After I returned from my vacation and did my phone interview with the unemployment people, I had to set about finding a roommate to move in with. I decided to pay to enroll in a roommate matching service. I made an appointment to go the nearby Postal Annex to sign up. I put down my anticipated rent and areas I was willing to move to. I really didn't want to get too far away from the part of San Diego that I lived in, so I kept my options pretty limited. This all turned out to be a big waste of money.
When I looked at the available listings after paying the fee, virtually everyone looking for a roommate was either outside my rent range or the distance I was willing to move. I figured I could try again the next week as I could keep looking for a whole month. However, the night after I registered I got a couple of phone calls from people who were looking to have roommates move in. They sounded DESPERATE! Almost as if they wouldn't be able to afford the next month's rent if someone didn't move in. Since I still had a few weeks left in my apartment (I wasn't going to move out until July 7th), I wasn't in that big a rush to agree to something right away. On top of this, the people who called were from National City and Chula Vista.
I looked in the classifieds to find people looking for roommates. I came across this one person who lived on Cleveland Ave. His name was Jadd. We arranged to meet at his apartment. He was 26 years old and somewhat resembled Tom Hanks if he had blond hair. He was very fit and trim. I told him about my situation with being jobless, but that I would be receiving unemployment, so I'd be able to make the rent every month. He told me that he was an actor. He didn't have a regular job, either. He did temp work for a company that provided costumed characters for children's birthday parties. He also worked with children learning how to act at the San Diego Junior Theatre and did other odd jobs from time to time. He said he always managed to make enough to pay for rent and his bills. As an actor, he played Romeo in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" for the San Diego Shakespeare Festival. But getting paying gigs in local theatre productions was really tough.
I told him that I also had a degree in theatre, and tried to do some acting, but it really didn't pan out. One of the things he asked about was my furniture. I told him I had a sleeper sofa, a bed and a TV. He was interested in that because he didn't have a TV and his current roommate would be taking her TV with her. He told me that the only things he had to watch on TV were "Law & Order," "The Simpsons" and "Seinfeld." He said he still had a couple of other people to talk to about the apartment and that he would be getting back to me soon. I told him I thought he would be a good roommate and that we would get along very well.
A few days later, he called me up and told me he had chosen me to be his new roommate. He just needed to have me pay my half of the rent and the deposit. I was able to pay the rent, but not all of the deposit. He said that wouldn't be a problem. The old roommate wasn't in a real rush to receive her share. As it turned out, the day I moved in was the day I managed to get the money to pay the deposit after selling the crib I had. I brought it over so he could get it to the old roommate, who was supposed to come over that day to get the rest of her stuff.
I came back by later to move some more stuff in and the old roommate was there. She was a very attractive woman about my age. She had mid-length light brunette hair and a nice tan. I asked her what it was like living with Jadd. She said she really didn't know because she was rarely there at the apartment. She spent most of her time at her boyfriend's place, but said he was nice and they got along okay during the times they were together in the apartment.
I had managed to get the guy from the Hillcrest Cinemas who got fired a week before I did to help move the heavy stuff. As usual, I had to pay him in pizza. We ordered a Bigfoot pizza that was available from Pizza Hut at that time. Jadd had helped us get the sleeper sofa in, so he was also entitled to the pizza. My moving-in pizza tradition continued.
Things went very well between Jadd and me during the time that we lived together, but we were never really friends. If we were watching TV together, I would sit on the sleeper sofa and he would sit on his chair against the back wall of the living room. We would talk to each other while watching TV, but it was always awkward for me to have to turn my head almost completely around to address him. The only time we both sat on the couch was when a female friend came over during the rerun of the 4th season finale of "Seinfeld." She also sat on the couch with us.
As for his work doing costumed characters for children's parties, I came home one day to find a Barney the Dinosaur costume in pieces on his furniture. It was a funny sight to greet me. He told me he'd also dressed up as Aladdin and worn a dalmatian costume. The odd thing about the Barney costume was that it wasn't exactly Barney. It like of looked like him, but the hue of purple was considerably darker and the person wearing the costume would have purple fingered gloves on his hands instead of the "claws" that Barney typically sported on TV. It wasn't a job he liked, but he did it to get some income. One time, I heard him talking to the employer on the phone. He wanted Jadd to do a dalmatian party in August and he told him no. "That costume is too hot for this time of year and I'm not going to do it!"
Jadd told me that he was going to have a female friend from a few years back stay with us a few days. He had planned several things to do with her while she was in town, like going to the beach, going to see a movie and so forth. She was also planning to spend some time in Los Angeles, so she wasn't going to be with us the whole time she was here. She would return and stay a couple of days before she went back home. When she was at the apartment, she slept in his room and he slept on the sleeper sofa. It turned out to be a good arrangement. I hardly saw her.
The final night she was in the apartment, I was awakened by a noise. It sounded like Jadd was sneezing several times in rapid succession. Then I realized it was coming from his room. And then the thought struck me: HE'S NOT SNEEZING! THEY'RE HAVING SEX!!!! And I could hear some sounds emanating from her, but she wasn't as loud. I was freaking out. I'd never been so close to two people making love before (that I knew of).
But the one thing I didn't know was how I was going to act around them the next day. I knew something had happened between them and it was going to be very awkward for me. When I woke up the next morning, his bedroom door was closed and the sleeper sofa was back in place. Later, Jadd came out of his room. She had already left. This was a relief. Just him, I could deal with like nothing had happened and I don't think he knew that I knew. I mean, I certainly did not high-five him. THAT really would have been awkward.
There was never anything else as unexpected that happened while we were roommates, but our time together ended rather abruptly. More on that tomorrow.
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