The "Storm" - Jan 16

Jan 16

Wow, I am writing an email that happened 10 days ago...let's see if I can still remember the details...

Nothing much happened in the morning and at work, the only thing I can remember about work is spending half a day working on the minute about the meeting last night...this is where being a college student is useful because I was given a template on how it is written, and the whole thing pretty much consists of me paraphrasing the template and adding what happened last night into it. After I was done, I sent it to Betty Ann, who was very very happy about it. So it was a success.

After dinner we all went to the local community center for aerobics class; it's a mandatory activity for us under "healthy lifestyle learning", so for the next hour we did different kicks/steps/punches/etc. I personally like the classes and can think of much less pleasant methods of exercising, but many other in the group (Stephen, Stephanie, Cheryl kind of, Charles) dislikes/hates it and usually acts grouchy and non-responsive when we had to do aerobics. Well for some strange reason, that night was crowded with lots of women, so there wasn't enough step blocks/dumbbells to use. The non-responsive people and I decided to go to the back of the class to do the moves and because without a step block, the moves looked so ridiculous that I was just laughing my head off as I was doing them, which in turn made the non-responsive crew laugh and mimic the same moves. Basically, the class for me that night was just a huge goof-off, which may have made other more dedicated people at the front annoyed...but whatever, I had fun :P...especially when we had to go do stretching exercises in partners and I did a "Superman fly-off" on Stephen's back, hahahahahaha

Anyways we went back home after aerobics, and pretty much everybody did their own thing. Zach was in the kitchen making sugar cookies as an accompaniment for tomorrow's lunch, while I was in the laundry room doing my laundry. And I guess this is where everything happened. Stephen came into the laundry room and wanted to do the laundry after me, which I was fine with. Then Cheryl comes in also to do her laundry, and she wanted to go after me, which was actually what was supposed to happen, since according to the laundry schedule (yes, we set up a laundry schedule to solve problems with everyone doing the laundry at the same time) it was her turn after me. So Stephen said, "ok fine I will just do the laundry after you". In a normal circumstance that may have been fine, but in our household the laundry machine is supposed to be only used twice a day to conserve energy/time, plus to prolong the life of the laundry machine and balance the usage of water in the house. Because there are 11 people in the house and the house is very old, water is not evenly distributed around the house so there would be instances where someone is washing the dishes and another person is showering. The shower would be cold while the water going through the taps would become less...you guys get the drift. Because of this, I am a firm believer and follower of the laundry schedule, because previous to this schedule everyone would just do their laundry whenever they want, which eventually made the machine break down and no one could do their laundry for at least 3 days until it was fixed. Cheryl pointed this out to Stephen and told him that he should follow the schedule and do his laundry when he is supposed to, while Stephen was trying to reason with her in his own way. And this is when trouble really started boiling up....

(This part of the conversation is reworded from my memory, so not everything is precise.)
Zach came in from the kitchen and started saying that yes, although people should follow the schedule, they shouldn't act like they are so self-righteous with rules and stuff, because even though they are following rules here, they are not following rules in other areas. He started ranting on how certain people do not actually do the exercise when they are in aerobics, which is actually equivalent to breaking rules in being committed to mandatory activities. It was quite obvious that the comment was targeted at Cheryl, and Cheryl just left the laundry room and the kitchen. We all left the laundry room too and Zach continue on bitching to Stephen about this...I (or Stephen) asked why he didn't talk to Cheryl about this, and Zach said/shouted "Cheryl is pretty angry these days", which Stephen agreed and they continued talking while I just sat and listened, becoming more and more confused. At one point, Cheryl comes into the kitchen and Zach stopped talking and both Cheryl and Zach just seethed with anger, while Stephen just turned to Cheryl and coxed her for a walk so they can straighten things out...he said that Cheryl was being hostile to him these days and he had no idea why...finally Cheryl agreed and they both left.

When they left the kitchen, I immediately turned to Zach and asked "Ok exactly what's going on?" Zach started telling me that he and Cheryl previously got into a disagreement where he/Cheryl/Rebecca/Stephanie were supposed to share a room in the hotel during their Sault Ste. Marie 48 hours off, while Stephen/Maxime/Charles were sharing another room (originally those guys were supposed to go to Sudbury for their 48 hours, but they had a change of plans and decided to go to Sault Ste. Marie instead). I was going to Toronto, Mike wanted to hang out with Rebecca and the crew but they flat-out told him they don't want to hang out with him during their time-off, so after a bunch of shuffling he decided to go home to Woodstock instead. Cynthia was still undecided where she should go (plus she was kind of being outcasted so no one really made plans with her), so Cheryl decided to invite her to stay with them in their hotel room, and then move out and went to Maxime's room instead. This was all done without consulting Zach/Rebecca/Stephanie, so Zach was upset about that. However he said they talked about the problem before they left for the trip so things were fine...up until yesterday night, when Zach heard the Frenchies (Cheryl/Charles/Maxime) upstairs in the attic talking about people...especially him and me. This got him really ticked off, because in the meeting last night Maxime said everyone in the group should be more communicative and tell the person who upsets them about it, rather than being silent about it and hating the person inside...but in reserve they are saying things about people in French, which he thought was highly hyprocritical...I pretty much just sat there trying to absorb this information...because that's what I do when people get upset, I stay quiet.

As Zach continued to rant and bitch, Rebecca comes in and asks what's going on, and Zach told her. Rebecca started reasoning with Zach and told him that he should talk to Cheryl about his dissatisfaction, and that perhaps they weren't saying things about him or me...Zach got even more upset and insistent that they were saying things about him and he hates doing the confrontation...he doesn't see why he should be the one doing the talking. Whether he gets upset with someone or something, he puts it inside him and let it boil until he snaps, and that's when he bitches and bitches and bitches, or uses other mechanisms to deal with it (ie. talking behind people's backs). While he was making this speech, Stephanie and Mike comes in and stays...and by this point Zach was really upset, almos on the verge of crying. He said that he doesn't want to keep talking about himself right now, and he feels like he is on a display with everyone observing him like a circus act. Rebecca was like "Zach we are just trying to help...you are making me feel bad because of your attitude"...that was when I wanted to leave because it's getting to be too much for me, but funny enough he said "well I don't feel like being examined by all these people...I feel like being alone right now, now why can't people take the hint?" and that's when I stood up and left the kitchen, and went to the living room where Charles and Maxime heard the general idea of what went on, and asked me what he said. I just shook my head and didn't feel like commenting, and instead I finished my postcards.

It is so strange how when everyone lives in such close quarters, one person's unhappiness can bring down everyone around them...and that's what happened.

More tomorrow...