Craziness

I want to tell you about my fun afternoon and my *really* *cool* new iron (and dream measuring cups! and an ironing board too!), but after my friends left I had a nap, then went to my moms, and arrived back to craziness. So I'll tell you about the craziness, then do dishes and make banana muffins (dead bananas *need* dealing with, and dishes must be dealt with first)... and if there's time after that I'll tell you all about my nifty iron.

So. Anyway. I came back here sometime around 7:15 or 7:30 to see my neigbour, J, cleaning up the hallway, and the hallway stinking. Apparently someone must have left one of the doors unlocked (I noticed the back one unlocked when my friends left at 3:30, but didn't lock it in case someone had left it that way to let a friend in... we don't have a buzzer system here), because my neighbour had discovered someone who didn't belong in the building up on the third floor (our floor). He was making a racket and wandering around. She got C to ask him to leave, which he did, but he left a large beer can (filled with paint thinner, or something) and scraps of fabric that he had been ripping off his coat. Eeep!!!!

I went and called the landlord, M,... to let him know, and because it really should be the caretaker cleaning, not my poor neighbour. Well, I got M's girlfriend, so I asked her to call M and get him to call me. I relayed the story of the sniffer to him, and also that J has been cleaning up the muddy hallways, not the caretaker, and that I feel badly for her. (The caretaker is the one being paid, not J... and it's not that she's overly fussy, either. The stairs have been getting mucky enough that I've been tempted to clean them, but haven't because I feel that's part of why I'm paying rent.) M called the caretaker (who, although he came out to talk to J, didn't even offer to *help* her mop) and then me. I suggested that he think about installing some sort of buzzer system, if nothing more complex than remote-operated doorbells.

Well, we all stood out in the hall talking about it, and explaining what happened to other tenants who wandered through (over half the building knows now, but none think they were the one to leave the door unlocked), and we *all* left J to clean up the mess. I feel so bad for her, and I feel like shit for not offering to help, but I also know that it's the *caretaker* who should be doing this! (The caretaker who didn't even answer his door when J knocked and rang his doorbell... yes, he's hard of hearing, but not *that* hard of hearing, at least that I can tell when I talk to him.)

Well, I'm going to offer her some of the muffins when (if) I finally get them baked tonight... assuming it's not to late when that happens.

*gah* This (basically everything about this event, from the cleaning, to the unlocked main doors) is one of those things I hate about being a renter.

Well, I should get to those dishes so that I can offer J some chocolate chip banana muffins. *sigh*

PS: No, J didn't call the cops. She should have... the situation could have been dangerous, and perhaps the cops would have taken the guy somewhere where he could detox, instead of him being out on the street, possibly causing problems for someone else, and possibly ending up dead in a snowbank!

GAH!!! (I needed to get this off my chest. Okay, *now* to those dishes...)