TODAY

Drama Queen candidates
Back-stabbing, ankle-biting sluts ... and the women who loved them

Contestant No. 1
Contestant No. 2
Contestant No. 3

Vote now!

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TABLE TALK

Are you afraid of becoming your mother? Discuss in Table Talk

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ARCHIVES

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Mamafesto
By Camille Peri
Why it's time
for Mothers Who Think

[ CONTESTANT No. 2 ]

SO I SLEPT WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND. JUST GET OVER IT.
By Carolyn Capps
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"Can I borrow your red sweater? I have to wear it, it shows off my best feature, my breasts ... We're out of milk, is there a chance you can pick some up on your way home from the office ... You know I'll just die if I can't have milk in my morning coffee."

These were the types of requests I was used to hearing from my roommate, Tina, a graphic artist with a flair for theatrics whenever she didn't get what she wanted.

When I first introduced my boyfriend, Jared, to my roommate, she could barely conceal her disgust. Jared was of Japanese descent, and Tina had recently been fired by the Japanese design firm she'd been employed at for over two years. Her supervisor, a thin Japanese man, had not minced words during her exit interview, telling her she "had a bad attitude, and no one liked her work."

After their initial meeting, she began taping "cartoons" all over the apartment, depicting Asian men with small genitalia. Where she got these mystified me. Maybe she was drawing them herself. But no matter what, she was doing it to offend me and my new guy. Jared just shrugged her off, saying she was just jealous of our happiness.

I believed this until the day I arrived home a day early from a business trip to Brazil. My flight got in at 6 a.m. and I hopped a cab to make my trip home quicker. Tina wasn't expecting me for another day so I tried to quietly enter the apartment.

Imagine my surprise when I entered my own bedroom and saw Tina naked and asleep in my bed, with my boyfriend next to her. Not only did they both betray me, but in my own damn bed! Burning the sheets and them would have been the right thing to do, but instead I turned on the light, screamed at them and left the premises immediately.

I moved out shortly after the incident and Jared pursued me for months, swearing that Tina "seduced" him after many drinks. Tina said she was just "fucking over" Japanese men in general and for me not to take it personally. Yeah, right. Her subsequent battle with alcoholism did not incite any pity from me, nor did his pleas for forgiveness. What a pair of assholes!

My new one-bedroom apartment was more expensive but secure in one thing: I would be living with someone I could trust -- myself.
SALON | Feb. 25, 1998

Contestant No. 1 | Contestant No. 2 | Contestant No. 3 | Vote now!