Update

I'm not a liar, you did party, and yes, you deserve that violation on your door!

So, I'm making a dent in this long period of 8 months without school. Another semester off due to funds, this is my first time going through the Financial Leave semester at U of M, but certainly not the first in my college career. In the meantime, I'm an Assistant Manager at an apartment community and enjoying a paid singing gig as the Alto section leader at Our Lady of Mount Carmel (I was the Soprano, but when we realized that we were going to be alto-less, I volunteered to take the job).

I love this apartment community because it gives me more experience in a management position. So many managers insist on doing everything except leasing without an Assistant but my supervisor lets me basically take of the property on my own. I love it. I love walking empty apartments, ordering new appliances and carpet from merchants, working with subcontractors and making decisions regarding residents.

However, with that responsibility comes the fear of the ever-popular angry resident. In this case, it's entirely unjustified. Basically, loud reckless party took place at her apartment and almost every resident in her building complained. After sending them the violation, her boyfriend called to bawl me out and to deny most of it. The frustrating part was: I SAW most of it. I was here, snowed in at the office late that night (I even noted that in my Facebook status updates!). The apartment is very close the our office, so I could see everything that occured and I was infuriated that they chose to behave in such a disrespectful manner to their neighbors.

The whole story has climaxed today so far with the resident coming into my office, yelling at me and calling me a liar when I related to her that I saw everything. For the first time in my life, I told a resident to get out of my office. I told her that I would speak to her when she was calm enough to refrain from name calling (plenty of profanity went into that "liar" comment), but until then she could leave my office. I've never been so aggressive before and I am still shaking-even though it happened over an hour ago.

The closest case happened in 2002 when, after having to tell a resident that she wouldn't receive a resident referral bonus for our newest move-ins, as they never told me that she referred them (which was our company policy), she threatened me with her fist in my face. I told her to get her fist out of my face, to which she did, swore at me, and stomped away. Two days later, an insulting review on Apartmentratings.com showed up, calling me "the leasing agent who needs class/education". It was one of the more hurtful things anyone has ever done. Despite my best efforts, Apartmentratings.com refused to take that comment off the site. It's still there even today.

I hate residents who are so aggressive. When you don't follow the rules-expect to get a negative response! In the case of today's resident, she had 20-30 people in a 1025 square foot apartment partying until 6 am and her guests threw-up in the snow outside of her apartment. Five apartments called me to complain-should I really think that they were all out to get her? Or perhaps, she just held a wild party and I, as the representative for my management company, need to make sure that this doesn't happen anymore?

I love this industry but there are SO many apartment renters who are so incredibly irresponsible, rude and unsympathetic to the needs of their neighbors. I get to see the best and worst of people, by seeing where they live. In this case, I'm still shaking and upset, but I won't back down. Not this time. And with an attorney as my ex-husband, I have no problem threatening Apartmentratings.com if a negative comment is posted about me again.

It's my job...to do my job.

Merry Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas Everyone!

The last time I wrote on this page, I was sitting in the library in St Peters College, Oxford. So much has changed since then! I've started my second year at U of M, changed my second major from Medieval History to Voice Performance to work better with my degree in Medieval Musicology, re-established a somewhat odd and very open relationship with my ex-husband (yeah, I'll work on that...sorry), started putting together my first CD, restablished myself in the apartment industry by taking on a leasing/assistant management position at a small apartment property 10 minutes north of Ann Arbor in Whitmore Lake, attempted and brutally failed by first semester of Latin, attacked one of the hardest arias of my life: Una Voce Poca Fa, subleased my apartment and found a new owner for my cat, moved into a shared house on central campus with four guy roommates, received my first paid singing gig as the Soprano Section leader at Our Lady of Mt Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Wyandotte, and joined the UMS Choral Union-one of my lifelong goals.

This biggest thing in my life right now, is also a HUGE prayer request. I'm low in funds right now, and low in financial aid due to a million issues. If I can't find the funds needed, I won't be in school for the winter semester. I'd rather not winter off, as it will REALLY push my graduation back. Please pray that I'm able to find the funds I need!

This is probably going to my last xanga post for a while. I've moved over to Facebook for a while now, and as lazy as this sounds, I'm usually really busy between three jobs and my classes. It's tough to update both sites.

So, I hope everyone on xanga has a happy holiday season! If you haven't already, please friend me on facebook! You can find me under: Katy Vaitkevicius-Wyner.

Merry Christmas!

Tripping over my shoes attempting to make things even worse, if that's possible.

Sorry, no beautiful stories of the UK today. It's a boring Friday, the first day in a while that I've had a moment or two to think and nowhere to go.

So, to be honest, here I am, roaming the streets of Oxford w/ a nasty hangover from lasty night, listening to Eminem blaring at me from my Ipod Shuffle, regretting being a blabbermouth moron last night who let the Malibu, Strongbow and Bacardi talk for her.

Trailer trash? Maybe just one step shy of it. Maybe that's why I like Eminem so much.

Oxford baby.

Drama Queen reborn.

Update!

First, before getting into details about today's lovely excursion, I need to do a quick shout-out (and this is mainly for my mom who is now apparently reading my xanga).

