In yesterday's post, I explained how I got Jadd as a roommate. Today, I'll go into detail why we stopped sharing the same apartment. It's pretty much the beginning of the end.
Jadd came across some information about this Shakespeare company based on the East Coast that was going to be holding auditions. They traveled around to schools and did repertory productions of some of Shakespeare's plays. If he was selected, he would be committing a year to this company. This would mean he would be moving out.
Before he left to go audition, a phone call came in for him. I answered it. The person on the other end said she wanted to hire Jadd to work a convention in which he would be helping to promote cell phones. His resume with his agent stated that he was able to juggle and that's what they needed someone to do. They said the job would be for three days and he would get paid $200 a day. It happened to be scheduled right before he was supposed to fly out of San Diego. I told her I couldn't speak for him, but I knew he would be very interested. When he came home, I gave him the message. Yes, he was very interested and was happy to make some money before heading out.
Before he left for the audition, I told him that I was probably going to eat all the food he had in the house because I was really low on money. He didn't have a problem with it.
(I will go into further detail about Jadd's audition in a future post. I need the space of a full article to explain what happened.) He did get the job. He called me to let me know so I could turn in my month's notice to the property management company as he was going to be doing the same. This meant I was going to have to go through the roommate search again, but I knew I wasn't going to pay for it this time.
When Jadd came back to San Diego, one of his friends was supposed to pick him up at the airport, but he didn't show up. Jadd called me and I was able to get him. I found him waiting at the curb and called over to him. In the time he had been gone, I had some good news. I'd gotten two part-time jobs, but he was too tired to get really excited about it.
As we were preparing to move out, we had to defrost the refrigerator as the freezer had a three-inch thick layer of ice inside. I asked him if he'd ever defrosted a refrigerator before. He shook his head no. I explained that we needed to keep an eye on the freezer because we didn't want all the ice to melt and get water all over the inside of the fridge. I told him that if he was ever home and he heard a loud crash, that meant the upper layer of ice had collapsed and he would need to remove it and put it in the sink. He looked at me like he didn't believe anything could make that much noise just falling five inches.
One day, I came home and he said, "Oh, man! It happened just like you said it would! I heard the loud crash, opened the freezer and the top part had caved in." I guess he really didn't think I knew what I was talking about.
Before we moved out, he had to have his old roommate come by and sign a release for the deposit. Her name was still on the lease and if he didn't get her signature, the deposit check would have been made out to both of them and he wouldn't have been able to cash it. When she came over, I could tell that he was REALLY into her and it was too bad she had a boyfriend. Otherwise, I probably would have heard some more sneezing coming out of his room.
When we were working to pay our final bills before moving out, I got some good news in the mail. A program I had signed up for with Pacific Bell when I was living with Chez would give me 300 free minutes of long distance if our long distance averaged more than $30 a month for six months. As is turned out, Chez and all her long distance calls made my bill average around $200 a month. Right before we moved out, I received three coupons worth $10 each. Even better, they didn't have to be used on a phone account in my name. Jadd and I were able to use them toward our phone bill.
The day came that Jadd was to leave San Diego and go to the airport. His friend, the same person who was supposed to pick him up at the airport and whom he had just sold his USPS jeep to, was supposed to show up at a certain time to drive him over. But he didn't show up at the scheduled time. Jadd asked if I could drive him instead. I agreed. A few minutes later, his friend showed up and Jadd gave him a dirty look while maintaining a smile. His friend exclaimed, "Oooh! He gave me the evil eye!" They were able to leave in a timely manner and that was the last time I ever saw him.
I did speak to him a couple of weeks later when he found out he'd received his deposit refund in his postal mail box (at the same location I would set up a postal mail box a couple of years later). After I retrieved the check, deposit summary and our final bills, we figured out how much we would receive from the deposit based on the summary. (They claimed my bathroom was messy and charged for cleaning it, so that was money I lost. But I know I got that bathroom as clean as possible.) I was to deposit the check into his bank account. (It did not need to be endorsed.) He would send me a check for my share. I did get that in the mail about a week later.
I never heard from him again. Less than a year later, I had produced my first (and only) cassette release of my original music and I wanted to send him a copy. I still had his father's phone number. I called him up and he gave me the address to send to the members of the traveling company. I never heard back from him.
But I do know what has happened to him. He went on to appear in several stage productions across the country and appears to have been able to make a living in the theatrical field. He has also been providing lessons for children who want to learn how to do Shakespearean-style acting. It doesn't look like he's ever gotten married or had children, but I could be wrong.
One interesting thing about the period in which I was living with Jadd was that, even though we became roommates soon after my debacle with Chez, I don't believe I ever mentioned her or burdened him with what I went through prior to meeting him.
I"m sorry that we didn't become better friends. I thought we had a lot in common, but some people can in a place in which they feel it's fruitless to be friends with someone through no fault of their own. I certainly don't hold that against him.
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