A little over two years ago my wife and I got a new roommate and immediately I could tell it was going to be a struggle. We volunteered to let her live with us, so I can't really complain but...
Don't get me wrong, we love her. She's family and she's amazing a fair amount of the time. But, she has some issues. Like when she first moved in with us, her sleeping habits were atrocious. She'd be up in the middle of the night just screaming and when we'd go in her room to see what in the world was wrong, she'd want milk. MILK! In the middle of the night! And then she'd puke half of it up, of course, because whose stomach can handle that much dairy at 3AM?
Her room smelled like shit. Literally, all the time. My wife and I had to intervene. The stink was outrageous. And, her eating habits? You wouldn't believe! Every meal; every snack; EVERYWHERE. We're cleaning up behind her constantly. And she never offers to help. Sometimes I see her with a bowl of, say, yogurt, and I'm like, "Goddamn it, she's going to slam her face in that and then paint the wall with it." And I'm right every time! And does she clean it up when she's finished? No way. She just runs off and pretends like it never happened.
Now, I suppose I should mention (if you haven't figured it out already) our roommate is not all there. Physically, mentally, emotionally, she has some developmental issues. We have to help out a lot. You'd think there'd be some kind of assistance for people with her condition, but NOOO. It's all on us. We try to help her along by reading these really simple books and we're like, "Okay, it's a blue ball, we get it already. How can she not understand this?" It takes a lot of patience. I think she's starting to come along. We're able to read like 30 page books now, as long as there are a lot of pictures. But again, we love her. She's family. We volunteered. Whatever.
Sometimes, she can be a lot of fun. She has pretty simple interests. She'll laugh at silly faces and run around squealing with joy over nothing. We just go outside and you'd think she's at six flags. Her ability to find joy in the littlest things is one of her most endearing qualities. She's like a little zen master with how in the moment she is. One moment she's completely focused on, say, a puzzle, and the next minute she's running around the house dancing and singing because her favorite song came on Pandora. I know that doesn't sound focused, but she doesn't let the fact that she's only put one piece of the puzzle together get to her. I would be out of my head leaving a puzzle lying on the floor with only one piece in place, but when that moment is over for her, she's out. On to the next thing! And completely in the moment with whatever the next thing is. Needless to say, this leaves the house in constant disarray. I beg her to clean it up and she picks up like two things and runs off again. And then, if I get upset, she loses her mind.
Which brings me another issue. I'm pretty sure she has a personality disorder. Her moods...holy shit ya'll. They're insane. Like the other day when we were just sitting at the table having a meal together and she's intensely focused on putting her food onto every square inch of her body not covered by the giant smock I now make her wear, and out of nowhere she just starts screaming for this stuffed bear that she drags around everywhere. The thing is disgusting, and she's always putting it in her mouth. So gross. My wife and I bought two more of them and we swap them out and wash it when she's not looking just we don't have to smell it anymore. But that's beside the point, which is that she just starts screaming out of nowhere for this thing, and I'm like, "Look, I don't know where you left your bear. It's your bear. Besides, we're having dinner here, can you just forget about that inanimate yeast-infected friend of yours for half an hour? Geez!" And then she cries and I feel like the bad guy. But at the same time, I'm not getting up to go find that thing just so she can cover him with peanut butter and jelly (Oh yeah! The stuff she eats! There are like four things in the entire world that this girl will eat for every meal. It's amazing she's alive, much less has her boundless energy every second of the day). So, then, she throws an absolute fit. I mean crying and yelling and flopping herself down on the table and throwing food and utensils. Who acts like that? Seriously?
So, I don't know what we're going to do. Supposedly, her condition gets better over time. I'm not sure how long exactly, but when you live with someone like this there's a whole community of people going through the same thing and you all get kind of close. I hear it might take a couple decades before she can live on her own, and even then she'll need us to intervene periodically for like another five or ten years. It's rough ya'll. And expensive! Did I mention expensive? And she doesn't even work! But, at least we get the little windows of joy--and it really is pure unadulterated joy. Like, all the bad stuff I'm talking about, she is just as intensely positive when her mood swings. So, I guess we'll just hang in there and see what happens. Hopefully, we can teach her a few things and get her out of our house someday. Until then, we'll just try to stay patient and love her. Family is family. What are ya gonna do?
