Thursday, December 24, 2015

Racist Much?

Day 2 with my AirBnB Guest Jen: Same old, same old... long story about her black ex girlfriend who broke her heart. In case you're wondering, here's a reader's digest version of the story according to Jen: Jen - 44 at the time, met 21 year old college girl, fell in love. Apparently, the girl hit on Jen and they hit it off. Things went great, they moved in together. The girl was modeling or aspiring to be a model and was in film school. Jen was paying the bills. Somewhere, somehow Jen lost her source of income. Things went south fast! They had roommates, the ex teamed up against Jen and kicked Jen out. Jen became homeless and girlfriendless.

She talked about that girl and how she broke her heart and stole her friends and whatnot the entire time she was here. On Day 2, we're sitting at the dining table eating lunch. Jen was talking: surprise! At one point, I recorded her and sent the clip to my sister. My sister was like, 'you're in trouble! She is taking her time talking and it seems like she has no intentions of stopping anytime soon!' My sister was right. Anyway, during lunch, Jen told me how on their second date, she had the ex go over to her house. I was like, aaahhhh, to 'watch Netflix' in bed, right? Isn't that third date material? She told me that that was not why she had her over, they didn't even 'watch Netflix' (aka Have sex) that day. She just had her over because she was so beautiful for her to look at and she wanted to have her all to herself to look at her. Like, who says that? Like in real life? Anyway. Jen did tell me at some point that one day, she was having a discussion with two folks; three of the most intelligent people in The US: one of them being her. Like, she totally told me that! What in the world! If you're that intelligent, why is you homeless, boo? Anyways, she went on to tell me that she thought it was funny that she made fried chicken and watermelon for her black girlfriend when she had her over at her house on their second birthday.

Ok! I'm pretty open minded, I accept people for who they are, then I talk about them on my blog but that was too out there, even for me! I don't let stuff like that hurt my feelings. Someone making racist remarks hoping that they are going to hurt my feelings has another thing coming. I am not that girl who will be like, omg, blah blah blah, take off my earrings, my heels and my wig and go all Jerry Springer on them. I am just not that girl. I don't want to want to have the energy for that but, when you do that, it shows me what kind of person I'm dealing with. It just exposes you for who you really are; an ignorant person and I ain't got time for such people in my life. When Jen said that, my feelings were not hurt but I thought she had some nerve, talking like that in my own home while I was bending over backwards trying to make her feel welcome here.

I didn't comment to the fried chicken and water melon part of the story even though it was the punch line. It was distasteful. Black people and watermelon being racist apparently stems back from the slavery years and fried chicken stems back from the early 1900's. I was not around for any of that but people know, especially in America that it's a touchy subject. Don't stay in a black person's house and within 48 hours make a joke about feeding a black person fried chicken and watermelon and expect the black host to roll on the floor laughing at that ridiculousness. That's just silly. No wonder your ignorant ass got milked dry and thrown to the curb by that black girl. She probably was fed up of your silliness.

When I didn't react to the racist joke, Jen was like, Brook! You don't think that was funny? I thought that was funny. I was like ha! Ha! Ha! Got up and walked away.

This was just before Gay pride. Jen told me that she wanted to go to Pride for the first time since that girl left her, all her stories have something to do with that girl. It will drive you up the freaking wall! She didn't know what she was gonna do because she had gained so much weight since the last time she saw everyone. People think this and that, so and so thinks this of her blah. I would tell her, but you don't know what people think. You're always telling me what so and so thinks of you but you don't know, you can't know what someone thinks unless they tell you. Anyway, after the watermelon, I lost all interest in faking to stand her.

She could tell too, because there was thick tension all around the house. I think she was hoping I would accompany her to Pride. I was never going to go anywhere with her racist or not. We're not friends, get your own life. You're 46, come on now!

Jen went to Gay Pride in West Hollywood the following day. That was the first time I was alone at home since she had moved in. By the way, the night she was sitting on the massage chair, while we were laughing and happy, I asked her when last she had taken a shower. She told me that it had been about three days but she had been wearing those clothes for about two to three weeks. I recommended a shower and change of -clothes. Remember she had asked for my guidance hygiene-wise? Well...! She thanked me and jumped straight into the shower.

She came home seemingly more depressed than when she went to Pride. I didn't care. I was hoping that her being so depressed meant, she was going to be quiet for a change. I missed my serenity. She went to the kitchen, by the way, after grocery shopping the other day, she asked me which half of the kitchen was hers. I thought that was rather self entitled from a guest who is renting the couch for a week. Half of my kitchen? You've seen my kitchen, it's gigantic. I don't know why someone who is here for 7 days can expect half of my house. We're not roommates, even if we were, if you're renting form me and not the landlord, you take what I offer you. If you're not ok with it, don't stay here. It's that simple! I gave her a couple cupboards I don't use. and half of the fridge, she seemed to need it. I was glad she wasn't going to eat my freaking food.

After the night I had offered her seconds of dinner and she dished up for herself, she asked if I had a pot. I told her yes, I do, remember you helped yourself from my seconds from the pot? That was a pot! She asked me if she can use it on the stove, could she boil water in it? I was like, 'is that a real question?' She flipped! Don't you patronise me and ask if that's a real question, blah. I was like, you might wanna lower your voice. Nobody talks that loud here. She went on and on. I walked away. I could hear her chopping veggies diretly on the counter top. I came out and asked her not to do that, to put something underneath. She knows she did that out of spite. I told her that I was not going to lose my deposit because I had someone stay here for a week and mess everything up for me. She flipped even more, first of all, for someone who has a treadmill and a massage chair, you don't even have a chopping board. You need to get a chopping board. I told her that  I have one, I went on to show it to her again because she had asked about it before and I told her that there is one that came with the apartment. You know the wooden one that's like a drawer, that you pull out? I told her that I personally don't use it. I had a plastic one but couldn't find it amongst my things that I had left it at Chris'. I was intending to buy another one. I went to the store with her, not in Santa Monica, a different day, in my car and I forgot. I went on to tell her that if she so desperately needed a chopping board, no one was standing in her way, she could have bought it, there are plenty of store in Los Angeles. She could use the one I had or buy herself one. She mustn't come to my house and tell me what I need. I have everything I need and if I needed something new, I would buy it in my own time. She told me that I need more kitchen supplies. This is a girl who brought a full on coffee machine to stay in a house for a week and made my entire house smell like coffee every single morning. What if I couldn't stand the smell? Luckily, I love the smell of coffee.

She had told me that where she was staying before she moved in with me, she was there for a week, she told the guy just like she did me, that she was considering renewing and staying longer once the week was up. Apparently the guy had agreed but when the week was up, she tried to rebook and the guy told her he had found someone else and asked her to move out. Basically, he couldn't stand her ass. I don't blame her. You have to wonder about people who tell you a series of stories about being kicked out of people's homes and her own. She told me that she was one of the first AirBnB members, in fact, Airbnb copied that idea from her. She told me she used to sublet apartments and have people from all over the world stay at them. Her business was doing so well, people got jealous and reported her to the management or something like that. That's how she lost her main source of income and her girlfriend. But Airbnb copied her idea and the design of her website blah. I asked her why she didn't sue them. I mean, I didn't believe her, but as long as we were talking, I just went with it. She told me she didn't have time for a law suit. Whatever, and yet you have time to tell me to buy appliances I don't need in my own home. The phuck outta here!

That night, I could feel myself getting worked up, my chest was closing in. She was yelling and screaming in my kitchen. I didn't need that kind of energy here. I told her that if she wanted more than she could get for the amount she was paying in this neighborhood, she was more than welcome to go to the Beverly Hills Hotels, $600 and up per night, go ahead! I dare you! I told her that I would even refund her the rest of the money for the time she hadn't stayed here. She told me that I knew she couldn't afford that much in rent but I need to be open to constructive criticism. I just told her, this conversation is over. She told me, no it isn't. I walked away saying, I understand you have a lot you would like to get out of your chest, go ahead and do that, but I'm done! I took my phone with me, called airbnb and told them to get that woman out of my home. She was my first airbnb guest, I wanted to even cancel my membership. I had much better luck with people from Craig's list. The guy was so nice, he listened to me and let me vent as much as I needed, then he told me that if they had her move out, I would have to refund her for the time she stayed here as well. I told him I was not down for that. I went through a lot having that woman in my house, I deserved more than what she paid me even! The guy told me to try and stay out of the woman's way and see if I could suck it up for the rest of her stay, if not,to call him back and he would see what to do.

I came back home, went straight to bed. I never talked to that girl until she moved out. My guess is, things went south at gay pride, she took it all out on me.

When it was time to move out, she checked out at 07:00. She left the key on the table and didn't say a word. I got up, opened up all the windows and doors, sprayed air freshener, sprinkled carpet freshener all over the living room, hallway and the couch she was sleeping on to suck out her stench out of my house and danced around naked!

2 comments:

  1. OMG!! I think all your airbnb's should bring some form of psychiatric evaluation before you take them on.

    ReplyDelete