I have 1:00 church this year, instead of 9:30. That meant I had a morning for myself, to simply orient myself to the place again and enjoy my last day before school. Last year, Demetria and I had been able to walk to church together. Today, since my roommate has yet to move in, I went by myself. All the bishopric recognized me, which was amusing. I'd given the very first talk of fall semester last year, and apparently I left a good impression, because throughout the year they'd all greeted me by name every time they saw me in the halls. I'd joked with Demetria, "I may not be able to remember people in the ward, but at least the old men all like me."
To my surprise, the chapel was completely empty when I came in. I checked the time again on my phone and confirmed that yes, we had 1:00 church, and I had arrived several minutes early. Stepping back into the hall, I realized two members of the bishopric were standing outside the relief society room. When I asked them, they said that this year, we're doing relief society first, then our combined Sunday school hour with the young men, and Sacrament meeting last. Oh. I've heard Mom mention that she'd attended a late sacrament meeting a few times ages ago, I think, but this was my first time ever having sacrament meeting last. At least my ward still uses plastic cups instead of paper ones.
The RA for my floor (the same RA from last year) had insisted we have a mandatory meeting at 4:00 so she could discuss all the policies. I guess the day makes sense, because it's the day before school starts and you'd expect everyone to have moved in, but it still struck me as odd that she'd chosen a time when she knew many of us would still be at church. I nervously watched the clock during sacrament meeting, a bit annoyed that I'd have to duck out of that and not relief society, but the bishop made it less awkward. When he got up to be the last speaker, he mentioned that he understood several of us had "a mandatory meeting at Blue Square to attend", and that he understood if a few of us needed to sneak away. That made it easier.
I still don't like my RA. She dropped out of the church some years ago and it shows. We met in her room for the meeting and I, along with many people, were obviously in church clothes and had hurried over as quickly as we could. Yet she bashed on missionaries, made no effort to censor her swears, and I suspect she even went out of her way to insult our religion indirectly. Maybe I'm just looking into it too much since I already don't like her- she probably wouldn't really want to make any of us uncomfortable, right?
Still, it was awkward, and she did her whole, "You can have alcohol and I won't go out of my way to get you on trouble; I was a young student once and I know how horrible it is to get busted" speech from last year again. Need I remind anyone that the vast majority of us are under legal drinking age in this country?
She also mentioned her emotional support cat, and enthusiastically told us that she's a huge supporter of emotional support animals, and if any of us felt we needed one, she could hook us up. I was... stunned. Slightly horrified, in fact. I understand that there are tons of people who don't know the difference between emotional support animals and service animals and what you are and aren't allowed to have where, when, and why, but I didn't even know what to say. Emotional support animals vs. service ones and the moral debate about people illegally insisting that their untrained emotional support animal is qualified to all the rights of a service animal trained intensely from birth is one of few... "not super political or well-known but it exists nonetheless" issues that I feel very strongly about. Frankly, I just wanted to curl in a ball and groan about how little I was looking forward to having her as my RA again. Not that she's ever been rude to me, exactly, but I just always get a really bad vibe from her when I'm around.
But then again, if I were an RA, what would I do? You have to accept that some people are going to drink, do drugs, get into trouble, etc. Being an RA, I think, would be extremely difficult for me physically and emotionally. I'm sure having housing paid for would be awesome. But I think I would loathe having that kind of job.
We signed contracts and things while we were at the meeting, agreeing to abide by the proper rules while at Blue Square and stuff. At the bottom of one of the papers was a suggestion area. I thought for a minute, and then wrote that I would like the billboards (or whatever they're called) in the hallway to be decorated appropriately for all ages. Specifically, the ones near the elevator. Last year, one of the other floors had a particularly embarrassing design around Halloween involving condoms meant to look like ghosts. It happened to be immediately outside the elevator, so everyone in the elevator saw it when people got on or off at that floor. I guess that's college student humor? Weird. I mean, even if consdoms are something you use, do you really think it's funny to create a design that will last for three months that revolves around them?
But I requested the RA think about her elevator board designs thoroughly, because I for one have my parents and sometimes my siblings visit me on occasion. Personally, I was able to survive last year's infamous ghost board with little but an eyeroll and an avoided gaze. But I thought that since the RA was asking for suggestions, I would be upfront with her from the start. Now I'm going to be keeping an eye on our hallway boards, just out of curiosity to see if she respects my request, or decides to decorate inappropriately out of spite. Guess we'll wait.
I still don't like my RA. She dropped out of the church some years ago and it shows. We met in her room for the meeting and I, along with many people, were obviously in church clothes and had hurried over as quickly as we could. Yet she bashed on missionaries, made no effort to censor her swears, and I suspect she even went out of her way to insult our religion indirectly. Maybe I'm just looking into it too much since I already don't like her- she probably wouldn't really want to make any of us uncomfortable, right?
Still, it was awkward, and she did her whole, "You can have alcohol and I won't go out of my way to get you on trouble; I was a young student once and I know how horrible it is to get busted" speech from last year again. Need I remind anyone that the vast majority of us are under legal drinking age in this country?
She also mentioned her emotional support cat, and enthusiastically told us that she's a huge supporter of emotional support animals, and if any of us felt we needed one, she could hook us up. I was... stunned. Slightly horrified, in fact. I understand that there are tons of people who don't know the difference between emotional support animals and service animals and what you are and aren't allowed to have where, when, and why, but I didn't even know what to say. Emotional support animals vs. service ones and the moral debate about people illegally insisting that their untrained emotional support animal is qualified to all the rights of a service animal trained intensely from birth is one of few... "not super political or well-known but it exists nonetheless" issues that I feel very strongly about. Frankly, I just wanted to curl in a ball and groan about how little I was looking forward to having her as my RA again. Not that she's ever been rude to me, exactly, but I just always get a really bad vibe from her when I'm around.
But then again, if I were an RA, what would I do? You have to accept that some people are going to drink, do drugs, get into trouble, etc. Being an RA, I think, would be extremely difficult for me physically and emotionally. I'm sure having housing paid for would be awesome. But I think I would loathe having that kind of job.
We signed contracts and things while we were at the meeting, agreeing to abide by the proper rules while at Blue Square and stuff. At the bottom of one of the papers was a suggestion area. I thought for a minute, and then wrote that I would like the billboards (or whatever they're called) in the hallway to be decorated appropriately for all ages. Specifically, the ones near the elevator. Last year, one of the other floors had a particularly embarrassing design around Halloween involving condoms meant to look like ghosts. It happened to be immediately outside the elevator, so everyone in the elevator saw it when people got on or off at that floor. I guess that's college student humor? Weird. I mean, even if consdoms are something you use, do you really think it's funny to create a design that will last for three months that revolves around them?
But I requested the RA think about her elevator board designs thoroughly, because I for one have my parents and sometimes my siblings visit me on occasion. Personally, I was able to survive last year's infamous ghost board with little but an eyeroll and an avoided gaze. But I thought that since the RA was asking for suggestions, I would be upfront with her from the start. Now I'm going to be keeping an eye on our hallway boards, just out of curiosity to see if she respects my request, or decides to decorate inappropriately out of spite. Guess we'll wait.
