CHOOSE RANT

Title:   Live-In part one Day:    February 23rd, 2000 Author:  Ruiner				I am about to lose my cool. And it's not like I had that much to start with… Hindsight: Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be a nice guy. Or a couple of nice guys. Rarely do I bring very personal issues into the fray on this website. This one is more for my therapy than general humor. The Past: Near the end of the year, as Y2K loomed closer, my roommate and I had an occasional visitor. A particular female that we knew, not a really good friend, but a friend of a friend. That kind of deal. She had been close to the couple that lived in the house before us and I guess some habits just die hard. She hangs out, talks, smokes. Just one of the widening circle of friends. It seemed like no big thing. Fast Forward (beginning of January): This female comes to us in dire need. Apparently she had been kicked out of her parents' house for allowing one of her male friends to spend the night without their consent. Oh, and he was in her bed. She proclaimed innocence. I'm gonna try to stay away from my opinions on that. So who does she come to first? Yes, the two bachelors with a place of their own. She says she has other friends where she can stay, so she won't always be in our face, just until she can get a place of her own. Given that I thought her parents were being unreasonable bastards, we decided 'Hey. Why not? She can stay… for a while.' Forward (week 1): The girl has moved her stuff into our house. Her other victims, I mean friends, fall through, leaving her only to stay at our house. So the encroachment comes, much like an infection. She takes up a sizeable section of our dining room and sleeps on the couch in the 'living room'. It's not so bad, because me and the roomie, we're good guys. We're helping someone out. Forward (week 2): She's comfortably living at our place. Nothing seems to have changed with her predicament. She's saving up money for some stupid trip to Russia, but what about another place? The irritation begins. For one thing, she smokes these nasty Newports. (Which, let me take a brief tangent. I do not like cigarettes. I'll occasionally smoke a cigar, but I cannot stand the tiny cancer sticks o'doom. They give me headaches if I get too much smoke around me. And they leave your clothes stinking, even if you're not the one enhaling. I endure though, because so many of us smoke. And Marlboros? They aren't that bad. But these Newports, they smell godawful.) Forward (week 3): Snow and ice blankets the land, causing some of us to miss work. I live in this bizarre county with a weather pattern similar to the Bermuda Triangle, yet cold. It may not precipitate where I work at (I commute), but my home can be a winter wonderland. So some of us are out of work and at home most of the day. We have visitors, since this is reminiscent of days we used to have in high school. Chilling playing video games, stocking up on microwave food. The good ol' days. Ah, but yes we have that new 'roommate', if you choose to call her that. I think she got sort've possessive. She acted aggravated that some of the others were around, as if it were her house. With her screwy work schedule, it's not like we were keeping her up when she had to go to work the next morning. I think she just didn't like the guys sleeping down in her area. Something about them snoring. Too bad. Forward (week 4): The motherload of winter weather hits North Carolina, effectively trapping us in our homes. Luckily for us, it is a respite, because she got trapped out at her future roommate's house. The guy that she got kicked out over, she stayed out at his house and got trapped there by twenty inches of snow. It was very nice, an absence of her being around. And it beggared the question: why isn't she just staying with him and his mom in the first place? Still, a startling realization was made. We were happy that she wasn't around. Forward (week 5): She returns to us, thrilled to be away from her trapped condition. But her demeanor towards us has changed into that of a fully vested roommate. She actually had the nerve to ask me not to do something because it would interfere with what she had planned. I was nice, not pointing out that it was my house and it was through my grace that she still stayed there. I allowed her to dictate my actions, and instead went upstairs and seethed. Not a good thing - for her. Forward (week 6): What once was passing friendship has twisted and mutated into growing resentment. I no longer feel truly comfortable in my own house, at least not when she is around. I find myself happy to see her leaving, and spirits drop when she returns. What my friends deem as my use of 'true sarcasm' comes out when talking to her, snide comments meant to inflict tiny barbs of distress. Of course, she counters with the great ability to mooch and show no hint of conscience. You know I have to wonder: does she choose to disregard how things have become or is she just so stupid that she doesn't realize what an inconvenience she's become? At the end of the week, she makes the announcement that she's got a place and her and her friend are supposed to move in Monday. Hallelujah, rejoice, party down! Many smiled and cheered at hearing the news in my house. Now things would slowly begin to right themselves. Of course, that's if you put faith in some people to accomplish what they say. Forward: (week 7): Wow, has it been nearly two months? Seems like almost a year. Monday I come home, expecting to find some of her stuff gone. Nothing has changed, except it's a bigger mess than before. Okay, I realize the moving stages are never very pretty. But she comes home, driving some rental Blazer she's picked up for the move. And she tells me that they can't move in today. Apparently the intended roommate didn't realize that one needed money to start off with. You know, a deposit, money to turn utilities on, simple shit like that. Of course neither of them are brain children, I'll be free to admit. And so, realizing that Jason was the prophet of doom on this one, I'll admit that things are screwed. He had said that he'd bet she wasn't going to be out of the house this week. Myself, I was just too idealistically thrilled to disbelieve it. I was so thoroughly pissed to hear of this revelation. When my roommate returned home, it was time for Emergency Meeting A. We discussed it and made our decision. Girl gotta go. Come a week from that Monday, she had to be out of the house. Current: (week 9): She's gone. Been gone for a week, believe it or not. It seemed that the schedule worked out okay, with her leaving and all. I'm still at that point where I don't want to see her face anymore. She dropped by last night, but I was upstairs playing on the computer as always. I thought I heard her voice, but I copped out and let the roommate deal with her. No need for me to get aggravated once more. I've got some more stuff to rant on this topic, but I'm going to let it rest now. Let it simmer for a while. And I'll see if she ever swings by and checks out my page, as I'm itching for a confrontation. The whole trial of her living with us boils down to that simple question: At what point should people stop incoveniencing themselves in an attempt to be humanitarian and help others out? B.Mooney