Arghlita
10-20-2004, 02:28 AM
I'm at my wits end!
The first week of this month, one of my husband's friend's boyfriend called us on the phone and asked us if we could take in his girlfriend (my husband's friend) until the end of the month. Their living situation had deteriorated due to money problems with a roommate and he was afraid they would be evicted. He was going to go home to live with his family and they didn't welcome her so she was going to go live with her uncle, but he couldn't take her until Novemeber at the earliest.
The twist is that Brandi is deaf. The other twist is that she and my husband "dated" online back in high school.
At this point, I should have asked many pointed questions. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20
Well, now she's in the house. She is driving me crazy. First of all, she said she had a lot of friends in this area that wanted to hang out with her and that she could hook up with the during the week. She has absolutely ZERO grasp of logistical realities and nor do any of her friends. All of her friends in this area are also deaf and all of them share a bizarre aversion to public transportation, leading to every visit she "plans" (read, we've planned) turning nightmarish.
Today, she met a friend at a local Metro station. They planned to walk around the mall and asked that we pick them up at a local restaurant and drive the friend back to her dorm, which is 15 miles away. My husband got home, we drove to the restaurant...
And they hadn't ordered yet. The girls gestured for us to sit down so we went ahead and ordered. My husband was a little concerned about the restaurant because it was expensive and we've been fairly strained recently, but I told him not to worry because the food we planned to order would be fine.
You see where this is going?
When the bill arrived, neither girl made any move to pay or even help pay. I told him to go ahead and give them his card and we'd sort it out later because I didn't want to fight in the restaurant and besides, it's really hard to argue with someone if you can't speak the same language so I wanted to wait until we could message each other at home.
My husband's card was declined. He went to the ATM in the restaurant and checked our balance - it was fine. So he tried to withdraw $60 from the ATM, then $40 - the bill, btw, was $52.20. Although we had over $80 in the account, the ATM gave him an error message. I didn't have my card, so I had to call our roommate and ask him to drive to the restaurant.
He was really unhappy about it and complained about driving in the rain etc and I was irrate - after all, my roommate owes me about $400 (and yes, he is honoring that debt with weekly payments), asking him to come cover this bill should be NO issue. Brandi commiserated with my frustration at my roommate, but never once did she offer to pay any part of the bill. Nor did her friend. Remember, they spent 5 hours in the mall and they weren't empty-handed.
Our roommate arrives and his card is ALSO declined. At this point I'm ready to throw up with frustration. Roomie goes and is able to get $20 out of the ATM. My husband goes again and is able to get $20 out. Between that and all of the money on my person, the three of us paid for dinner.
And the whole time, Brandi and her friend just watched us.
I can't understand her at all. I made some mistakes. I should have brought up the issue as soon as we arrived, said I felt uncomfortable and if they wanted to eat their they could pay the tab for all of us or we could leave and come back. At the very least, I should have brought up the issue of separate checks. I didn't, that was dumb. But it never occured to me that she wouldn't at least pay for her friend and herself. I've never been invited to dinner by someone then had to pay the whole tab without some discussion before hand.
Afterward, my husband drove the other girl back to her dorm - that nightmare trip took almost an hour because she didn't pay any attention to the road and he missed her turn and of course they couldn't commun
The first week of this month, one of my husband's friend's boyfriend called us on the phone and asked us if we could take in his girlfriend (my husband's friend) until the end of the month. Their living situation had deteriorated due to money problems with a roommate and he was afraid they would be evicted. He was going to go home to live with his family and they didn't welcome her so she was going to go live with her uncle, but he couldn't take her until Novemeber at the earliest.
The twist is that Brandi is deaf. The other twist is that she and my husband "dated" online back in high school.
At this point, I should have asked many pointed questions. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20
Well, now she's in the house. She is driving me crazy. First of all, she said she had a lot of friends in this area that wanted to hang out with her and that she could hook up with the during the week. She has absolutely ZERO grasp of logistical realities and nor do any of her friends. All of her friends in this area are also deaf and all of them share a bizarre aversion to public transportation, leading to every visit she "plans" (read, we've planned) turning nightmarish.
Today, she met a friend at a local Metro station. They planned to walk around the mall and asked that we pick them up at a local restaurant and drive the friend back to her dorm, which is 15 miles away. My husband got home, we drove to the restaurant...
And they hadn't ordered yet. The girls gestured for us to sit down so we went ahead and ordered. My husband was a little concerned about the restaurant because it was expensive and we've been fairly strained recently, but I told him not to worry because the food we planned to order would be fine.
You see where this is going?
When the bill arrived, neither girl made any move to pay or even help pay. I told him to go ahead and give them his card and we'd sort it out later because I didn't want to fight in the restaurant and besides, it's really hard to argue with someone if you can't speak the same language so I wanted to wait until we could message each other at home.
My husband's card was declined. He went to the ATM in the restaurant and checked our balance - it was fine. So he tried to withdraw $60 from the ATM, then $40 - the bill, btw, was $52.20. Although we had over $80 in the account, the ATM gave him an error message. I didn't have my card, so I had to call our roommate and ask him to drive to the restaurant.
He was really unhappy about it and complained about driving in the rain etc and I was irrate - after all, my roommate owes me about $400 (and yes, he is honoring that debt with weekly payments), asking him to come cover this bill should be NO issue. Brandi commiserated with my frustration at my roommate, but never once did she offer to pay any part of the bill. Nor did her friend. Remember, they spent 5 hours in the mall and they weren't empty-handed.
Our roommate arrives and his card is ALSO declined. At this point I'm ready to throw up with frustration. Roomie goes and is able to get $20 out of the ATM. My husband goes again and is able to get $20 out. Between that and all of the money on my person, the three of us paid for dinner.
And the whole time, Brandi and her friend just watched us.
I can't understand her at all. I made some mistakes. I should have brought up the issue as soon as we arrived, said I felt uncomfortable and if they wanted to eat their they could pay the tab for all of us or we could leave and come back. At the very least, I should have brought up the issue of separate checks. I didn't, that was dumb. But it never occured to me that she wouldn't at least pay for her friend and herself. I've never been invited to dinner by someone then had to pay the whole tab without some discussion before hand.
Afterward, my husband drove the other girl back to her dorm - that nightmare trip took almost an hour because she didn't pay any attention to the road and he missed her turn and of course they couldn't commun