postgraduationhaze

Its been a mighty rough day.

Piece this together:
Dear____

I am in a bit of a bind with my apartment, specifically, there has been problem after problem with this apartment, and the latest is that last night, I was chased out of my apartment by centipedes (no joke). There wasn’t 100’s but there were about 10 running out of my bedroom and a couple in the sink, one that I killed.

I don’t know what to do. My apartment is very, very clean (I actually pay monthly to have it professionally cleaned on top of my own cleaning that I do weekly) and I take my trash out regularly, don’t leave dishes or food in the sink—you get the picture.

I am staying at Sarah’s apartment tonight, (the building manager, who I called last night in a panic, is spraying my apartment today) and last night I spent the night in Naperville with another friend. I know that they’re just bugs, but I worry be/c a) centipedes typically only live where there is water…these were outdoor centipedes which means that somewhere in the building there is freestanding water be/c its not coming from my apartment. Even if they spray and I am having cleaners come again on Thursday, I can’t guarantee that the quality of the building will simply usher more centipedes in, regardless of how clean I have kept and am keeping my own apartment.

Among the centipedes have been these other problems:

The refrigerator broke and I lost a fridge full of food –the fridge was replaced, the food was not (not that I am trying to be petty but it was annoying);

The bathroom sink broke and leaked for weeks until they had someone finally repair it (at 630pm at night—when I came home from work, there was a man, dirt, and parts laying all over the bathroom and the hallway for about an hour);

The toilet periodically won’t flush (which I was told sometimes happens in the building);

There is a foul odor in the hallway which smells of a dead person which I have reported numerous times but it has only, in the best case scenario, reached a more mild stench; and

The radiators do not work properly; they’re very, very loud and only distribute heat in the bedroom and not the living room/kitchen.

So. Please let me know what the best step is for me. I am willing to let him take a month of my rent to get me out of this lease. I just feel like I would be a fool to continue to pay 695 a month for an apartment that is riddled with problems.



Thanks,
Cherie

---Then I researched the best route, legally, to get out of my lease before August, and then had a conversation with my landlord--

So by law I have to give him 30 days to make the repairs and if it isn’t fixed or solved by then I can say that I was “constructively evicted” meaning that I was pushed out of my apartment be/c my landlord didn’t do his job. I just got off the phone with him and tomorrow they are exterminating the entire building and researching where these bugs are coming from. They are also fixing the heat and also going to fix my toilet within a week. I told him that I was going to give him a month and if not, would pursue means of terminating my lease. So I feel better be/c I am doing this lawfully and also be/c he now knows what is really going on; I guess that the building manager doesn’t really tell him always. So anyway.



But then I realized that it'd be best to have records of this conversation:

Things got really ugly with my landlord. I called him back to get his last name and his mailing address and he started to tell me that he didn't think I was being straight with him and what did I need that for.

Excuse me?

I lost it, told him that was completely unacceptable and then he told me that these are minor problems.

Excuse me?

You aren't living with centipedes Mr. Keller so pardon my haste but this is wrong--you cannot treat me this way.

So I mailed him a letter (certified mail, return receipt) to ensure a) that this conversation about how this stuff is going to be fixed will actually be in writing if 30 days passes and nothing happens and b) to explain that I have a right to protect myself.

I am so angry right now. I cannot believe it.

Then I sent this letter:

March 23, 2005


RE: Apartment issues

Dear ___,

This letter is to confirm our conversation today regarding the concerns I have with the apartment I am renting from you at 809 West Lakeside Place, Apartment 102, Chicago IL 60640.

