Special Snowflake Stories

[Iris]

Club management just sees the income.  They aren't out in the club with us.  And since upper management at the club is the hospital administrators they are trying to be nice to someone they presume to be mentally ill.

Still, a couple of the teachers and front-line managers are working to get Flakey banned.  Until then, we all know that we don't have to put up with her.  Anything she does we can undo. 

Age 70 does not excuse her behavior but it does make her exhibitionist show more disturbing.

Ouch. Possibly a bit inflammatory there. If anyone wants me I'll be over here, hiding under the table with a saucepan on my head...

[VorFemme]

Club management just sees the income.  They aren't out in the club with us.  And since upper management at the club is the hospital administrators they are trying to be nice to someone they presume to be mentally ill.

Still, a couple of the teachers and front-line managers are working to get Flakey banned.  Until then, we all know that we don't have to put up with her.  Anything she does we can undo. 

Age 70 does not excuse her behavior but it does make her exhibitionist show more disturbing.

Ouch. Possibly a bit inflammatory there. If anyone wants me I'll be over here, hiding under the table with a saucepan on my head...

I'll join you - but I'm using the colander on my head and the saucepan lid as a shield between my eyes and Flakey............

[Hollanda]

SS smoker. She stands in the front of the hospital sign stating clearly "No Smoking". New parents of tiny babies walk that way all the time. It's. a 2 minute walk to smoking zone...

[snowdragon]

SS smoker. She stands in the front of the hospital sign stating clearly "No Smoking". New parents of tiny babies walk that way all the time. It's. a 2 minute walk to smoking zone...

  We have one on campus who smokes in the handicapped stall of the bathroom. Not  only is it illegal to smoke in any building my county - the campus I am on is supposed to be smoke free.

[weeblewobble]

The management needs to remove the burden of paying so much for a membership from Flakey's shoulders.

Or you should take up a collection, give Flakey the equivalent of her membership fee and ask her to go somewhere else. 

Honestly, I think I would talk to other members and ask how many of them are on the edge of switching gyms because Flakey's annoying antics.  When you get an idea of the potential losses, pull the water areobics instructor aside and let her know about the conversation.  And that the gym is on the verge of losing XX members in order to keep one. If she thinks the management would listen, go to the management.

Frankly, it's a miracle that Flakey hasn't her herself or someone else with her "rituals."

[wonderfullyanonymous]

We have one on campus who smokes in the handicapped stall of the bathroom. Not  only is it illegal to smoke in any building my county - the campus I am on is supposed to be smoke free.

Unfortunately, this would be retaliatory, but spraying a fire extinguisher over the locked stall door, claiming you were extinguishing the fire in a locked stall before the sprinklers came on, would be fun.

[camlan]

All the posts about moms in college and their children reminded me of one SS at grad school. Let's call her Jane.

Jane had a baby half-way through a 4 year PhD program. Jane was a very down to earth, back to basics type of person. So no one was really surprised that she brought her baby to campus every day. Jane was very adamant about cloth diapering and breastfeeding, to the point where she would corner other grad students or junior faculty who had small babies and nearly demand that they use cloth diapers and eliminate bottle feeding entirely.

Now, let me make it clear that I am pro-whatever-the-mom-wants-to-do when it comes to this. When I was a supervisor, I made sure that moms who worked under me had a quiet, warm, lockable room to pump in, instead of having to use the bathroom. It is completely the mother's choice and I would never, ever say anything to a mother about these issues. Please do not think that I'm against moms breastfeeding outside their homes.

There are many ways of breastfeeding discreetly in public. Jane did not believe in using any of these. In a class, while teaching a class, while leading a meeting, she would whip up her shirt or even take it off completely, sans bra, and start feeding the baby. *Everyone* was uncomfortable about this, not knowing where to look, because Jane exposed her entire bosom each and every time and left it exposed until the baby was done feeding.

In addition, our grad classes were three hours long. Most professors gave a 10 or 15 minute break in the middle. If Jane's child had a dirty diaper, Jane would not change the diaper until the break or until the class was over, whichever came first. Sometimes dirty diapers can smell.

Jane saw herself as an advocate for breastfeeding and cloth diapers. What she refused to realize is that she probably turned more people off these things because of the way she handled them than she could ever convert.

Students and fellow classmates and professors all complained about the exposure during the feeding and Jane was told to cover up or stop. She tried to take her protests further up the line, but to no avail. No one prevented her from feeding her baby; just from taking her shirt off while she did so. And she was told she either had to miss a few minutes of class time to change dirty diapers, or she could find someone to mind the child while she was in class.

And once the baby was about six months old and not sleeping as much, Jane was told that the baby was a disturbance in the classroom, because she kept making noise, and she had to find alternate arrangements for her. That took a lot of courage on the part of the department head, but he felt that he couldn't let one baby disrupt three classes. He owed it to the other students to do something.

