Ticked: The Continued Story of the Communal Refridgerator

[debka_notion]

Item 1: Early this semester, I went grocery shopping, put my groceries in the communal hall fridge, since I thought my former roommate was coming to pick up her fridge any day. By about a week later, three of my 7 yoghurts had been stolen.

Item 2: Last week, I made a fruit salad to bring to a Shabbat lunch. I put the bowl in the communal fridge, by the next day at lunch time, the bag around the bowl had been ripped open, and all the peaches but two slices had been stolen out and eaten presumably, and the rest of the salad had been mixed (in an attempt, perhaps, to hide the theft- heh).

Item 3: Went to retrieve the bowl from the fridge so I could empty the left over fruit salad and use it to make a new one of the same for tonight's dinner. THis time, they've frickin' stollen my Bowl. What the heck could someone want with a cheap large mixing bowl? Guess I'm making fruit salad in two small bowls instead. Grr.

Comments

[skyblue-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Have you tried labeling stuff (i.e., Maya, Room#, do not touch) or talking to your CA? Or, if Tova has a refrigerator, maybe you could use hers?

Good luck. I'd offer some space in my refrigerator, but I don't think that would help so much.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Tried it. And as it turns out, Miriam is using Her communal fridge, and is letting me use hers, so it's only an issue with large items. Guess I'll just have to use smaller containers.

[tovaks.livejournal.com]

Of course, you're welcome to use my fridge if necessary--I keep it kosher so my friends can eat when they come over. :)
--Tova

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

item 1: theres no d in refrigerator

item 2: college students are damn dirty thieves

item 3: labels, as suggested by skyblue_dreamer, often work really well. they manage to remind the sticky fingered bastards that, you know, things dont just show up in the communal frig with no owner.

item 4: maybe you should hatch some elaborate scheme to catch someone stealing your food

item 5: failing that, write up a bitchy paragraph or twelve about it being a communal frig, not a communist frig and how people need to have some goddamn respect for other peoples things and tape it up all over whatever communal space it is that houses the communal frig

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Item 1: Thank you

Item 2: Apparently so.

Item 3: been there, tried that. No help.

Item 4: Sleep in the common space? Not sure it's worth it. CA threatened cameras, apparently cannot follow through on said threat.

Item 5: Tried that. There are 2 such signs up already. I think I need to wallpaper the fridge in "Thou Shalt Not Steal" in several languages, and "Stealing FOod is Still Theft".

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Oh, it probably is. But it's the sort of thing that would solve the problem if left there for just long enough to form a habit of not stealing... As long as its temporary, I could easily approve of it.

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

item 1. any time

item 2. i think in most cases its a result of growing up under conditions of extreme material privilege

item 3. brandeis kids may be pretty exceptionally shameless (when all else fails, resort to generalization)

item 4. i said elaborate. does sleeping in the common space sound elaborate, maya? come on. im talking pulleys and alarms and hamster wheels. at the very least you should be able to incorporate an inclined plane. whats a ca? is that like an ra? and youre probably better off without cameras. my life is pretty thoroughly surveilled, and its some creepy ass big brother shit.

item 5. you can always get your own apartment with your own frig, or at least, a communal frig with a significantly narrowed down list of potential thieves. i bet theres plenty of comparably convenient, comparably priced off-campus housing options. or, at least, thats how it is here.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Item 4: I'm a humanities major. Where do you expect me to procure hamsters from? I don't think there Are pet shops in Waltham. SImilar problem with acquiring pulleys. Maybe I can get one of those science types to put something together- some sort of alarm or fingerprint-catcher or somthing...

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Ah, the tragedy of the commons...

Hey, you could try lecturing them about economic theory until they run away in fear.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

That would involve finding them. If so, I think invoking the spirit of my mother's guilt trips might do more good.

On the other hand- are you sure that yuou and "lj user="jessebeller"> aren't in cohoots?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure, seeing as we've only met once, and that about four years ago

What does "CA" stand for? Unless you have a resident California.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry- forgot that happened right after you graduated. At the beginning of last year, they decided that Community Advisor sounded better, or was more in or something than Resident Advisor, and we've had CAs in the place of RAs ever since.

[belu.livejournal.com]

I heard somewhere that one of the problems with the term 'RA' was that they had somewhat of a negative connotation, as in "The RA broke up the party and made us pour out all our booze," while 'CA' had not gotten that connotation. It'll be interesting to see what Reslife comes up with after a while when nobody remembers there being RAs and there's an image problem where "The CA broke up the party and made us pour out all our booze," which you know they're still going to do to the poor little froshlings.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Hmm- in my mind the only negative connotation my RA had freshman year was his tendency to play very loud music when I was trying to nap- but he was nice and turned it down on request. But then, I wasn't your average frosh, apparently. I was once or twice the one Wishing the RA would break up the party on the other side of me so I could frickin' sleep.

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

holy moses, ive met you?
who are you, exactly?

i gather yer a brandeis alum?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I was one of the Egal gabbaim back when you visited Brandeis.