Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 10 (Thwarted at Trader Joe's)

My roommate and I spent a pretty hectic day cleaning and getting everything organized one I was able to figure out that the extra stuff in my room didn't belong to him. Apparently, his last roommate left a lot of stuff behind all over the apartment that I guess we are the proud new owners of. The apartment is actually quite lovely now. While I was going through all of my things, I came across a Visa gift card that some of my co-workers had given me as a going away present and I decided I would splurge on some bottles of wine since I had left all of my wine at home. I didn't want to bring it and risk having to keep it in my car where it might have gotten too hot.

So, Amber came by again, my unofficial guide to Marin County, so we could do some shopping and then catch a movie. We got to Trader Joe's, one of my most favorite places to shop, and we went through the wine section and I was trying to teach Amber about wines. It looked like they were out of that happy face wine, so I went to one of the cashiers and asked if they were out. He called over the manager and he said that they were out of it. I thanked him and kept shopping. We got to the register and the cashier, the same guy I had asked about the happy face wine, asked to see my ID. I was kind of surprised because I'm not usually carded. Then he asked to see Amber's. Amber is about 2 weeks away from being 21. I tried to explain that Amber had nothing to do with the wine; she doesn't even like wine and I was buying it for myself. He said that since he had seen her handling the bottles, he could not sell us the wine unless she was 21 as well. He called over the manager, the same manager I had asked about the happy face wine, and he said that they could not sell us the wine because I could be buying the wine for Amber. He told me that they had to go to meeting about it and that the term for it was "tag-along sale" as if telling me the term legitimized the ridiculousness of the situation somehow. As if I would EVER buy alcohol for a minor!!! I remember one time, some guys came up to my little brother Brian and asked if I would buy some for them, and he told them to not bother asking!

I had picked up some milk, lettuce and laundry detergent as well, but I just left everything there and walked out of the store cuz I was so pissed. Amber kept apologizing, as if it were her fault; I had to keep telling her not to worry about it. This is like the time I couldn't buy alcohol because my driver's license expired, as if my birth-date were suddenly invalid. The stupid thing is that I'm just going to go back tomorrow to buy all of it, so all they accomplished was wasting my time. I think the thing that pisses me off the most is how much I actually love Trader Joe's. If it was a different organization, I would just boycott it for the rest of my life, like Blue Cross or Citibank.

oh well...

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 9 (Bomb Components)

My first full day in the dorm:

Woke up to the bell tower ringing at 8:00 am. It either rings at random times during the day, or it rings every hour on the hour and I just seem to miss it somehow.

Had breakfast.

Started doing the dishes. Tried not to throw up when the smell from the rotting food and mildew assaulted my nose. This was when the elusive roommate showed up. He had been gone since last Monday, so basically a week. The rice cooker was on for a week!!! He apologized profusely and seemed very embarrassed. Apparently, he was not aware I was going to show up. He had to leave ten minutes after he showed up for an internship in Dublin, CA.

Wiped down the trash can.

Cut my hair.

Cleaned mildew out of the shower and pulled grimy hair out of the drain. It took about an hour. The grout was still black in some places.

Went on Amazon and bought the rest of my textbooks. $185.00 on my Visa debit card. Knowing that I was about to embark on my seminary journey, priceless.

Read the "Good News" version of the Book of Luke. It was harder to get through than "The Message" version, even though I really like the "Good News" version, but I imagine any version would seem to take longer than "The Message." The part that really hit me this time around was when the angel appeared to Mary and told her she was going to become pregnant with God's child. And, I loved the part when she went to go visit her cousin Elizabeth, who by then was six months pregnant with John.

Went shopping with Amber and bought hot dog, soda, chicken bake, mildew stain remover, bathroom mat, tacks, niacin, fish oil, cork board, key rings, oil paints, elastic string and metoprolol tartrate. The bomb will be finished in about an hour; Amber has been slaving away for three while I sprayed the shower stall and blasted the mildew away.

When we got back, my roommate had cleaned out the fridge and mopped the floor. I guess I'll keep him, LOL.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 8 (Pig Sty From Hell)

My parents and I got to the school early this morning, so I got a chance to show them around. I love how the school looks like Hogwarts; one of my friend's kids asked her if I was going to secretly become a gay wizard, LOL.

The school isn't big, the student body is only about 150 students. It's cool how you get to know everyone though.

My move-in time was 10:00. Two other students were here at the same time, but their move-in times were later, so I was shown my room first. When we had arrived, the door was already open, and we saw that it was a mess, so I was hoping when the person came to have me sign the lease, she would say there was some kind of mistake and bring me to a different room. It was the right room. *sigh*

I didn't get a chance to really look at the room until we had unloaded my car and my parents left. Amber showed up right when we started and helped bring everything in. As I started to unpack, I realized it was going to be a lot harder than I thought. One of the first things we did was open the refrigerator because we had some food to put away. There was a large area f mildew growing on the bottom and it smelled really bad. Something had been splashed on the door and had dried up orange and sticky, and the expiration date on the milk was 7 days ago.

Then, I had to throw something away. Had to shut the garbage can real quick because of the smell that came out of that sucker. I noticed the sink was full of dishes and after piecing all of the little clue together, Amber and I came to the conclusion that this guy had been away for some time. She noticed some grains of rice on the spoon on top of the rice cooker and, not being from an Asian family, thought that was gross. I kind of laughed it off until I realized what the inside of the rice cooker might look like if my roommate had indeed been gone for a while. We backed off of the rice cooker and I slowly opened the lid, fearfully expecting a pot full of grey mold. The damn thing was still on! The rice inside was hot and dry and had turned brown and hard from being cooked for so long! We're lucky the whole building hadn't burned down! I quickly unplugged it and we looked around some more. The apple peels in the sink looked fairly fresh, so it was possible he had left that morning, but who knows? The toilet was filthy and there was black scum coating the drain in the bathroom sink.

Dinner time came, and I started to get hungry, so I thought about heating some food in the microwave. Fully prepared for what I would find, I opened the microwave and proceeded to clean it for about 20 minutes; there was no way I was going to heat up my dinner with old food splattered all over the place and cooked onto the glass turntable inside. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little...

It's almost midnight and this guy still hasn't shown up. God only knows when he'll finally make an appearance. Michelle, the person who had me sign the lease, told me she thought he was going to move out soon. I hope she's right.

I'm going to tackle the dishes and the fridge tomorrow. Please pray for me all of you out there O_o