Denel
The first week or so, it looked like Denel living with us was going to work out well. I had the smaller bedroom, so I still had the bedroom to myself. Brian had a huge bedroom, and his bed had 2 mattresses on it, (I don’t know why he had 2 mattresses on top of the box spring), so he pulled off one of the mattresses, and they set up half of that bed room for Denel.
Denel spent a few days cleaning up the place and Brian and I bought a bunch of groceries. Since our usual stores of food in the house consisted of milk, soda, taco chips, and Berry Berry Kix, having real food was exciting. Brian got off work at 2 or 3, so he would help Denel to prepare dinner. I’d come home at 6ish, and had a nice clean apartment and a good dinner. This was great.
Unfortunately, this didn’t last very long. After the first few weeks, Denel stopped cleaning, and decided to get a puppy. She got a Scottish Terrier puppy from a breeder in upstate NY. She named the puppy Sambucca, or Bucca, for short. Also, Brian realized that he was doing all the cooking and stopped. Bucca wasn’t really potty trained, and would bark through the night, and loved to shred newspaper. We also found out that Denel had a boyfriend living in Philadelphia who she had kept secret from us. So now, we had a filthy apartment, no meals, and an extra person living with us not paying for anything, who neither one of us was going to date.
We were coming up on Thanksgiving, and I had tickets to fly to NC, and Brian was going to Connecticut to be with his family. Denel decided that she was going to go to her family in Pennsylvania, but not take Bucca. She told us that she was expecting us to pay 2/3 of the kennel costs for her dog. We informed her that this was not going to happen as it was her dog, not ours. Also, by this point, Denel and Brian had used up all his dance lessons at Arthur Murray, but they were in desperate need of female instructors, so she was getting free lessons in exchange for a commitment to teach for at least a year there. Brian had signed up for more lessons on his own.
There was one day when Brian and I came home and found a plate of cookies. They were pretty burnt and misshapen, and not that good, but we appreciated that she had made that effort. However, soon after, Brian found a cookie tin up on the top shelf with a note to her boyfriend taped on it. He opened it, and there were perfect cookies in there, all lovingly packed. She had taken cookie dough from the groceries that Brian and I paid 100% for, and given us the rejects and was sending the good ones off to her boyfriend.
Now, Denel was using my UNIX e-mail account, and, one day, I was checking my mail, when I noticed a dead.letter which comes from being disconnected or canceling when you are e-mailing, or from a bunch of other causes. I opened it up to see what it was, and it was a letter from Denel to her boyfriend. My favorite line was, “I don’t know why I moved in with them at all. I never really liked either one of them.”
This was the final straw for Brian and me. We informed Denel that we were canceling the previous offer of room and board for cooking and cleaning, because she never did either. She could either pay 1/3 rent and utilities, or move out. She got quiet and wouldn’t really talk to us, but the next morning, there was a letter addressed to us on the refrigerator. She basically said that it wasn’t fair that she should pay 1/3 when she didn’t have her own bedroom or privacy (things which Brian had, but lost when she moved in). She claimed that we didn’t seem to want the apartment clean, because it was dirty when she moved in. This was an odd claim given that we were asking her to clean. The reason it was dirty when she moved in was because we were lazy, and cleaning wasn’t our highest priority, not that we didn’t want it clean. We wrote a response to her, and it went back and forth for a while. She tried to bargain to pay less, but we pointed out that this was not a negotiation. We offered her 2 choices. 1/3 or the street. (not exactly, as we were giving her over a month to find alternate housing) She never really told us what her choice was, but it became clear when her brother and father came to move out her stuff.
Ironically, this was great for Brian and my friendship. We were unified against a common enemy. All the petty disagreements went away. We were great roommates until a year or so later, when he moved in with Maria, who later became his wife.
What happened to Denel? She declared bankruptcy and defaulted on the thousands of dollars of credit card debt she had from buying tons of stuff. Her grandmother put her up in a swanky apartment in Manhattan for free. Later, she moved back to Philadelphia, which she loved. She defaulted on her commitment to Arthur Murray, and got a job helping to teach dance at a place in Philly. She fell in love with guy who owned that studio, married him, and now lives outside Philly, doing exactly was she wants: teaching some dance, teaching some aerobics, and living a nice well off life.
I just hate it when people don’t really face consequences for their actions and just kind of skate through life.
Denel spent a few days cleaning up the place and Brian and I bought a bunch of groceries. Since our usual stores of food in the house consisted of milk, soda, taco chips, and Berry Berry Kix, having real food was exciting. Brian got off work at 2 or 3, so he would help Denel to prepare dinner. I’d come home at 6ish, and had a nice clean apartment and a good dinner. This was great.
