mental case...

I'm here in Denver... more to come about what I'm doing and the amazing trip out here... but that's for later.

I just have to comment on a mental case here. Everyone's at lunch and I have no one to tell this story to and, for those who know me and my stories, it's very difficult for me to contain them or my excitement to share them.

I was just down in the basement of our dorm where the laundry room is. I'd been waiting for days to get a chance at a washer and I was slowly pulling my wet clothes out and stuffing them in a bag since I guess I have to wait a few more days to dry them. I'm in my own world, completely zoned out, yet contemplating the fact that someone found this creepy building in a haunted Denver book and I'm alone in the basement, when I hear this awful scream right behind me. I turn around and there's this girl banging her head against a table full of clean laundry and screaming and whimpering.

I figured she was elated that I was pulling my clothes out of a washer and she was free to finally use it so I said, "Yeah, I'm done here." But she didn't take a moment to listen. She was off on this rant about how she tried to get back early and this is the third time she's washed these clothes and "This just aint how I treat my clothes!" and maybe a few "I'm going to go crazy"s mixed in. I tried to control her but she was violent and screaming and I tried to tell her "it's no big deal" that someone had taken her clean clothes out of the dryer when they were done so they could use it, but she got this horrified look on her face and screamed even louder, "I can't wear my clothes after someone's touched them! These are personal! I can't put these on my body! They're dirty now!"

Meanwhile I've just set my bag of wet laundry down and I'm backing out of the room like she has a gun pointed at me. I stood in the doorway trying to console her but finally I couldn't take it any longer. I yelled, "I just can't... handle you anymore!" and took off down the hallway.

I think the only other time I've felt so stressed in my life was when a Zion visitor this summer pulled up to my window yelling obscenities (I assumed) in German. He talked a mile a minute and wouldn't pause to give me a chance to talk and I finally had to scream at the top of my lungs "Just stop talking for a moment!" (which caused a whole line of traffic behind him to stick their confused heads out their windows). Now I've learned that you're supposed to deal with these mental cases with silence.

... I just went downstairs to see if there's a dryer ready but there were girl's clothes in one of them and now I'm too afraid to touch anything.