the last month has felt a bit more about domesticity than usual and it's a weird way of making one feel all. grown. up.
it all started with a broken clothes dryer. then it all went downhill.
dealing with adulthood day one: repairman comes, notes that he cannot repair the dryer.
day 2: jordon and i go out, looking to buy a new washer and dryer but, to our surprise, the sizes of said appliances have increased a lot since the last time they were purchased for my tiny home, making them way too large to fit through the door frames and staircase, hence impossible to install.
day 3: we're on a hunt for a smaller, european set of appliances, which we find out cost an arm and a leg. no luck in most places.
day 4: we stumble upon a set at best buy. alas, we think, we've been saved! we buy them immediately and wait for delivery. the house is filled with dirty sheets, underwear and dog sweaters.
day 5: best buy delivers the goods. the goods do not work.
day 6: go to best buy again, request a replacement. "sure," they say, "only that will be in a week and we'll take two days to deliver it." we go back and forth on the impossibility of getting it done in one day, they refuse to compromise. i say "fuck you" and just return the whole deal.
day 7: back on the hunt again. roommate calls to mention that the fridge is not cold. we get home and yes, the fridge has died.
day 8: food rotting, repairman arrives. fridge is better off replaced, he says, than repaired.
day 9: back to home depot. we find a fridge, a washer and dryer and drop close to two grand.
day 10: best buy comes and picks up their defected appliances.
day 11: home depot drops off theirs. door frames come off, everything is a mess. the laundry is in a pile that's bigger than our bed, and we have nothing to eat.
day 12: the washer is not working. really? really.
day 13: go back and forth with home depot on repair/replace the product. they give away all responsibility and tell me to call the manufacturer.
day 14: argue with general electric on why their shit breaks after one day. they agree to come and repair it.
day 15: ge does, indeed, repair the washer. finally. everything is working.
fifteen days. no laundry. no food. broken door frames. a million and one charges on my amex.
damn you bestbuyhomedepotgeneralelectric for making me feel so grown up.
for me, the fact that i couldn't come up with a single word to say in that instant is an anomaly. i'm incredibly outspoken, especially when it comes to women's rights and domestic abuse, but the moment i saw rihanna's face, bruised and swollen, all i could do is stare in a silence that frightened even myself.
it's been months since the image of a beaten rihanna was blasted all over perez hilton's blog, and she's finally speaking about it. although she's still a baby to me, the way she addresses what she went through and how it's impacted her is still pretty powerful. for anyone that's been in an abusive relationship, especially a relationship as difficult to get out, the sentiments she expresses ring very true. you can watch her interview here:
if only we can all just step out, see ourselves from a third person perspective, and run.