[emeraldsage85]

I'm currently dealing with the SS of the laundry room right now.

My building has 20 apartments; the laundry room has 2 washers and 2 dryers. One of the washers is currently broken. Several of us in the building have called the head office (building is owned by a company, not a single landlord) and complained but nothing has been done yet.

SS seems to think it's his given right to use the remaining washer whenever he wants. If someone else's laundry is in, he'll take it out to put in his own. The other person returns to find their laundry either dumped in the laundry tub or on the floor.

Before typing this post, I went downstairs to find out that SS had taken my laundry out at the end of the cycle and put it back in my hamper, which was still full of dirty clothes I still had to wash. I let him know that I wasn't happy with what he'd done but he just ignored me and left the room.

The laundry room is too small and too hot to sit down there for hours while I do my laundry. I've tried timing it to the minute when the machine will be done or showing up 5 min before but that doesn't seem to help. Twice now, SS has moved my laundry so he can do his own. I have no idea who he is or which apartment he lives in. I'm not sure notifying the office will do any good. They seem to take a hands-off approach to the tenants and their behaviour.

[camlan]

I'm currently dealing with the SS of the laundry room right now.

My building has 20 apartments; the laundry room has 2 washers and 2 dryers. One of the washers is currently broken. Several of us in the building have called the head office (building is owned by a company, not a single landlord) and complained but nothing has been done yet.

SS seems to think it's his given right to use the remaining washer whenever he wants. If someone else's laundry is in, he'll take it out to put in his own. The other person returns to find their laundry either dumped in the laundry tub or on the floor.

Before typing this post, I went downstairs to find out that SS had taken my laundry out at the end of the cycle and put it back in my hamper, which was still full of dirty clothes I still had to wash. I let him know that I wasn't happy with what he'd done but he just ignored me and left the room.

The laundry room is too small and too hot to sit down there for hours while I do my laundry. I've tried timing it to the minute when the machine will be done or showing up 5 min before but that doesn't seem to help. Twice now, SS has moved my laundry so he can do his own. I have no idea who he is or which apartment he lives in. I'm not sure notifying the office will do any good. They seem to take a hands-off approach to the tenants and their behaviour.

Is he taking clothes out of the washer before the cycle is finished? That's wrong. In that case, painful though it might be, I'd hang around the laundry room until he shows up to move his clean clothes into the dryer and confront him. Just ask him nicely to wait until the cycle is done before moving the clothes. On the other hand, it will take longer for clothes that haven't finished the spin cycle to dry, so he's going to have to wait longer to use the dryers.

If he is just moving the clothes after the machine has stopped, well, to be honest, I consider that fair. He has no way of knowing just when the machine stopped or how long the clothes have been waiting in there. To prevent him from doing this, try getting to the laundry room even sooner, or maybe staying there once, to time the wash cycle, so that you know exactly how long it is and can get there before it stops.

And redouble your efforts to get the broken machine fixed. One machine for 20 apartments (most likely at least 30 people) is not enough. No one should be leaving their clothes in the one working machine for very long, as other people will need to use it.

Or, while the machine remains broken, could you take your clothes to a laundramat? A bit of a hassle, but you can get them all done at once, which save a bit of time.

It's also possible that you are dealing with multiple clothes-movers, not just one. Only having one working machine is causing problems for all of you, and there may be more than one person desperate to get their clothes clean.

[amyg]

The machines in our laundry room lock themselves early in the cycle, and then unlock when they stop. Maybe they'd consider replacing the broken one with one of that type?

[JoW]

The management needs to remove the burden of paying so much for a membership from Flakey's shoulders.

Or you should take up a collection, give Flakey the equivalent of her membership fee and ask her to go somewhere else. 

Honestly, I think I would talk to other members and ask how many of them are on the edge of switching gyms because Flakey's annoying antics.  When you get an idea of the potential losses, pull the water areobics instructor aside and let her know about the conversation.  And that the gym is on the verge of losing XX members in order to keep one. If she thinks the management would listen, go to the management.

Frankly, it's a miracle that Flakey hasn't her herself or someone else with her "rituals."

Actually, no one has left or threatened to leave over Flakey’s actions.  Now that we know management will back us up we just do the Polite Spine bit and undo what she’s trying to do.  She turns off the bubbles in the hot tub, we say “Flakey, you know you can’t do that”, and get out and turn them back on.  She barges into our class with her own exercises our teacher tells her to confine her workout to the end of the pool while the class spreads out a little, taking all the space we need.   She stand in the aisle with no clothes on, we look away from her and walk around her. 

The teachers are fed up with her.  One of them is taking her concerns to higher levels of management.  There’s a good chance Flakey will be banned from the club sometime this summer.  Until then her antics make for great gossip. 

