Early in 2002, after I had become a lot more secure in my job at Walmart, Abed and Pesd decided they wanted to move into a new apartment. We had been having issues with mold and she felt like it was affecting her health. They wanted to get their own place. This meant I was going to have to find a new living situation.
I didn't think I was making enough money to get my own place, so I figured I would have to find a roommate situation. I remember how relatively easy it was to find roommates a little more than seven years earlier. However, that was when I was in my 20s. I would soon discover that it would be more difficult in my 30s. Making it more difficult was my work hours. At the time, I appeared to be on a permanent 4pm to 1am schedule. After work, I would come home and watch TV until 4am before falling asleep. I don't know how I got into that routine, but I didn't seem to be disturbing Abed and Pesd.
I combed through the roommate ads in the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Reader. I found a few prospects. I came across a couple of residences that catered to renting rooms to college students. I really felt like I didn't belong there and the vibe that I got from the current residents was that they felt uncomfortable having me there because I wasn't taking classes. I wasn't going through the same things they were going through. I was working and would be spending free time watching TV in my room. They were all (supposedly) going to be studying during their free time.
I recall one woman who had one rule: You could not go into the room of another resident, even if they invited you. I don't know what happened before that she had to pass that edict, but I'll bet there had been property damage.
I really didn't want to move in with a female roommate, but my options were becoming rather limited. I talked to this one woman who was 49 years old. She was an artist. (And I was surprised I'd never met her in my dealings with other artists that I knew in San Diego.) She had one room in a two-bedroom apartment that she used as a studio, but was going to have to rent it out because money had suddenly become tight for her. I thought we connected rather well and she even called Abed for a recommendation. He told her that they hardly ever saw me and that they never heard me coming home in the middle of the night. They also never heard me watching TV until 4am. He thought he talked me up pretty well. But she decided to go with someone else.
I went to another multi-room apartment to see about moving in. I met this woman. There were four bedrooms in this apartment that happened to be about a half-mile away from the Walmart where I worked. She appeared to be in her late 40s/early 50s. She was wearing a black and white uniform. It looked like she worked the front desk at a hotel. She appeared to be rather humorless and was all business. I really couldn't get a read on whether she could even tolerate me. But she told me that she called me in because I was 37 years old and they were looking for older roommates. However, I don't think she liked the part where I would be coming in the apartment in the middle of the night. I never did hear back from her. But a few months later, she came through my line at Walmart. I said to her, "Hey! I tried to become your roommate." She had a rather disturbed look on her face, similar to how she looked when I told her my hours. The man she was with said, "Well, it's a good thing you didn't start living with us, because we had to move out of there!" I never saw them again.
And as my deadline for finding a roommate was getting closer, I met with another woman in a four-bedroom apartment. She was in her late 40s and seemed rather friendly She didn't initially appear to have an issue with my hours. One of the other roommates called me up to have a chat to see if I would be suitable for living with them. He told me that he had applied for Walmart, too. He'd also recently lost a good-paying job and he was just looking for any kind of work.
The only problem was that it took a long time for them to get back to me. In the meantime, I had found my own apartment to move into. (I'll have an article about that on Monday.) After I had paid my deposit and rent, I left her a voice mail message telling her I'd found my own living arrangements and they no longer needed to consider me to be a roommate. It felt good to be the one making the rejection.
However, a few days later, she called me up to tell me that they had decided not to choose me to be the new roommate. "What? I left a message telling you I'd found my own place." "Oh, I guess I never got that message." This made me mad. I wound up getting rejected anyway!
But I was glad to have my own place, so it was still worth it.
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