My Sister, My Roommate

Erin and I have successfully lived together in a tiny apartment for 16 days.  Alert the media!  This is big news.  We have lived together for 16 days without a single fight.

But, I'm going to be completely honest, because my tongue, cheeks and lips are raw from all the times I have been biting, chewing and gnawing on them to keep from starting a fight.

Erin and I have been getting along very well, but we have been spending WAYYYY too much time together.  Her bedroom is the living/ dining room and my bedroom is also the study, so it's tight quarters.  We have one computer to share and one bathroom to use.  So far all of these things have been okay, and just something we have to get used to.  The biggest problem right now is the mom/ sister dilemma I'm dealing with.

Erin is only 16, I understand that, but she is 16 and living in NYC without her parents.  She needs to grow up just a little bit.

Our very first day in the apartment Erin took off her nail polish.  She took off her nail polish on top of the wood table.  So not only did she take off her nail polish, she took off part of the table's finish.  Did she say anything about it?  No.  When I asked her about it, she smirked and said she was sorry.  Okay, everyone makes mistakes.

The next weekend, Chip came to visit and brought along Old English from my parents.  The bottle, instructions, steel wool, and sand paper has been sitting on the table for nearly a week.  Has Erin even attempted to fix the table or ask me how?  Nope.

Every evening I have walked to pick Erin up from ballet.  It's a five mile walk, but I love it.  I take different streets every time while listening to my newest podcasts.  The two of us then take the subway back to the apartment.  Erin usually takes a shower while I make dinner.  The two of us eat, and she piles her dishes next to the sink.  Really?  I just made you dinner, the least you could do is the dishes.  But, for the past week I have kept quiet.  I have done the dishes, loading what I can in the tiny dishwasher, and hand washing the rest.

The next morning, her pile of dishes starts in the sink.  Really?!  I ask her to unload the dishwasher, and she does, but, really?!

Now, laundry.  Yesterday we did three loads of laundry between the two of us.  And even though she knew that the dryers were finished, she didn't go downstairs to get the laundry.  So, I brought it back up after she left for ballet and folded everything.  I left her laundry basket filled on her bed.  Last night she thanked me for folding her laundry.  Okay.

This morning, I woke up to find this in the dirty basket:

Yup.  You are looking at a pair of pants and a t- shirt that she wore to bed last night.  It was the first time I had seen either article worn since we have lived here, meaning she only wore these things to bed once and threw them in the basket.  Uhmmm, excusey?

Oh, and last night, on the way home from ballet Erin convinced me to get Chinese food.  I agreed when she agreed to pay for it.  Don't worry, I'm not that mean, I paid last week.  But, with our food they gave us a free can of soda.  Erin asked me what kind I wanted.  I perked up and said, "Oooo, Diet Coke!"  We walked home with the food, ate it, and I did the dishes.  As I put the can of Diet Coke in the fridge I said, "Oooo, this is so exciting!  A can of Diet Coke!  Delicious!"  Now, let me add that I have a 2- liter bottle of caffeine free Diet Coke in the fridge, so this can was very exciting.  It has caffeine and it is in a can.  I was thrilled to be able to drink it today.

Fast forward two hours.  Erin had spent some time on my computer before joining me in the living room.  I was enjoying Bride-day on TLC when Erin sat down.  She got up to get a snack, as she does about thirty- five times a night, and came back chewing on celery and holding my can of Diet Coke.  She cracked it open and took a sip.  I just looked at her, shocked.  Her response, "what?"  Seriously?!

The empty can, left on the counter, for me to recycle.

So, now that I have vented about every little thing that has bothered me, well, not about the hair or make up in the sink, but never mind those things, let me discuss with you the real problem.  The problem right now is deciding whether I am supposed to be Erin's roommate, or a stand-in for Erin's mom.

