sad news

my friend the_kender posted the news that vine deloria, jr.--activist, writer, and professor--died today. he was instrumental in the beginning of the american indian movement (AIM), wrote a number of books about ideologies of american indian oppression (including "custer died for your sins," "god is red," and "red earth, white lies"), and worked as a history professor at the u of colorado at boulder. his son, philip, has followed in his footsteps (his book is called "playing indian").

grrrroooowwwwlll

since jester died, and i don't plan to adopt another pet until i finish my degree and get a job, i contacted R, my building manager, about getting my pet deposit back. the previous building manager, D, had required me to put a $500 deposit on my apartment with a $350 pet deposit. so R just informed me that i'm getting $500 back because everyone else in my building only had to put $350 deposits on their apartments. apparently D just "did her own thing," and for some reason decided to hit *me* with a huge deposit. i complained about it at the time, because i thought $850 was a ridiculously large deposit--i also had to come up with the first months' rent, which was $575 at the time--but D stood firm, claiming that the landlord required that much. i wanted the place, so i said OK. now i find out that nobody else in the entire building ever had to pay that much, cat or no cat, and that D had misrepresented the landlord's pet deposit policy to me.

so i'm happy to be getting more back than i expected, but annoyed that this money was tied up for 2-1/2 years for no reason (and bearing interest for someone else).