In the order of the priority of the issues I called you with today I will expect to have my apartment and the surrounding apartments and area sprayed for centipedes by tomorrow, March 24, 2005. The heating issues in the front room and kitchen will be dealt with and resolved within the next thirty days, and the flushing mechanism of the toilet will also be fixed within the next thirty days. I sincerely appreciate your help and attentiveness to these issues. Should you find any errors or inconsistencies with this list and/or timeline, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In regards to your trepidation to give me your last name and mailing address, I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable. That was not my intent. You are my landlord and that information is the least that I should be able to have for my own purposes. My living situation is of the utmost importance to me, and I am keeping records of the problems I have encountered to protect myself, which I feel is not only completely acceptable but also completely necessary for my own well being. It is not meant to intimidate or allude to anything other than just my own protection. This letter is simply meant to insure that our conversation will indeed lead to the outcomes promised. Although I wish I could simply take your word for it, I feel most comfortable knowing that, similar to the lease I signed, I have documents with regard to these additional issues.


Sincerely,






--Thats where I am at now. What an asshole. Will told me his landlord give them her contact information when she's on vacation.

I think this man knows I am not going to play aroudn with this and I want to get out of this and you can bet your life on it that I am not going to stay here any longer than I have to.

Another night bunking it with a friend. Sigh. The good news is that since this is a Christian office (I guess...) we get Good Friday off. So tomorrow = friday to me. Not like I have anything to do though.

besides watch for centipedes.

A special thanks to Jliz and Sarah for being hosts...time to go and get my hobo lifestyle on. Uh Huh.

So pissed still.

Posted by * at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

Living With Dignity
Heather Boushey
March 23, 2005
From tompaine.com


Members of Congress obviously value Terri Schiavo's life. After all, they called a special vote to make sure that her right to food would be protected. But what about all the other Americans who don't have food or health care—where's the congressional intervention for them? Heather Boushey of the Center For Economic and Policy Research questions if the debate over "dying with dignity" has overshadowed the larger question of why so many Americans don't have the basics to live with dignity.

Heather Boushey is an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.

On Friday, a woman in Florida went hungry. Hundreds protested and sent letters to Congress. Congressional leaders became so enraged that they have called a special vote to ensure that this woman is provided with food. Congressional intervention is necessary, they argue, because access to food is her “constitutional right.”

On Friday, a woman in Florida went hungry. No one protested. The Senate was so indifferent to her and her family’s hunger that they voted down a measure that would have prevented $2.8 billion in cuts to the Food Stamp program over the next five years.

While Congress has spent the past few days making heroic efforts to restore the feeding tubes to Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years, they have also been debating the federal budget. While Terri Schiavo’s case has sparked passion about her right to live ­and her right to health care and food­, there is no passion for the millions of Americans who go hungry every day or the millions more who lack access to basic health care.

President Bush cut his vacation short to return to Washington so he could sign into law legislation that would restore Terri Schiavo’s feeding tubes. Last month, President Bush proposed a budget to Congress that would cut the Food Stamp program by $500 million over the next five years, leaving more than 300,000 low-income people without food assistance every month.

The proposed budget includes large cuts in federal programs providing food, housing, education and medical assistance to low-income families. It includes cuts in funding to those with HIV/AIDS by $550 million over the next five years. It ends Housing and Urban Development’s 30-year pledge to produce accessible supportive housing for people with disabilities. It will leave 670,000 fewer individuals on the Women, Infants and Children food program by 2010.

The proposed budget would reduce Medicaid's budget by $45 billion dollars over the next 10 years, leaving an estimated 1.2 million fewer children with health care each year between 2006 and 2010. This will mean that in Terri Schiavo’s home state of Florida, 67,400 fewer children will have access to Medicaid each year. The Senate has acted on its conscience and rejected the president's proposed Medicaid cuts; however, the House has yet to do so.

These proposed budget cuts will have devastating effects on the ability of millions of families to meet their basic needs.

The Food Stamp program allows hungry families to purchase food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 11.2 percent of all U.S. households are “food insecure;” of these, 3.9 million households suffer from food insecurity so severe that they go hungry.

Last year, nearly 70 million Americans went without health insurance for some time during the year. Children were more likely to go without it than adults. Medicaid provides health insurance coverage for one in seven children. Since only half of all children (53.0 percent in 2003) receive health insurance from an employer-based health insurance plan, Medicaid plays an important role in ensuring that millions of children have access to the health care system.

