My roommate is still unemployed and I know he's not looking for work. I know this not because I've asked but because he's one of those "too much information"-type people.
By default, he is primed to tell you things that have happened to him whether you've asked him or not. While this habit can be annoying to some, it's convenient for quiet-types such as myself.
Had he been going on interviews, he would have been telling me about them or at least blogging about them. Had he been putting out applications without getting callbacks, his frustration about such a situation would be known. His silence regarding his job hunts is a damning one indeed.
I'm annoyed that I gave him forms for the Census, only to have them be summarily ignored. I pointed out that my store was offering a position starting at $10/hr. He never filled out an application and now the job has finally been filled. I "love" his sense of urgency here. What an asshole...
I don't know when his benefits run out or if he qualifies for an extension of them. I don't even know what to root for. If he gets an unemployment extension, he'll simply remain at home not looking for work because he's a parasite both to me as a roommate and to the system (your tax dollars [not] at work people!) and not look for work until it's absolutely necessary for him to do so which if I'm "lucky" will not happen until after the lease is up so I can get out of here [which I really don't want to do...I like it here and resent that he's effectively making me move...I have good neighbors...I have a nice, large, relatively problem-free apartment...he has no idea how much I resent him for doing this] but if I'm not "lucky", I'll get to watch him scrambling like a high school student on the night before his month-ago-assigned essay is due.
If he's denied his benefits [which he really should be, if only for the sake of righteousness], then I'll be put in the position where he may not be able to pay his share of the bills and he'll either attempt to stay without paying [with me doing everything possible to deny him things like electricity, cable, and internet] or he'll flee thinking that if he doesn't live here that he will no longer be obligated to pay his half of the rent. Either way I'd have to sue him...a necessary, but not a desirable outcome.
Then there's also his continuing "masseur business". I'm fairly certain he's still doing that one but this one he's not talking about. Since this "activity" does not receive broadbased support/encouragement from his friends (and especially me), he's grown quiet about it. His pattern is a simple one: if people are supportive [or at least neutral], the rule of TMI holds. Since there's no way he could expect to be supported by his friends that he is leeching off the system, he doesn't talk about the fact that he lazes about on the couch all day; that he's not looking for work; and that he's happy to let me do all the fucking work around here. When my roommate goes quiet, it's because he's doing something wrong. Ugh...I hate having to hope that this "work" will yield enough income for us to part amicably.
Unless by a miracle he secures a job, I have no happy ending options...only frustrating ones. I don't want to live by myself. Doing so feels like an endgame for me...like my story is over. I'll feel as though I will have bottomed out with my life-options and never climb up out of them. A roommate affords me a more luxurious life but I've run out of people whom I can trust. Once I'm on my own, I can't see myself moving again except by miracle [read: move in with a fiancée] or by force or by poverty. Why would I want to take a chance on another roommate if it'll just mean moving again after a year or two? I'm tired of moving but I also don't look forward to officially living a lonely life.....
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