Safely on the ground in Arizona

But now the housing situation is really complicated.

I haven't been tracking the roommate saga here, so I'll start with a summary:
- A few months ago, I found out that I'd been assigned to a 2br apartment with one roommate. I was a bit surprised, since I'd been in a studio last year.
- The welcome packets went out in July, and prospective-roommate and I friended eachother on Faceborg. She had some very specific group affiliations about her parents being Palestinian refugees. For a while I was left wondering whether she also had a preexisting grudge, which would've been really akward. She didn't respond to my initial or follow-up "hey, we'll be living together and should sort this out first" e-mails, which didn't help.
- In early August, I finally managed to catch her via IM. It turned out that she's a reasonable person. Not going to throw parties with dozens of people. Observing halal, so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning bacon grease off the stove. Majoring in political science because she wants to work on the Israel/Palestine peace process. (Still also a self-described libertarian conservative, but she strikes me as unlikely to be dogmatic about it.)
- Then her parents heard that this set of campus apartments was the "party dorm" and promptly transferred her to a different residence hall. I figured that I had a new mystery roommate to look forwards to, so I sent an e-mail to one of the residence administrators, reminding them that I needed a roommate who kept kosher or halal, or was at least vegetarian, and asking whether I had one. No response.

That brings us to today... I arrived to find that the computer systems claim I belong in a completely different apartment than the one I was originally assigned to, and that this new apartment is supposed to house four people in two bedrooms. (If so, that would be counter to the disability accommodation letter in my file. I'm supposed to have a single-occupancy bedroom so that I can study without distractions.) The apartment turns out to be furnished for four people, which is further cause for concern. One other person has checked in, but when I finally got to the room around midnight, she said something about wanting to switch to a different apartment. So now I have no idea what's going on, at all.

The nice people at the front desk told me that I could expect someone from ResLife with the ability to figure out what happened and the authority to fix it to be around from 6a onwards. I suppose I should figure out what I would like the results of speaking to them to be. But right now I'm tired, I ache all over, and I can't seem to fall asleep. Not exactly a good state for planning.

The roommate saga continues!

I spoke to the community manager this morning. What most likely happened to bork my housing request was that the computer system automatically consolidates people after N of them withdraw their housing application. For whatever reason, there wasn't a lock on my single-occupancy status, so I got consolidated. The manager was really nice about it and is going to see what he can do about that. I'm unlikely to be moved into a different apartment, though. Not only is this residence hall booked full, there's a waiting list for people who'd like to move in when vacancies occur.

When I got back, my surprise roommate was up and getting ready to leave for a couple of days. She was able to tell me that one of the other two people who'd been assigned to this apartment had decided not to live on-campus, and that the other had apparently arranged to move in with some friends on the same floor. (I'm not sure whether that's an official arrangement or not, but I really hope it works.) Surprise-roommate turns out to not eat meat very often, and was willing to agree not to bring it into the house, so this could actually turn out rather well.

The greatest advantage to this apartment is that it's one of the few that are equipped with a balcony. I wanted one all last year, and I kind've want to keep it now! Another is that the bedroom is almost as large as the main room of my studio apartment was last year. The greatest intrinsic problem with the apartment is the furnature in the common areas, which we're supposed to keep. It's not only uncomfortable, but ugly to boot. There also doesn't seem to be a kitchen table, which strikes me as bizarre. Due to the new budget constraints, the furnature is unlikely to be replaced this year. So on one hand I don't have to deal with the replacement process, and on the other I have to deal with the sub-optimal parts of the old furnature. That's life, I suppose.

Roommate saga

"It could work great so long as no other people move in." - Oh, wait.

The third person showed up this afternoon. Her key goes to my side of the apartment and ResLife won't let her swap with the person on the other side who supposedly isn't moving in. They're locked out from making any changes to the database (aside from moving people into empties, of which there are none) until September 14th. This is supposedly a "feature".


ETA: I've discovered that the housing application fee has a similar legal standing to the deposit on a private apartment. The prospective resident has paid to reserve the space for the first few weeks of the term, even if they decide not to move into it. So there may be several empty units, but ResLife is not legally permitted to swap people around until the deposit expires.

In the mean time, the DRC has helped me to arrange for a quiet place to study, so I can be a little less stressy about those first few weeks.

(no subject)

Taken out of context, my life must seem delightfully absurd. I have just mopped the ceiling.