how i learned to stop worrying and love room mate drama
several room mates of mine, both past and present, are moving on to self-perceived greener pastures: new apartments, new roommates of their own and even new cities; i am genuinely excited and happy for them and i look forward to warming a house or two in the near future.
when a roomate comes or goes, there's certainly a sentiment of uncertainty in the air. and the specter of the big selfish question that looms over me will always be - "how is this going to affect me?" it's something you can't help ask yourself, for as perceiveably independent as i am, i am not. i am interdependent.
and as much as that interdependence safeguards my interests, there are always more powerful interests at play that will cause a roomate to "buy out" so to speak and cash in their chips. so far, in the last 8 months i've lived at this house, i've endured roomates leaving because of:
-room mate has child
-room mate couple breaking up
-room mate and outisde g/f (who happens to be future roomate) breaking up
-room mate fed up with miami*
*(sasha hasn't left yet, but that's the scaled-down version of why he's leaving)
so that's four room mate switches in less than a year! four, which is coincedentally the same number of people that live in our house. so we've essentially emptied the house and re-populated it (not really) in the last year.
when i first moved into this house, i was told that the room i was occupying was a 'revolving door', that the person staying there is always the first to move out, yada yada, etc. so i find it quite amazing that i have outlasted certain long-entrenched incumbent members of this house.
however, i want to make it clear that i don't relish the fact that i've been able to stay put while my other former roomates have experienced trails and tribulations. what i do relish is that for the first time in 4 years, i will be living in the same place for a second consecutive year!
my housing situation in the past has been tumultuous and tenuous to say the least:
The Roads (may 2004 - april 2005)
Ber-blanc-me-salgue House (may 2005 - april 2006)
Folk's House (may 2006 - june 2007)
"Current House" (july 2007 - present!)
there is nothing i hate more than moving and i've done enough of it to last me a good long while! (and though i'm scared to declare it out of fear that unexpectedly our landlord will not renew our lease) i'm very happy to say that for another year, i have a place to stay!! (and thus saving me the $1000+ of having to find a new place)
sure, you might look at our house and exclaim (sometimes quite accurately) - "what a dump!" but it's MY dump at least and although it sounds rather strange to say, i think i've had a certain "communion" with this house and that's why "it" hasn't kicked me out yet.
of course that's not to say skye, mike, jose and sasha don't/or didn't have the same communion and thus the house was out to get them. that's preposterous and all in all the house didn't do it to them. the house can't do anything. it's inanimate. but i always seem to bond somewhat with the place that i live. maybe because i'm a home-body or something, i dunno.
but here's hoping this blog post doesn't come back to bite me in the ass in may!
and congratulations to all roomies, past and present for your continued endeavours.
when a roomate comes or goes, there's certainly a sentiment of uncertainty in the air. and the specter of the big selfish question that looms over me will always be - "how is this going to affect me?" it's something you can't help ask yourself, for as perceiveably independent as i am, i am not. i am interdependent.
and as much as that interdependence safeguards my interests, there are always more powerful interests at play that will cause a roomate to "buy out" so to speak and cash in their chips. so far, in the last 8 months i've lived at this house, i've endured roomates leaving because of:
-room mate has child
-room mate couple breaking up
-room mate and outisde g/f (who happens to be future roomate) breaking up
-room mate fed up with miami*
*(sasha hasn't left yet, but that's the scaled-down version of why he's leaving)
so that's four room mate switches in less than a year! four, which is coincedentally the same number of people that live in our house. so we've essentially emptied the house and re-populated it (not really) in the last year.
when i first moved into this house, i was told that the room i was occupying was a 'revolving door', that the person staying there is always the first to move out, yada yada, etc. so i find it quite amazing that i have outlasted certain long-entrenched incumbent members of this house.
however, i want to make it clear that i don't relish the fact that i've been able to stay put while my other former roomates have experienced trails and tribulations. what i do relish is that for the first time in 4 years, i will be living in the same place for a second consecutive year!
my housing situation in the past has been tumultuous and tenuous to say the least:
The Roads (may 2004 - april 2005)
Ber-blanc-me-salgue House (may 2005 - april 2006)
Folk's House (may 2006 - june 2007)
"Current House" (july 2007 - present!)
there is nothing i hate more than moving and i've done enough of it to last me a good long while! (and though i'm scared to declare it out of fear that unexpectedly our landlord will not renew our lease) i'm very happy to say that for another year, i have a place to stay!! (and thus saving me the $1000+ of having to find a new place)
sure, you might look at our house and exclaim (sometimes quite accurately) - "what a dump!" but it's MY dump at least and although it sounds rather strange to say, i think i've had a certain "communion" with this house and that's why "it" hasn't kicked me out yet.
of course that's not to say skye, mike, jose and sasha don't/or didn't have the same communion and thus the house was out to get them. that's preposterous and all in all the house didn't do it to them. the house can't do anything. it's inanimate. but i always seem to bond somewhat with the place that i live. maybe because i'm a home-body or something, i dunno.
but here's hoping this blog post doesn't come back to bite me in the ass in may!
and congratulations to all roomies, past and present for your continued endeavours.