Right now, the mom- thing is working for certain things.  I tell her how many hours of work she has to do, and she does it.  She has to tell me exactly when she arrives at ballet, and I pick her up every night to bring her home.  She has to ask me to stay the night with her friend, or if she wants to make plans with other people.  She listens to me when I tell her to turn off the television and go to sleep.

But, what if I want some roommate benefits as well?  How about I will make dinner, but you do the dishes?  ...And that includes emptying the dishwasher the next day.  Or what about laundry?  Just because I am doing your laundry does not mean that you can put things in there because you are too lazy to put them away!  They aren't dirty!  And my Diet Coke?  Come on!  You didn't even ask!  I probably would have said yes, but you didn't ask!

I need to have the authority of the stand- in mom, but the help of a roommate.  I think it is time to implement a chore chart.  Yup.  It's chore chart time!    

Comforts of Cruising

As I mentioned in the previous post, my family went cruising.  For months we had planned our 7- day Caribbean cruise on Holland America.  There was talk of inviting other friends or family members to join us, but we decided against it.  The 6dooleys have not been on vacation alone since 2006 when we spent two nights on Tupper Lake.  Therefore, this was our trip.  When we were first making arrangements, rooming options were discussed.  My dad had an idea to get only two rooms: a boys and a girls room.  I vetoed that immediately.  Then, my dad asked me if the four kids could share a room.  We could potentially get a big discount by adding two extra people to the room.  I thought about it, thought about discount equalling tiny, thought about Erin's outrageous bikini collection exploding in the room and thought about the boys who don't particularly put showers first on their list of priorities, and I vetoed that idea as well.  And it was agreed, three rooms, one for the parents, one for the girls, and one for the boys.

The night before we left for our trip, Holland America called my dad.  The cruise line had overbooked the ship, and wanted us to consolidate rooms.  They offered to upgrade my parents to a suite, but they would have to have one of the other rooms share with them.  My dad decided that the four kids would take the upgrade.  And so it was decided, four kids in one room.  Ruh roh.

Quickly getting last minute technological things figured out.

But in reading the fine print, looking more carefully at what our upgrade entailed, and watching the online tour of the suite, it didn't seem so terrible.

My dad has a lot of baggage.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale to board the ship Erin read a sign stating to identify yourself if you were in a Deluxe Verandah Suite.  When she did, we were pulled out of line, brought to the front, and to a separate line to check in.  Don't worry, we brought my mom along with us.  When we got our key cards Chip, Erin, Garvey and I had gold cards.  My mom and dad's cards were blue.

The line we skipped

On the ship nice and early, before the rooms were ready.

In our very spacious room, with a very large balcony, we found a laundry bag for complimentary dry cleaning.  The four of us put dresses, pants, shirts and skirts into the bag to be pressed.  Yes, we had our clothes pressed.  And during the week we had clothes dry cleaned, washed and pressed many more times.

The balcony was so spacious, Garvey slept on it.

Our laundry delivery

We also each had our own stationary.  Poor Mom and Dad had to share a few pieces of stationary, while we each got our own!

The four of us also had access to The Neptune Lounge.  Apparently this is a big deal.  Basically, it is a lounge, with a private "front desk" for only those in suites.  The room has delicious food out all day long, an espresso maker and juices and coffee.  And, as Garvey really liked, the room doesn't have sugar for coffee.  Instead, they have rock candy.  If that isn't high class, I don't know what is.

The first afternoon on the ship we decided to go check out The Neptune Lounge.  We found board games and agreed to play a family favorite, Rummikub.  And, no, The Neptune Lounge didn't have just any old Rummikub, they had the deluxe large numbers version.  The game came in a case with a handle!  High class.

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Hours later, after playing three rounds, and my siblings losing terribly to me, we wandered back downstairs towards my parents' room, but not without taking a little detour to explore.  Before we had rounded the corner we could hear my dad sniffing.  The four of us came around the corner and he said, "where have you been?!  I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"We were playing Rummikub in The Neptune Lounge.  Ooooh, right.  You can't go there."