1) Happy 50th birthday to Michael Flatley. I still love you!!!!!!!

2) RIP to the Romanovs. 90 years ago today, on July 16th, 1918, Nicholas II and his entire family were brutally murdered in their prison in Ekaterinburg, Russia, only days before the Monarchists arrived in the Urals to liberate them. The family was shot and stabbed to death, then hastily buried. The USSR covered the murder for years but their shallow grave was finally discovered in 1989, revealed to the public in 1992 and the bones were properly buried in St Petersburg in 2005. A few months ago, the two missing children: Tsarevitch Alexsey and daughter Marie were found in a box kept by the Russian government for over 80 years. They had been separated from the remains of their family to create confusion if the grave was ever found. The family now rests together, and today I am remembering them as innocent victims of the 1917 bloodbath.

Ok, so on to more recent events.

Yesterday I saw the Rosetta stone, which was amazing. However, it didn't compare with today's visit. We left St Peters in Oxford at 8:30 this morning and traveled for almost 2 hours. Finally we hit a long open plane with open grass spaces surrounding us. That was when it loomed up in front of us: Stonehenge! I don't have any pictures yet because I'm still having trouble getting them off my phone due to Verizon Wireless issues in the UK. However, I will post them as soon as I return to the US.

Stonehenge was amazing. It sits in a very isolated area of England, right next to a main freeway. The tourists are no longer permitted to walk through the stones or touch them, but there is a lovely tourist path surrounding them. I was surprised at how primitive they look. I was expecting more of a ruined temple of some sort but they really do look like just well-organized rocks. The effort used to put them in their current settings must have been immense for the neolithic people who built it. It was a perfect day to see Stonehenge. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, there was a strong warm breeze blowing and the tourists were not overcrowding the place. It's hard to explain w/ out pictures, so I'll post some as soon as I can.

After Stonehedge, we visited Saram castle in Salisbury. Old Saram was once the castle in which Eleanor of Aquitaine (the woman I am focusing on in my Medieval Studies here) was held after she lead a rebelion w/ her sons Geoffry and Richard (that's Richard the Lionhearted to the Robin Hood fans reading this) against her husband, King Henry II of England. The only remnants are the lower portions of the walls, due to the fact that most castles were constructed of english limestone-a porous and delicate rock which crumbles easily. The tourist guide had several pieces of armor available for us to look at and most of us posed for pictures wearing the helmets. I chose a mid-12th century helmet which simply has the metal hat covering plate, and a strip of steel covering the bridge of the nose, and also a traditional 13th century helmet which was a full head covering w/ vizor worn down. The 13th century helmet was a nightmare! It was much heavier than I expected, maybe 22 pounds. It was like carrying the heaviest bowling ball imaginable on your head! The piece was fitted w/ leather straps to secure your head. However, I don't think it was a very useful piece of protection. I was blinded to anything not directly in front of me, and my own breathing within the helmet echoed so badly that I would not have been able to hear if someone came up behind me. I was glad when the pictures were taken, and I could get it off my head!

We ended the day in Salisbury, in England's second largest cathedral. I was very impressed because of my background in music. Walking through the cloister (that is the little lawn area surounded by outdoor corridors found in most monasteries and abbeys), I could imagine monks singing or discussing theology. When I was finally able to get inside the Cathedral itself, it was a very emotional experience. The interior space is so vast and it spreads out in the shape of a cross with aisles on either side of the main cathedral so that you could visit the two branching wings where relics were kept. Graves were under us in the floor, in the walls and in lovely tombs surrounding the main nave area. Some were as old as the 13th century, others were as modern as the early 19th century. I was able to hear two choirs-the first was a traditional baptist choir on a trip from Kansas City. I hate to say it, but as wonderful as it was to hear hymns like: "just a closer walk w/ him" again, they didn't belong there. The acoustics twisted our minor half steps and seventh chords which are common in american music and made them sound ugly. The music just didn't fit w/ the serene and ancient environment (the cathedral was completed in 1258). I was much happier later when a children's choir came and sang a Kryie, Credo and Gloria. The latin was much more comfortable in that space and actually created a better ambiance of reverence for God than the baptist choir did.

I was very lucky and allowed to be one of the group members to go upstairs to climb the bell tower. We walked through the roof rafters (Cathedrals have stone ceilings but above that ceiling is a pointed wooden roof) above the stone shell which was the ceiling of the nave. We then climbed three huge flights through tiny ancient stone spiral staircases through the bell tours. Each level had a planked wooden floor with widely spaced planks which allowed you to see exactly how far you could fall. At the very top we were able to be RIGHT NEXT to the bells as they chimed. The stone acoustics were AMAZING, splitting the note into fifths and creating an incredible chord as it echoed and ricocheted throughout the tower. At the top, we were allowed to go out into a small balcony area on the roof overlooking Salisbury. It was amazing to be up so high in a medieval building, with nothing but the wind and a short stone wall between us and the 500 foot drop to the ground. :)

Ok, so that was my day today. This update has been brought to your today by the number 12, the letter K and mom's insistence.