Disclaimer: I am sure this will be pretty irritating to read. I'm having some domestic troubles, and I need to do some therapeutic writing. However, this writing is also powered by emotion and you may find my misfortune humorous.

Yesterday marked a momentous occasion. It was the day I fell ill with a touch of homesickness. I longed to live in my Beacon House with my pal Valerie and everyone else. I don't think that Meeko attacking my leg every time I entered the room in which he was present would have phased me. I say this because last night, Hurricane Meredith came ashore, and I was in the eye of the storm.

So last night, some of my friends and I were getting some ideas of places to travel to with our guide books and calendars. There was maybe six of us in the room at once. We had the door open and we were not sitting on her bed or anything. We were not eating or drinking in the room. All of the sudden, I felt the icy breeze of the Hurricane herself, with fiancee in tow, enter the room. She looked as if she just walked into the room and saw us engaged in a drunken orgy or some other activity worth getting upset over. She closed the door and we evacuated because it was awkward times in there. When I returned later, she had it out with me. "Rachel, that was ridiculous! Those people were all over the room! Dragging dirt in! With the doors open!" I thought we were just sitting and looking at our guidebooks and not causing any problems, but boy was I mistaken. Sorely mistaken! Then she went on and made me aware of all the other problems she had with me. I apparently am a slob. Granted I am not the neatest, I don't think I'm a total pig. Some of my messiness, is because I leave my things out because I don't want to make noise in the morning when I leave for my internship early in the morning anywhere from 5:00 AM to 8:00 at the latest and wake her. She accused me of "exposing all of my things" in my wardrobe. The reason I do that is because I don't want to open the door to the balcony to dry my towel wet from the shower because the door is right near her head and that would wake her. So I deal with a slightly moldy towel, but how repulsive of me to expose my things. Who would want to see my soap! Or my shoes! Gasp! So when she went to sweep, I said, let me do it, because she accused me of never helping her. And when I offered to help her, she said, 'No, you don't know how!' (because Ghanaians use this weird ergonomically-unfriendly broom, which you have to hunch over and probably cause all kinds of lumbar problems after frequent use.) So don't hold it against me! I told her. Ugh.

She also complained about how I always turn off the radio. Perhaps it didn't phase her ever that I am not a God-fearing Christian, and I do not want to hear gospel music 25 hours a day, including when I'm trying to sleep, and it doesn't stop unless the electricity goes out. But boy, when I wake up, I feel saved. Hallelujah!

Anyway, I have had two issues with her, and I have politely made my voice heard, although not much was done after my requests on her part in response. I just asked her not to put the key in the door so I could get in the room, and I have turned the radio off on occasion, but only when I'm trying to read or sleep. She has turned the radio back on in both situations. So in our argument, she held it against me. "You always turn the radio off when I have it on!" You mean, when I'm trying to sleep? When she came to live in the hostel, after arriving four weeks late, she said she was going to arrange the room how it was last semester. I said that was fine, but she moved my bed to the opposite side of the room, near the door where every door below me could be heard slamming, people in the hallway were heard talking, sweeping, the sun blinding me. It just was not pleasant and I did not get more than four hours of sleep each night I tried sleeping in this new arrangement. When I requested to change where my bed was, she acted as if I
asked to put her bed in the hallway, and her desk in the courtyard. Her fiancee told me, "Sometimes you just need to adjust." I should have known that was going to be how this whole experience was going to go. Yes, I need to adjust, because Meredith will not. So anyway, Meredith explained she liked having music on all the time and it wasn't bothersome last semester to her roommate because the room was arranged the way Meredith loved and the radio was closer to Meredith. I'm sorry, is it last semester still? I really apologize for not being able to sleep. And this is the best part. I can't remember her exact words, but she said that when I leave, I won't have to deal with the radio, and she will, meaning that all of my turning out is wearing out the on/off switch. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the radio on at all times. Actually, I haven't been using the switch. I've just been slamming the radio against the wall until it stops making noise, because I'm a pretty terrible person to live with. I have no respect for anyone really.

The worst part of this whole ordeal is that Meredith never once mentioned that she had any gripes with me. How unfair to explode at me without saying a word about anything. I felt terrible last night. I could feel my heart in my chest, my hands were shaking, and I felt nauseous. I left my room because her arguments were going nowhere and it was very clear that I am an unwanted guest in her room. I went to find my friends and they made me feel infinitely better. I am grateful to have me the people I know here. I just hate that I have avoid going to my room now because of the tension that saturates it. I am going to talk to my director to get a room change. There are some Drew University students moving out this week or next, and there are rumors of some single rooms being available. I just don't think it will be enjoyable for either of us to be in the same room. Any relationship we were developing has been mortally wounded by the events of last night. The way she talked to me last night and created the situation in the first place just won't fly with me. We have nothing in common and she seems like a spoiled brat that will have her way, or the highway.

On a more positive note, I received a card from my sister yesterday, and it could not have come at a better time. It certainly brightened my day. :-)

For those of you who sat through that, sorry. I hope you found some of it enjoyable. I feel a bit better. Enjoy your day.

PEACE.