Unfortunately, this didn’t last very long. After the first few weeks, Denel stopped cleaning, and decided to get a puppy. She got a Scottish Terrier puppy from a breeder in upstate NY. She named the puppy Sambucca, or Bucca, for short. Also, Brian realized that he was doing all the cooking and stopped. Bucca wasn’t really potty trained, and would bark through the night, and loved to shred newspaper. We also found out that Denel had a boyfriend living in Philadelphia who she had kept secret from us. So now, we had a filthy apartment, no meals, and an extra person living with us not paying for anything, who neither one of us was going to date.
We were coming up on Thanksgiving, and I had tickets to fly to NC, and Brian was going to Connecticut to be with his family. Denel decided that she was going to go to her family in Pennsylvania, but not take Bucca. She told us that she was expecting us to pay 2/3 of the kennel costs for her dog. We informed her that this was not going to happen as it was her dog, not ours. Also, by this point, Denel and Brian had used up all his dance lessons at Arthur Murray, but they were in desperate need of female instructors, so she was getting free lessons in exchange for a commitment to teach for at least a year there. Brian had signed up for more lessons on his own.
There was one day when Brian and I came home and found a plate of cookies. They were pretty burnt and misshapen, and not that good, but we appreciated that she had made that effort. However, soon after, Brian found a cookie tin up on the top shelf with a note to her boyfriend taped on it. He opened it, and there were perfect cookies in there, all lovingly packed. She had taken cookie dough from the groceries that Brian and I paid 100% for, and given us the rejects and was sending the good ones off to her boyfriend.
Now, Denel was using my UNIX e-mail account, and, one day, I was checking my mail, when I noticed a dead.letter which comes from being disconnected or canceling when you are e-mailing, or from a bunch of other causes. I opened it up to see what it was, and it was a letter from Denel to her boyfriend. My favorite line was, “I don’t know why I moved in with them at all. I never really liked either one of them.”
This was the final straw for Brian and me. We informed Denel that we were canceling the previous offer of room and board for cooking and cleaning, because she never did either. She could either pay 1/3 rent and utilities, or move out. She got quiet and wouldn’t really talk to us, but the next morning, there was a letter addressed to us on the refrigerator. She basically said that it wasn’t fair that she should pay 1/3 when she didn’t have her own bedroom or privacy (things which Brian had, but lost when she moved in). She claimed that we didn’t seem to want the apartment clean, because it was dirty when she moved in. This was an odd claim given that we were asking her to clean. The reason it was dirty when she moved in was because we were lazy, and cleaning wasn’t our highest priority, not that we didn’t want it clean. We wrote a response to her, and it went back and forth for a while. She tried to bargain to pay less, but we pointed out that this was not a negotiation. We offered her 2 choices. 1/3 or the street. (not exactly, as we were giving her over a month to find alternate housing) She never really told us what her choice was, but it became clear when her brother and father came to move out her stuff.
Ironically, this was great for Brian and my friendship. We were unified against a common enemy. All the petty disagreements went away. We were great roommates until a year or so later, when he moved in with Maria, who later became his wife.
What happened to Denel? She declared bankruptcy and defaulted on the thousands of dollars of credit card debt she had from buying tons of stuff. Her grandmother put her up in a swanky apartment in Manhattan for free. Later, she moved back to Philadelphia, which she loved. She defaulted on her commitment to Arthur Murray, and got a job helping to teach dance at a place in Philly. She fell in love with guy who owned that studio, married him, and now lives outside Philly, doing exactly was she wants: teaching some dance, teaching some aerobics, and living a nice well off life.
I just hate it when people don’t really face consequences for their actions and just kind of skate through life.
posted by Jamie at 7:22 AM
6 Comments:
Hey Jamie, sounds like a nightmare! No good deed goes unpunished. . . Of course, you were probably both hoping for a little something something. . . which is another thing she exploited. Love the detail about the cookies.
Cheers, 'E
There a plenty of Denels in this world. Very interesting living arrangement, Jamie. No one likes being used. You guys did the right thing.
She was pretty and had a killer bod, didn't she???
Where do these little spoiled dumplings COME from? Who spawns them? Because you are not alone. Not even close.
But fear not, there are plenty of Denels on the horizon. My kids, when they go over to play at a friend's house, must clean up their mess. 99.9% they are the only ones.
Glad you got your life back.
Thanks for visiting my site and commenting.
I have so much to say about your comment on the Amish. All I can say is, "Not always are things how they look/seem."
We will see if I get gutsy enough to talk about this topic one day.
Ellie
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