The Wonder-Vitamins and My Landlord

I think I know why my landlord has not gotten in touch with me yet after I complained about having many people in the condo’s hall.

Let me backtrack a little bit. As I said in my last post, there have been many people outside my door, lining up to buy vitamins from the office next door. Things have gotten a bit worse since then. They have put benches along the hallway, where people wait their turn to buy these confounded vitamins. So now, there are people sitting on both sides of the hall whenever I leave or arrive home, and I have to undergo their scrutiny and have their eyes follow me as I enter/exit my room.

They are also very noisy. I hear these people talking loudly, and sometimes they bring along their children who run up and down the hallway, banging on the walls as they go.

Because of this turn of events, I have had to make a few household purchases. First, I bought a divider that I set up by my door, so as to limit what the people outside can see of my room. Two, I bought and installed extra locks and a peephole on my door. Since my landlord was not doing anything to improve the situation, I figured I should do what I could to protect my privacy and enhance my security.

Now, one of the voices I often hear outside my door is that of a man, who seems to be the head salesperson of the vitamins that they are peddling. One day, I heard him give his sales spiel to an old woman. “Lola, sa tulong ng vitamins na ito, gagaling ang almoranas ninyo. (Grandma, with the help of these vitamins, your hemorrhoids will be cured.)” This was a very intriguing claim, so I listened on.

“Maraming sumusuporta sa produktong ito (Many people support this product),” he explained. “Yung isa sa mga sponsor nito ay si Judge ——–, lolo ni —- ——– (One of the sponsors of this product is Judge ——–, grandfather of —- ——– [a popular actress]).”

That’s how I discovered the reason behind the non-action of my landlord after my complaint. Judge ——–, aside from being one of the vitamins’ backers, is also my landlord.

My New (and Very Annoying) Neighbors

I hadn’t had neighbors to the right of my unit since I moved into my little shoebox in August. There are only two doors to the right of mine, one across and slightly to the right of me, and one beside me. After those doors is the end of the hall. A few weeks ago, I noticed that there were people coming from and going into those two doors. I heard a lot of banging and shifting sounds that usually mean that someone is moving in.It turns out that the units to my right were going to be offices. They would be selling some sort of vitamins, which, according to a big sign posted outside their doors, would cure pretty much anything. I didn’t pay much attention to my new neighbors. I had no idea how many people were working in these offices, and I didn’t see or bump into its occupants.

Last week, as I opened the door for a delivery boy to get the pizza that I had ordered, I was surprised to see about three men standing right across my unit. They were just… standing there. I wondered what they were doing there, and I wanted to ask them what they wanted, since looked like they were waiting for something outside my door. I felt a little (okay, a lot) uncomfortable, since my shoebox is just one room, and you can see everything inside my home from right outside my door. This includes my bed, my mess, dirty clothes I may have tossed onto the backs of my two chairs, and pretty much my whole private space. It’s hard enough to open my door to delivery boys who could pass judgment on how I may or may not be cleaning my room. It’s worse when strangers on whom you are not dependent for food delivery can see into the heart of your home without your invitation.

Anyway, they just looked at me as I was getting my pizza and didn’t say anything, so I dismissed the incident and figured those men were just waiting for their friends who might have been in the offices. However, it was apparently just a preview of things to come. A few days after I saw those three men waiting outside my door, I started seeing lines forming outside the doors of the vitamin offices. The lines weren’t even very straight, so the hallway outside my door was filled with people milling about and waiting to get into these offices. This started happening on a regular basis. Like, everyday, for the WHOLE day.

I decided to send a text message to the building administrator to complain about the situation. After all, when I moved into my unit, I thought it was a residential area. It was bad enough that I’ve had to contend with the noise outside my window when lines are formed for the game show. The lines forming for this vitamin beside my unit though are causing me even more stress. Not only do the people make a lot of noise, it’s also making me extremely uncomfortable that dozens of strangers can see into my room and see where I sleep whenever I have to open my door.

I haven’t heard back from the building administrator yet. Maybe I should just make the most of a bad situation and start charging the people in the hallway a minimal voyeur’s fee for a view of my room.

New Year, Old Resolutions

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite times of the year. First of all, it signals that the end of the Christmas season is near (I intensely dislike that holiday). Mostly though, I like it because it's a good time to rehash resolutions that I failed to fulfill in the past year. I stubbornly hold on to the irrational belief that I will achieve what I simply have not managed to, year after year after year.

For 2008, the usual things that I haven't crossed off my list will remain. You know, mundane stuff like losing weight, exercising more and the like. I have also included some relatively more interesting things on my list for this year. A lot of it involves being a student of sorts once again.

Here is a partial list of things I resolve to accomplish within the next twelve months.

1. Become a technical diver.
2. Learn to surf.
3. Study to become a dive instructor.

That's only three of a seemingly endless, rather ambitious, (and maybe a tad unrealistic) list, but those are the ones that I will focus my energies on. I hope they will be crossed off by the time '09 rolls around.