Friday, September 26, 2003

"You never had a camera in my head." - Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank in The Truman Show

Is nothing sacred? Honestly. One thing I also miss when I live here is privacy. I have none! For instance, today I got a call from my good friend, Lamb. He got a new cell phone and I was the lucky first call. We are right in the middle of the call when my roommate comes in. I don't let it stop me, I just continue in my conversation. Soon, he finds my comments worth commenting on himself. I ignore him as I don't want to encourage such behavior. He still finds many things in my conversation interesting. I do admit, I have some well entertaining ones. My conversation ends, finally allowing my roommate the freedom to stop competing for my attention. He then tells me that he has another date tonight. To make me jealous or just inform me I am not sure. From what sounds like from my window I hear the voice of Romeo, a fellow RA. He can, and does, hear everything that happens in my room. I can't explain it well without a visual, but basically, we share a common window. The window starts in my room and runs along the outer wall and ends in Romeo's room. There is a wall that separates my room from his, but it stops at the window, making our rooms joined by about 4 inches on one end. He even passes things to me thru it sometimes. This time, he simply passed along his comments on both my roommates date of which I don't care and my conversation with Lamb which he shouldn't. Good thing we didn't discuss my plans to take over the world...
I live in a sort of clear bubble. Like Truman in the Truman show, only no one is trying to get me out.

In the infinite wisdom of the other RA's I work with, I seem to be the one stuck with most of the night shifts, and coincidently, with the following morning shift. Off at midnight, on again at 9am. Well, it's a living. At the end of the day, I am tired. I want to get to bed as soon as possible so I can squeeze in close to an actual 8 hours of sleep. I get home a couple of nights ago and find my roommate sitting infront of the lounge computer playing his usual cheezy yahoo internet games (hours on end). I mention my level of tiredness and desire for rest. He mentions to me that he would be asleep, but "what with all that African language, I couldn't get any rest." What was he talking about? I had no idea. I go into my room to find my tooth brush and begin the night ritual when I find a friendly looking African sitting in MY airchair, talking on the phone as casual as if he lived there. I grabbed my supplies (checked to see if my valuables were still there) and headed to the bathroom. On my way, I asked Roommate why he invited him in. I failed to realize that Africans are not like vampires, they can invite themselves in. So I go into my room and speak up, "Excuse me, uh...it's past midnight and we are not allowed to have visitors in our rooms after that. So I have to ask you if you can leave now. Thanks..." Not quite the richeous indignation that I felt, but it did get the job done. He looked at me, not in anger or hurt, but rather almost like he was taken off guard, like it was odd that a complete stranger would walk up to him and ask him to leave.
Further, last night I was granted the joyous opportunity to work late again. I really worked late. I got to my lounge at 1am. I get in and see the back of a head that I don't recognize. That sounds odd, since people usually only recognize back of heads as well as they do the back of their hands. (When was the last time you had to identify yours in a lineup?) As I start my night ritual, which now includes kicking people out, I come to find its the Mongolian!! The very same that held be captive weeks ago. You can read about that further down (mon, sept 8-entry 2). I asked him, "What are you doing here?"
"I was reading my email."
"Ya, I can see that. What are you doing here."
"uh," followed by stoned silence. I didn't know I could do that to him. Why didn't I ask him that last time?
"Well, It's 1am, and not only are you supposed to be in your room, but we are not supposed to have anyone in ours."
He looked confused.
"So, basically, you need to use your own computer in your own lounge when it's late. Or day time..."
More confused.
"So you need to go."
Confused.
"Now."
"I cannot stay here?"
I lower my head and shake it as a gentle sigh leaks out...

"In case I don't see ya, Good afternoon, good evening and good night." - Truman Burbank

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