[Snowy Owl]

I witnessed a rather amusing SS I don't like dried meat so nobody else should eat it yesterday.

I was on the train going into London.  For those who don't live there, I should explain as background that eating on the trains in the UK is perfectly in order and legal and quite often something people do.  People are asked as a courtesy not to eat very smelly foods but it's not something that's legally enforceable to my knowledge.

I was sitting next to a gentleman who was eating biltong (South African dried meat jerky).  This wouldnt be my first choice of foodstuff but it's not objectionable and doesn't smell.  A lady got on the train and sat down opposite me.  She then proceeded to tell the gentleman not to eat his food product because she thought it was disgusting.  She informed him that he ought to have better manners than to eat repugnant stuff where others could see it and that in England people should eat English food not foreign muck. The gentleman tried to ignore her. 

For the 15 minute journey into London she proceeded to lecture him about how disgusting his food was.  He just sat there, completely ignoring her and eating his food.  I had a hard time not laughing at this.  The more he ignored her, the louder she got. 

I couldn't understand why she didn't just move.  While the train had people on it, there were spare seats so she could have moved very easily to another seat so as to avoid the biltong.

I got out at Victoria and as I was exiting the turnstiles, I saw and heard the lady complaining to the station staff and instructing them that they needed to do something about people eating disgusting food.  Not quite sure what she was expecting they'd want to do about it.

I wish I'd heard the end of it but I had to rush off. 
 

 

[Browyn]

I'm currently dealing with the SS of the laundry room right now.

My building has 20 apartments; the laundry room has 2 washers and 2 dryers. One of the washers is currently broken. Several of us in the building have called the head office (building is owned by a company, not a single landlord) and complained but nothing has been done yet.

SS seems to think it's his given right to use the remaining washer whenever he wants. If someone else's laundry is in, he'll take it out to put in his own. The other person returns to find their laundry either dumped in the laundry tub or on the floor.

Before typing this post, I went downstairs to find out that SS had taken my laundry out at the end of the cycle and put it back in my hamper, which was still full of dirty clothes I still had to wash. I let him know that I wasn't happy with what he'd done but he just ignored me and left the room.

The laundry room is too small and too hot to sit down there for hours while I do my laundry. I've tried timing it to the minute when the machine will be done or showing up 5 min before but that doesn't seem to help. Twice now, SS has moved my laundry so he can do his own. I have no idea who he is or which apartment he lives in. I'm not sure notifying the office will do any good. They seem to take a hands-off approach to the tenants and their behaviour.

Well if you are down before your clothes would be finished and SS has put theirs in I would just take theirs out and put my own back in. 

Unfortunately when I lived in a dorm the only recourse we found was to bring a folding chair and our homework down with us and sit in the laundry room while our clothes washed.  We even caught SS trying to take our clothes out and when confronted "oh we though they were done" 

[MariaE]

Bronwyn, you might want to edit out the retalitory rudeness part. I don't want to risk this thread getting locked.

Emeraldsage, I'm with the PPs who think it makes a huge difference whether the person takes out the clothes before or after the machine is done. Before - huge SS. After - perfectly reasonable in a shared laundary room with too few machines.

[WolfWay]

I witnessed a rather amusing SS I don't like dried meat so nobody else should eat it yesterday.

I was on the train going into London.  For those who don't live there, I should explain as background that eating on the trains in the UK is perfectly in order and legal and quite often something people do.  People are asked as a courtesy not to eat very smelly foods but it's not something that's legally enforceable to my knowledge.

I was sitting next to a gentleman who was eating biltong (South African dried meat jerky).  This wouldnt be my first choice of foodstuff but it's not objectionable and doesn't smell.  A lady got on the train and sat down opposite me.  She then proceeded to tell the gentleman not to eat his food product because she thought it was disgusting.  She informed him that he ought to have better manners than to eat repugnant stuff where others could see it and that in England people should eat English food not foreign muck. The gentleman tried to ignore her. 

For the 15 minute journey into London she proceeded to lecture him about how disgusting his food was.  He just sat there, completely ignoring her and eating his food.  I had a hard time not laughing at this.  The more he ignored her, the louder she got. 

I couldn't understand why she didn't just move.  While the train had people on it, there were spare seats so she could have moved very easily to another seat so as to avoid the biltong.

I got out at Victoria and as I was exiting the turnstiles, I saw and heard the lady complaining to the station staff and instructing them that they needed to do something about people eating disgusting food.  Not quite sure what she was expecting they'd want to do about it.

I wish I'd heard the end of it but I had to rush off.

Blasphemy! It's delicious!!  (side note: It's not quite the same as jerky. It's made a different way. Jerky is sweeter. )

I remember a South African cartoonist saying he kept his American wife from sampling his biltong supply by claiming it was snake meat, so she wouldn't touch it.