New Job and Moving Update

[nemorathwald]

I almost certainly got the part-time web dev/design job in Ypsilanti which I applied for. J took an excellent job in Denver, which will let her work remotely from here until she moves out there in December. I'm staying here to finish my web development certificate, which will finish in May. Five months is a long time, so I won't prepare premature plans past that point.

J spent a few weeks in Chicago, interviewing with a different company every day. I was really rooting for Chicago to win. I would have been happy to move there with her. Chicago is in driving distance of Madison WI, Cleveland OH, Lansing MI, and here-- where people are located who I know and want to spend time with. It has SF conventions and fans who I know. It's within driving distance of Penguicon, ConFusion, U-Con, GenCon, Origins, and Buckeye Game Fest. It even has Chicago Toy and Game Fair and a game publisher who wants to look at my board games for publication.

I spent a day in a Motel 6 in Denver once. It is a 24-hour drive from here, each way. It is within driving distance of nowhere. I know exactly one person there, who I only met once. For calling upon the powers of my social network to help me, that is like Kryptonite.

I have been considering an offer to move to Southfield, MI in December, a few miles north of where I live now. An elderly lady would like a roommate to do ten hours of chores per week in exchange for free rent. That's an appealing prospect, because I would live within a mile or two of many of my friends, and I could put the rent money in the bank to more easily pay back my student loans.

The downsides would be, in descending order of importance:
1. She holds a bible study in the apartment every week.
2. Limitations on visitors. I currently enjoy three or four game nights per week in my current home, and a woman can stay the night in my current home without feeling super-awkward about my roommate.
3. Due to a severe allergy, no latex or soft rubber of any kind in the apartment. (Rubber bands which hold my game boxes together. The grip of my drawing tablet pen. Condoms.)
4. No ice cream in the apartment.

That sounds workable, if I can find someplace else to be during the bible study. On the one hand, she seems like a very friendly and accepting person on the phone, and happy to find workarounds for problems. On the other hand, it also sounds like the setup to a sitcom, doesn't it? "One is an itinerant, sexually-active, vocally-non-religious technophile who can live under any domestic conditions! The other is a fragile elderly churchgoer! What could possibly go wrong?"

Do not misunderstand this to be an act of desperation. I am able to pay rent with my student loans. I'd just rather leverage my advantages:

1. No one depends on me.
2. I have very few possessions.
3. I have no domestic needs beyond broadband internet access, running water, a fridge and range, a cot, and a door or curtain for privacy.

So, why not put rent money in the bank? Is it smart financial planning? Or setting myself up for tension? What do you think?

Comments

[jodybrai.livejournal.com]

I need to tell you the story of my old roommate/landlady, Collette. She used a cheap room to attract and convert heathens, and decided I was a devil when her pastor died shortly after I moved in, after she had been badgering me about going to church with her. (I never met the man, and he was in his 80's) Shortly after, she called the police, threatened me with a gun, and demanded that I vacate the premises immediately, after trying to "confiscate" my computer and other personal items, claiming that they had come with the room.

All in all, not a fun couple of months. I'm not saying that anything like that is happening here, but the idea of little-old-lady-shows-kindness-and-converts-heathens isn't unheard of.

If that is what this person is planning, I'd say she is going to have a very rude awakening trying to deal with you! In some ways, I look forward to hearing about it if you do take her up, and if she does turn out to be an overeager evangelist, LOL. On the other hand, it could invite stress. . .

If you are so close, however, Nikki and I would love to play host to at least some of your accustomed game nights. That's what the front room is for, after all!

If you do end up there, just down the street, Nikki and I would be happy to play host to at least a few of your accustomed games. That's what the front room is for, after all!

[desfontaines.livejournal.com]

(of course, you're also welcome to have use of the ice cream maker here to make whatever flavor floats your fancy in a home that is quite all right with such things) ;)