Fear

A Letter to Pascale

Pascale is the RA of my dorm.

Seeing that Katie will most likely be the first to approach you concerning the new events, I thought it fitting to give you a written statement so that you could hear my side of the story as well.

On Friday morning I woke up at around 6:45 am and proceeded to prepare for my morning routine (showering, getting dressed, etc.) I then noticed that it was raining and so decided that I wasn’t going to walk that morning, and would therefor remain in the room until 8:15. This apparently was my mistake, because I shouldn’t have been awake in the same room where Katie was sleeping.

I had a sore throat that morning and decided I was going to have a cup of tea before heading over to the dining hall. This we will refer to as ‘error #1’. I put a cup of water in the microwave and let it run for a minute (by now it was 7:35 in the morning, a perfectly reasonable time of day). Apparently the soft humming of the microwave was too loud for Katie, because she awoke and had a small tantrum, re-arranging all of her things. She demanded “You couldn’t wait?!”. Now at this point I said something that I do admit was rather rude, because I was rather put out at being jilted out of my normal morning activities. At any rate I wasn’t going to stop the cup in mid-nuke to please her, as the damage had already been done so it would have been pointless to sacrifice the finished product. So I said to her “Why should I have to?” When what I really meant was ‘How long would you have had me wait, I need to be at work-study at 9:00’. Katie, of course, didn’t respond well to this abrasive remark and began roughly preparing to take a shower, slamming her things around angrily. I finished making my tea and sat down on my bed to read. I later went to breakfast and then work-study.

I returned at 11:15 to find Katie in the room watching TV. I said “Hi, I didn’t expect to see you, I thought you had PLS today.”
No response.
I said “You don’t have PLS today?”
No response.
I said “Hello, Katie, can you hear me?”
No response.
“Earth to Katie, hello, Katie??”

No response. I waved my hand in front of her face, by this time having realized that she was giving me the silent treatment. After several more attempts to get her attention, I happened upon the brilliant idea of standing between her and the TV, hoping that she’d acknowledge me enough to ask me to move. She didn’t ask me to move, she stormed out.

I didn’t see Katie for the rest of the day, but later found out that she had a track meet and so didn’t worry about it. I hung out at East village with my friends, Jen and Nicole, and then went to a movie with Jen and returned at about half-past midnight. The TV was on and Katie was still giving me the silent treatment. I picked up a book and read for a while at somewhere around 1:15 I asked “Hey, how about you turn the TV off at 1:30?” No response. Over the course of the next several minutes I mentioned it several more times, to make sure that she got the message. 1:30 came and I asked her to turn it off. No response. I then informed her that if she wouldn’t turn it off, then I would. For the first time that day she spoke to me, saying, “Why should I?” She went on to explain that ‘Now I knew what it felt like when I woke her up in the morning’ and ‘banged my stuff around’ and that I should stop ‘deliberately making noise to wake her up.’

It was at this time that I realized her TV-watching was a form of revenge to me for waking her up with the microwave. Because I woke her up in the morning, she was going to make sure that I wouldn’t sleep that night. I was in no mood for childish games of silence and revenge, so I did what I thought would end the whole situation most quickly. I turned off my power strip, to which most of the things in our room are attached. At this point she stormed out to loudly chat with a friend about me in the hallway. They made several snide remarks about me being a psycho (said friend dislikes me because I reacted badly one day when I walked into the room to find her using my computer without my permission, having gotten permission from Katie.). I couldn’t help but overhear them, because they were very loud and I don’t own ear plugs.

I was awakened at 2:30 AM by the sound of MSNBC blasting loudly from the TV. At this point I realized she wasn’t going to turn it off, so I asked her to turn it down. That seemed fair, even by her reasoning. She wanted me to be quiet in the morning, but didn’t ask me to stop doing what I needed to do. I wasn’t going to ask her not to watch TV at night, but to listen quietly. Her reply? “Why should I?”

It being 2:30 in the morning and me being just a tad irate by this time, I couldn’t formulate in my mind an answer that didn’t involve screaming and curse words. So I just rolled over, wrapped the pillow around my head, and tried to go back to sleep. After a while I said a few things that I regret now, out of anger. Mostly childish revenge devices that I have no intention of carrying out (not allowing her to use my refrigerator, microwave, or power strips, for example). I eventually fell asleep to the loud drone of her TV.

The time is currently 9:15 AM on Saturday, and I’m afraid I’ve woken Katie up once more by typing this document. I won’t print it until at least noon, because I recognize that printing is a loud and often annoying sound.

I hope there’s some way that we can resolve this situation, but Katie refuses to speak to me in anything more than curt complaints and snide remarks now, and she has her heart set on getting a new room and/or room mate. I hope to speak to you soon, but in all fairness you should hear Katie’s statement before we all speak together because I’m sure she has some things to say to you that she wouldn’t want me to hear, and I’ve already given you my personal point of view.

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