Super Not So Super

I recycle. Maybe not so well, but I do. So I took down a few bags this weekend and recycled each one. The super comes out and says with a slight attitude, “You’re not recycling…” as I’m recycling. So I say with a fake smile on my face, “Uhhh…okay, no problem.” I did not recycle my last bag so well. That’s what she was getting at.

So I’m done and I go upstairs. 15 minutes later, she comes knocking on my door and I open the door to a super with an attitude. “I have a problem with you.” And I start to feel…well, if she doesn’t tone down her voice, there’s going to be a problem for her. So she starts talking to me with an attitude, which I thought was unnecessary, to tell me about my recycling, that I’m not recycling. I said to her, “Did you not just see me recycle all those bags?” “You’re not recycling and blah blah blah. I have to keep telling you over and over and over again….” So I say with a strong tone, “You’ve told me before, but lets not get crazy and say you’ve told me over and over and over again. Okay? At least I make the effort.” She said to me that I seem to not understand, when in fact I did. I understand that she will get fined if people don’t recycle in the building. I understand that people like her get frustrated when they try to keep the place clean and people don’t seem to care. I, of course, care about my place and my building being clean. I am the least of her worries. It turned out that she started to insult me. “I thought you were better than that. I guess I was wrong. ”

Now anyone who knows me, can tell you, that that was a mistake on her part to talk to me like that, when all she had to do was say….”Lani, I know you recycle your garbage, thanks, but it seems that you’re still not getting it all right. I can show you so you will know next time. Can you come down for a moment?” Then I would have said, “Oh, okay. Sorry about that. Let’s go down and check it out.” Then I would have looked at the stuff and gotten it right the next time.

*Apparently, plastic topperware does not go into the plastic recylcing can. It goes into the garbage.

I put all my cardboards, plastics and glass and even shred my paper and put it in the places they have to go. Then the stuff like foods and other stuff in the garbage. So I recycle, if not 100% perfect, but I do. But she decided to insult me and raise her voice to me. She’s frustrated because she has to dig in garbage all week and touch all that stuff. A lot of people do not recycle and I see all the stuff they throw out. So I believe she had a hard time with a lot of bad garbage from people and decided to pick on me, who’s nice and quiet and always smile when I see her. God, I’m such a nice person. I think she thought she would get over on me by acting tough because she didn’t think I would say shit.

Ding, ding!

I've been nice to her because, well, I’m just that way. But talk to me wrong and I’m not the nice person you thought I was. So now that she has insulted me, I raised my voice and start to yell at her. Now we’re yelling in the hallway and she calls me names. Says my place is terrible, dirty and looks at my hallway to see a lot of stuff, in which I am cleaning and rearranging, thank you, and says…”And look! What is that?” I look back and then look at her and tell her, “I think you’re a little mental.”

So since she wanted to talk about me, I decided to tell her about herself. So I told her that she’s not a good super because the building doesn’t get cleaned a lot. And I told her about the doggie pee that someone left behind. It sat there for a week before she cleaned it. She said she saw that and decided to leave it there to teach people a lesson. I said wrong. “You clean it up because it's not fair for me, guests and my neighbors to have to walk over it because you want to teach dog owners in this building a lesson!”

I mean, how stupid is that? If you’re a super, no matter what, supers clean up buildings and tend to things that need fixing. Her and her husband are the supers, but the husband works somewhere else, because he’s never around. So what does she do? Sleep late, because I have never seen her out early in the morning doing anything. She comes out at night. And when it snowed this year a few times, I didn’t see her cleaning up the steps and the front of the building. That’s what you’re suppose to do. What happens if the older people come out and fall? The next day at 2pm, the snow was still high in front of the building and I was walking down the steps very carefully.

On another day, I could not get out of the building. The door knob was busted. So I had to walk out the back way and when I did, I almost slipped because there was ice on the steps. She said to me that she does not have to clean those steps because no one goes back there or is suppose to go back there. I say wrong. If something were to happen, like a fire and people could not get out of the building, they would run out the back. And while they are doing this, you’ll have people slipping and banging their heads on the stairs. I could have hurt myself and then what?

So when that happened, I called the office that day to report the door and icy steps. When I told this to the super, she said, “Oh that was YOU that called.” I said, “Yes!” What if the elderly people had to walk down those icey steps? Use your head, please.

Eventually it got worse and she comes in my face and says, after some blah blah blah, “What are you gonna do?” So I walked her down the hallway nose to nose saying, “I’ll show you what I’m gonna do, so what do you wanna to do, huh? What’s up?”

Question. Why do people say… “What are you gonna do?” And then the other person says, “No, what are YOU gonna do?” I mean, why can’t people just answer the question?

Anyway, now I’ve gone ghetto and am ready to knock her out. I was just waiting for her to show me what she was gonna do. But of course, as always, with big mouth women who think when I’m quiet and nice, that they can pick on me, they soon find out that they can’t. So she walks off calling me names and I can’t seem to understand how calling me a bitch and all was necessary. She was like a stupid girl in high school. If anyone was acting stupid, it surely was NOT me. But should I have raised my voice?

Look, if I can speak to you nicely, then why can’t you? So because I was feeling wrongly handled, I had to defend myself and speak up. It’s only natural. After that, she pulled out a cigarette to smoke. I told her not to smoke by my apartment, then I went inside my apt and before I slammed my door, I said to her, “I’m gonna let you go.”

So, I have decided to write a letter to the management office to complain about their super and how I was verbally abused and harassed and even threaten, I would say. I mean, all she had to do was talk nicely. She said she thought I was smart but now she can see I’m not. I told her, I was bringing myself “down” to "her level" as it was obviously hard for her to speak to me like an adult. Had she just spoken to me the right way, none of this would have happened.

Eventually she apologized, but it didn’t work for me. The damage was done. I should have never given her son a motorized scooter 4 years ago. I could have sold it, but instead, I wanted to be nice and make the boy happy. I’m quiet in my apartment. I don’t walk hard, cause she lives underneath me. I’m considerate of my neighbors especially at night. I am just so tired of being nice to people and then I get shit like this. And all this went on in front of my guest and my new neighbor, who was hearing all the shit. I know how I am, so I’m not worried. But to make me look bad, it’s just not right. But she’s going to regret it and I know just the way to make her feel bad. I guess I’ll have to walk hard and annoy her now and maybe wake her up at 3am by dropping a small weight every now and then. How about that?

But in the end, I don't bother anyone. I like peace and people that mind their own business. :)