Having access to health insurance can mean the difference between life and death. It's been estimated that more than 18,000 people die each year in the United States because they lack access to preventative health care services or appropriate care. Over the long term, those without health insurance have a 25 percent greater probability of dying.

The Schiavo case has sparked debate over what it means to die with dignity and raised moral questions about who decides when a person lives or dies. But the case should also spark debate over what it means to live with dignity.

Why is it that a woman who cannot speak and cannot move should not be denied her constitutional right to food and water, when every day, men, women and children go hungry—without a right to food? Why is Terri Schiavo’s case more important than theirs?

Congress wants you to know that they value Terri Schiavo’s life. This does not seem to mean, however, that they value the lives of millions of other Americans denied their constitutional rights to food and health care.

Posted by * at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

The" I shouldn't poke fun " Entry
Date: 22 March
Climate: still winter.
Eating: jellybeans
Drinking: diet coke
Feeling: meh
Listening to: All Things Considered
Watching: --
Reading:--

Okay so that last little cut and paste from Wonkette is very, very funny but its also quite a wake up call.

Talking with Julie about this last night, I was unfortunately prompted to remember my own mother's 3.5 month long coma/life support extravaganza during the summer before my senior year of college.

And this is what I have to say:
a) what is happening to this woman's family is extremely private and for all intents and purposes should have stayed that way;
b) my father was wrought with pressure from family members to make the right decisions as he had the power of attorney...my grandmother was crusading to do anything and everything to keep my mother alive, despite the outcome of what type of life she may or may not have IF she ever came out of the coma in any state that bore a resemblence to her old self;
c) I gather that these two parties are probably riddled with guilt over the fact taht they were unable to help this woman with her eating disorder which was the sleighride into this mess;
d) A parents concern will always be to protect and to ensure a childs life. Even if they're in their middle ages and the child is now a woman who has a husband who also loves her just as much as the parents;
e) A husband will no doubt be forced to look at what life will be life for their wife if they come out of this in one piece, and not in a segmented mental-physical relation where one part is "vegetative;"
f) You can bet your bottom dollar that the anti abortion right to life parade is next in this circus. Nothing is ever done in this extremely conservative administration without the foresight of Karl Rove, and with vacancies on the Supreme Court, they are merely prepping the country to move to the right with this "right to life" spin so they can usher in the abortion issue;
g) Since when did the US care so much about right to life? Oh wait, its selective right to life...don't kill the "babies" but cut the programs for the poor (leaving them to a "life" full of imbalances, inequalities, and injustices, but hey, they're alive)--sanction military officials to perform gross human rights injustices on people who they subjectively decide have less of a "right" to life than others based on their race, religious affiliation, and saddest of all, home country (iraqi prisoners anyone?)
h) I will never forget the humiliation, frustration, sadness, and pain my own mother went through in trying to recover from what happened to her. Yet I will never forget the sheer elation that we all felt when she came home alive and in one piece.

Posted by * at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

From Wonkette: love her.
Also check out life in the fishbowl

The Passion Of The Terri
It's the moment you've been dreading, that awful step you hoped would never come but feared was just around the corner: Mel Gibson has joined the fight over Terri Schiavo's life. Writes Gibson in a missive apparently intended to buck up the spirits of her supporters:

I fully support the efforts of Mr. & Mrs. Schindler to save their daughter, Terri Shiavo, from a cruel starvation.
Now, we don't want to question Gibson's commitment to all things fervent and Catholic. This is a man who made a movie in Aramaic and had to be persuaded to add subtitles by the studio, after all. But really, Mel, bubbeleh. A word of advice for the future. Next time you decide to throw your weight on the side of all that is good and holy, maybe you should a) spell the fucking woman's name right and b) not send your words of wisdom from Drago's Seafood Restaurant. Besides, isn't this all really the Jews' fault? — "JOE KLEIN"
Mel Gibson Speaks Out On Terri Schiavo Situation [TerrisFight.org]
Drago's Is Sizzling! [Drago's Seafood Restaurant & Oyster Bar]
[TerrisFight.org]

Posted by * at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments