escaping the stereotypes.

“I’d entered the city the way one enters any grand love affair: with no exit plan.” ~ Joan Didion.

how wonderful it is to live like that everyday!!

....and I try to keep that positivity, the feel wonder at very turn but when one is in the service line then it is very hard to do. today was easier to feel joy like that because it I didn't have to deal with complaint after complaint.

but one complaint did strike me as superfluous via email. I was quite familiar with this saralee cake because she has a seepage problem in her apartment. clearly after inspections done at her apartment it was suspected that the leak came from the unit above. this is what I do everyday, tell people we suspect it is coming from upstairs but besides writing to tell the neighbours upstairs to fix the problem we don't do much else. our jurisdiction is the common area and not private space *cartwheels*

of course by now, saralee cake knew enough to hanker us for a resolution but after hitting a tough wall of non committals from me she had nowhere else to turn to but the authorities. in this case it is the building authorities via email to demand that they help her force repairs by the neighbour. she copied us in her email to keep up with a semblance of keeping things in order but her objective was clear. she was going to COMPLAINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN until someone actually does the work for her.

she even quoted minister mentor in her email and threatened the officer with fobbing her off. she challenged the officer to keep fobbing her off and said she will take it to the higher authorities (maybe via the courts or something) if she didn't get a person, a real person to hold her hand and guide her through the process of lodging this complain. she didn't want links! what the hell could url links do?!! the atrocity of replying with links indeed!!! *prrft*

i didn't feel like telling her or helping her when all that it takes was to fill in some forms online and making payment of $500/- to make it legit. anyway i was just copied in the email *hehe* but she did send a side copy to request that i forward her email to the manager because it bounced. i did just that and tskked as i ended my reply. i can understand that she's angry and probably just lost in trail of formalities BUT come on....all you need is to look into the other corner and see if there is another way out.

i know that this problem will fall into my lap to resolve sooner or later but i was too swamped today in my own reverie of wanting to escape. this reminded me that as soon as we fall into the trap of a stereotype of any kind, in this case of an angry and frustrated neighbour with no means of wanting to just deal with it; then there is no way out. no one cares really, which is scary.

it is just you and your solipsism of truth. also, it doesn't help when all you want to do is shoot the messenger with another angry email. or just taichi the problem onto someone else's lap with a lot and i mean a LOT of hot air. too bad in my own escapes today i managed to stay cool. well, till saralee storms over to the office in person to demand someone (me?? *gulps*) to tell her like it is. 

damn..when the hell are they going to install that camera over front desk?

stay sane,

J.