Saturday, May 28

Newlywed Roommate*

When I was 21, my ex-boyfriend kicked me out of our apartment. We'd broken up a few weeks earlier, and it was all on good terms (as good as they could be, anyway) and he wanted to make sure I had a place to live. For once in my life, I was actually taking the responsibility upon myself, and actually looking for a place to live. That's MONUMENTAL, people. I'm the girl who waits for things to fall in her lap. At various times in my life I've thought of that particular 'quirk' as 'waiting for fate' and 'fucking lazy'. Either way, I was taking the initiative.

It didn't end up working out that way. My ex downloaded some sort of keystroke-tracking program on his laptop, and caught me emailing "Hi!" to another ex of mine (who'd recently, I have to admit, become something of a crush again). He called me the next day, at work, to tell me that I needed to be out of the apartment that night. Or else. And my stuff? If I didn't get it all today, that the next day, it would be in the foyer of the apartment building waiting for me to pick it up. I was in shock.

I sat at my desk for a little while, and then decided I had to announce to my employers that I might not be able to work there anymore, unless they thought their receptionist would be well-suited to sleeping in her car in the parking lot, and bathing in the tub before anyone got there in the mornings. (This during my stint at the vet clinic, so it actually was feasible, if not attractive.

One of the vets, however, offered me her spare room, "Until you find your own place". It was the single most kind act anyone had ever shown me, and I still get teary thinking about it. She even borrowed her husband's truck the next day, and us (2) girls spend about an hour loading all my shit from the entryway into the bed of the truck. Did I mention we had about 3 feet of snow that Februrary? Yeah, we rocked.

She let me stay at her house for 2 weeks, until I'd found a room to rent in a girl's condo.

I think that's the reason I don't feel the slightest bit put-out with having a friend stay at my place when he needs a home. M is having some problems with his P, and no one is sure where they will lead. As far as I know, he's looking into getting a duplex nearby, and he and Bruce want to get (temporary) jobs at the telemarketing place that's always hiring. Just so he has some income, and can afford living on his own, until he finds something better.

The past few days, he and P have been hanging out more often, and we're not sure where it'll lead. That's not really the point, though. I'm really welcoming the chance to put that good karma back into the world.

I hope everyone always has somewhere to go when things go to shit and they think they have no where to turn. Even if it's your parents' house. Cause god knows, I've done that a few times, too.
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*Yes, I'm a little eensy bit bitter about the timing, but that can't be helped. The situation, however, can be helped, and that's what really matters.

4 comments:

Larry said...

Timing sucks, but glad to hear you gus are willing to put up a friend for a while.

My ex and I had to do that for her brother's god daughter for a few months. Her and her mom weren't getting aloong and she was about to just leave with nowhere to go. We offered, she moved in, realized it was a bitch being independant and called her grandparents. It sucked having her live there most of the time but at least she wasn't going form friends house to friends house to friends house to car and she ended up going back to school and getting a good job which is what she was arguing with her mom about in the first place.

Sunny said...

Sounds like it all worked out in the end.

Ours is at the point where it's more of a.. I hate to use the word 'daycare', but how to describe somewhere you take someone to spend the majority of the day, only to pick them up and take them home later on?

It's not as weird as it sounds, I swear.

Larry said...

Sometimes I felt like babysitter myself.

Jess said...

Good for both of you for being so welcoming. I can feel that good karma entering the world.