I am an idiot....

At least, I don't always think before acting, which I think is a form of stupidity in itself. I think I may have started a floor war today... and for a really dumb reason.

What happened was this: I got back from the library at about 6 pm. (I have to backtrack a little... sorry.) Now, I had spent some time before dinner sweeping up dirt clods in the hall because I didn't want to step on them and track dirt all over the place. So the hall was shiny clean when I left for dinner.

So, when I arrived back at 6pm, I was quite angry to find that someone had spilled what appeared to be guinea pig treats all over the floor in front of my door. You know, pieces of dried corn and peas, and other brightly colored veggies. So I asked my next door neighbor about it. Apparently, one of the girls across the hall had had a friend over, and the friend spilled some sort of instant noodle product all over the hallway. They did not stop to clean up. Instead, they supposedly laughed and went on their merry way.

I see no reason to be sympathetic with this sort of attitude. If this person had been in across the hall, I would have asked them, firmly but politely, to clean up. I would have been happy to lend them a broom. But, here's the part where I was stupid and prideful. I frankly don't see why I should clean up after them. On the other hand, I didn't want to be stepping on corn and peas and bits of noodle until God-knows-when. So what I did was this: I swept up the mess into a nice, neat pile...right in front of the offending person's door. I knew this was a dumb idea, for several reaons that I don't feel like articulating. The main reason it was dumb is that I knew such an action would have a high possibility of making the person across the hall really pissed off at me. And yet, I didn't really care. In fact, I still don't really care if they get pissed.

What worries me is the possibility of a floor war. That would suck major ass, especially since it's so minor a thing to get worked up about. But it's not a situation I can easily rectify at this point. I don't really want to 'fess up that I was the person who made the pile. On the other hand, I absolutely refuse to clean up someone else's mess like that; dirt clods are a little different in that I really don't know who made them, and they were just generally all over the hall. This was different. I took such a behavior as a total lack of respect for not only the hall, but for me. I mean, even if they didn't care enough to respect that we all have to share this space, they should have thought "Hey, maybe the person who lives right here might not like to have foodstuffs strewn directly in their path."

So, when I finally crawled out of my room after watching anime for about five hours, I noticed that the nice little pile had been redistributed (read: kicked) down the hall. Fortunately, there wasn't anything near my door. If there had been, I don't know what I might have done. I still don't know exactly what to do-- the mess still isn't cleaned up, and I want it cleaned. No one should have to step on other people's crunchy messes.

~ciao