-of-college girl from Wisconsin who would move into the place sight unseen, sending me the check and deposit first. She's got a 6-month internship at the National Aquarium. She sounds way young on the phone, but it might work out just fine. She's not a party girl, or at least she doesn't sound like it, and she loves dogs. Option #2 is a guy who came over today to look at the place. He's 32, lives/works in the city, and might work out nicely. He's gay, though, and I'm pretty sure my other roommate - with whom he'd be sharing most things - is homophobic. I seem to remember him using the "f" word once, and I know he's a bit racist (he says the phrase, "I'm not prejudiced, but..." which of course is the opening of every racist). I'm not great friends with this other roommate or anything, and don't want to enable his prejudices, but it's also not fair to just not tell him (especially this the guy double checked that it was okay with everyone living in the house). This is an interesting ethical dilemma that I'm not entirely sure how to handle.