Hard Times Out Of The Maritimes

So I'm up in the gym, just workin' on fitness last Thursday. My phone has a text from my roommate saying bad news. Now, maybe he's joking? He was supposed to talk to his dad in China about getting money to pay the Shaw bill. So maybe he's setting me up for a real laugh, although it would be pretty out of character for him to do so. So I get outside and call him, maybe hoping for a taste of the news to come. He says he'll talk to me when I come home. Huh. Weird, maybe he's waiting for me to walk in the door, and he'll turn on the TV, and we'll see a rerun of America's Funniest Home Videos on our restored cable. When I finally did get home, a home video of a cat falling off a TV was the last thing on my mind.

I come in and ask him what's up. He says we need to be out. By tomorrow afternoon. You see, he hasn't been paying his half of the rent since December. Since I moved in with him, we pretty much had a "Notice to End Tenancy" on the door a few days into the month. But he's always worked something out. But this is new management, and they're not taking any of his shit anymore. The day before this, I saw him "organizing" some stuff, so he told me. He thought they weren't serious when they said he had to be out by Friday at 4pm, when they change the locks. So he didn't tell me then, maybe he didn't want to worry me. Regardless, this leaves me having to pack EVERYTHING I own in one night, with about five minutes warning. So I start ripping down posters, and taking some paint off the walls with 'em. Like I care. My name wasn't on the rent, thankfully, so I won't get screwed down the road because of this. Good thing I kept my mailing address in Nova Scotia.

I start calling people, asking them if I can, well, live with them until I find a new place. Luckily, I get something arranged for the next week or so, plus I get some help moving all my stuff. It isn't until you move that you realize how much useless crap you have. Way too many clothes. Plus, I bought $50 worth of groceries over the past two days, and there was no way I was leaving that behind. So I had to move bags of that stuff too. What a pain.

So now it's back to the fun game of looking for an affordable apartment close to my school in downtown Vancouver BC; a daunting task, to be certain. I'm a little better off now than when I first moved here, as far as knowing the areas of the city goes, and it's not the time of year when a bunch of students move into new places. Plus, I have someone to look for a place with me. Which also creates a problem.

She told me that her dad put in an application to a place, and, in the heat of the excitement of maybe just having a place, I said I'd move in with her. But we haven't heard back from the place yet. So looks like we're going hunting during my week off, which should actually be easier when you're looking with someone; 2 bedrooms between two people is usually cheaper than a studio for one person. The problem arrives in the form of another place possibly being available to me, but me being bound to this other person by my word, something I would never want to go back on. The other possibly available place I speak of is a room in a house, for a pretty good price, and only a few SkyTrain stops from the school.

I like the house I'm staying in now. For some reason, I feel more at home here over the two days, than I ever did in the months I spent at my apartment. Maybe it's the fact that I actually like the people here, maybe it's the pets, maybe it's just the fact that it's a house and not an apartment; but it's nice. I'll keep everyone posted as developments transpire.

I have my first paying acting gig tomorrow. Something called "Walla". No, that's not the name of the show, it's when actors stand around and talk to each other and get paid for it. Yep. The audio is recorded in a studio and is used for ambient noise in public areas, such as a school, restaurant, or tattoo parlor. Should be fun. Or dreadfully boring, either way, it's monies for me.

And I get to see the greatest band in the world on Wednesday. So it looks like all is not bad in the world of Will. All living arrangement issues aside, everything is pretty peachy. Oh, and I shaved, so please enjoy these amusing photographs of the shaving process, complete with final product: