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I Had a Roommate From Hell

Tonight I had an upset stomach, can't sleep. Looked for the various over the counter upset stomach remedies I keep around for when this happens which is very occasionally.

After tearing everything apart, I realized the truth, which I have just begun to get used to:
My roommate had stolen all my stomach medicine.

I really wanted to find him and tell him off. But I can't. He's dead. He died a couple of months ago.

After he died, the manager of our rooming house unlocked his room and found his crack pipe.

That explained a lot.

Over the last couple of years, I've been fighting a chronic illness. It has made me, a 74 year old woman, feel like I've aged at least 10 years. It has focused my mind on getting old and not being able to do a good job of taking care of myself. So...when my stuff turned up missing, I blamed myself, called myself an old fool, cursed myself for getting mixed up ("I thought I put that on my shopping list last week! Must've forgotten it.") I kept believing it had disappeared into my clutter, or I had somehow lost it, or left it off the shopping list.

No matter how many times I bought things like tin foil, olive oil, razor blades, baking soda, mouth wash, bandaids, tooth paste, and...stomach medicine like Alka Seltzer...they disappeared and I blamed myself.

For a while I even got depressed about it, convinced I was on the verge of Alzheimer's or some kind of senile dementia and soon to be bundled off to a nursing home.

Then my crackhead roommate died, and it all unraveled. All that fear and self-blame lifted, and I felt so good I almost felt guilty it was such a blessed relief.

But the aftermath is that every so often I find I need something and realize it was stolen and I have to replace it. And if it's something I really need right away, and it's late at night, I am stuck either going out and driving around looking for an all night store, or doing without it until I can replace it.

When you are older and need some kind of over the counter remedy, it always seems to happen late at night. It's hard to judge whether to go out and look for it while you are feeling ill (and I live in a small town without many all night stores), or just do without it and miss some sleep.

I've decided to stay home, stay awake with my upset stomach, post this to take my mind off it, and think of all the ways I would like to kill a dead man.

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trackboy · 22-25, M

why would you want a room mate??? 😺

greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

@trackboy I have no choice. I am retired and on a low income. I was illegally evicted from my long time apt home so the landlord could turn it into an AirB&B. (The other story I posted today was about our old neighborhood in court over this situation). The current housing shortage did the rest. I rent a room, carefully saving money for a down payment on a mobile home or trailer. I have 5 roommates; it's a very big house. To be fair, most of my roommates are OK, or at least not crackheads.

trackboy · 22-25, M

@greenmountaingal hmm and he got away with illegal eviction? did he pay off the city and county so they would not prosecute him??? wow housing shortage. why dont they build more houses then?? good rest of roommates are ok. I am happy living with parents. 😺

greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

@trackboy These big corporations that buy up buildings to turn them into illegal hotels are very rich. At my neighbor's trial the head of the city housing commission testified that the landlord was running an illegal hotel but the city and the housing commission don't have enough funding to fight this sort of thing. They often pick on the old and the poor who can't easily fight back. They served me, and a couple of years later, my neighbor, with eviction notices while we were in the hospital and could not respond to it within 3 days. That is illegal. But they get away with it.

trackboy · 22-25, M

@greenmountaingal wow just 3 days to respond??? no legal aid there? hmm must be big bribe to the mayor! 😺

greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

@trackboy Responding within 3 days works OK..
IF you get the notice. If you are known to not be there, like if you're in the hospital and the landlord knows that, it is illegal to post the notice until you are home and able to respond to it. But the problem is that once you've been evicted, YOU have to go to court and overturn the eviction which is expensive because you need an attorney, and, if you just got out of a hospital, very stressful. The burden of proof is on the tenant.

trackboy · 22-25, M

@greenmountaingal that really bites!!!!! tell them you never got notice as you was in hospital. 😺

greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

@trackboy If you have proof, you can do that. But...I did that. And I was about to win my case
But by that time I had spent thousands of dollars on the attorney, even gone into debt, had been going through a lot of other harassment by the landlord which I couldn't quite prove (examples: holes punched in all of my laundry, clothes, sheets, towels, on the clothesline, plant pots broken, noise outside window at 3:00AM), and all of it happening after a major illness plus in the midst of eye surgery, plus watching various neighbors go through similar stuff and in some cases worse...I decided it was best to accept the landlord's offer of settlement money and move. I needed to pay off the attorney and I needed to save whatever was left of my health and peace of mind. One of my neighbors had a nervous breakdown from all this and has been out of work now for 3 months. These giant corporations have teams of lawyers and they seem to know every trick. If they don't get you one way, they will just find a new way and keep trying.

trackboy · 22-25, M

sounds like attorney was just sucking up your money for doing nothing. all he had to do was present the dates you was in hospital. date you got the 3 day notice case closed. 😺

greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

@trackboy The attorney wanted $2000 more money which I didn't have so she dropped the case 24 hours before I was due to be in court! I wound up having to handle the the case by myself. I was about to win, but the landlord's attorney asked the judge for some time off. He offered me money to end the case. I had to do it because I needed to pay off the money I owed and by that time I needed to move because I knew they would continue to harass me.

trackboy · 22-25, M

@greenmountaingal attorney should have to work for five a hour just like associate degrees in electronics get with their college degree. 😺

greenmountaingal · 70-79, F

@trackboy It was frustrating to say the least. Some attorneys suck.

trackboy · 22-25, M

@greenmountaingal your lawyer was just into grabbing as much money as he could for as little work as possible. should report him to the bar association. 😺