Living on Your Own, Friday

[tyler_gone]

Tyler waited just a second for any stragglers before launching into his lecture. "So you guys came back," he said, dryly. "Which is good, 'cause this week we start with the first thing you need to do when you end up on your own: Find a place to live."

"Assuming you don't have any money, which you probably won't, you have a couple options. You can be homeless and crash in shelters or sleep on the street. That's really only a choice if you wanna get robbed, beaten, all of that. You can stay with friends until they get sick of you. I'd recommend that, myself, but it depends on you having patient friends with a couch."

"If you want a place that's yours, squatting is a popular choice. Just pick a building nobody's living in or too interested in, maybe a big house on the edge of town, and move your stuff in. Might not be the most comfortable place you ever stayed, lot of times the power's off, but it's yours and probably more space than you could afford. Disadvantage is, it's not exactly legal."

"As far as affordable but legal options go? You probably aren't gonna move right into your own penthouse. Easiest thing is to find a roommate. You can do that through your local alternative paper, on a web site like craigslist, or if you wanna throw around a bunch of money, through a service. Don't rush into it, however you do it -- you have to live with this person until you find a new place. Here is a handout about what to ask a roommate, and there's actually some good advice in it. Ideally you want a friend, not just some person you grunt at in the mornings."

He glanced down at his notes. "That's about it. Today in class, you're going to role-play some roommate scenarios. Let me or Meg know if it doesn't make sense, otherwise, I'll be around."

Comments

Roommate Exercise [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Here's how this works; tag into the scenario that interests you the most, then wait for a partner. Decide who's Person A and who's Person B however you want.

Roommate Exercise #1 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Person A who bears no resemblance whatsoever to one of my bad roommates, really won't do their dishes, and Berson B finds rotting food in the sink. In fact, it looks like there might be maggots.

Re: Roommate Exercise #1 [7/18]

[likethegun]

Sam was very grateful that he hadn't had this problem yet. Sure, things got messy when his dad was on a case, but at least the dishes and laundry were always done.

Roommate Exercise #2 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Person A is dating somebody Person B can't stand, and they keep being loud in the middle of the night

Re: Roommate Exercise #2 [7/18]

[intraspective]

Well, whatever, Ino figured this scenario would be interesting enough. She looked around for a partner.

Roommate Exercise #3 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

There's a foot of standing water in the basement. Person A and Person B need to decide whether they should fix it themselves or call the plumber.

Re: Roommate Exercise #3 [7/18]

[isourking.livejournal.com]

This would be pretty much the situation Ron would be in so...

Yep. Here he is.

Re: Roommate Exercise #7 [7/18]

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cassandra wandered over and vaguely looked at Ron.

Re: Roommate Exercise #7 [7/18]

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"You know anything about plumbing?" Ron asked.

Re: Roommate Exercise #7 [7/18]

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Um..." Cassandra temporized. "That's the one with the pipes, right?"

Re: Roommate Exercise #7 [7/18]

[isourking.livejournal.com]

...

"Yeah. I'm thinking a plumber is our best call."

Roommate Exercise #4 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Person A has an insane crush on housemate Person B, who could not be less interested. In fact, Person A is the wrong gender.

Re: Roommate Exercise #4 [7/18]

[thatsamilkshake]

Sadly, Francine could see this in her future like a glowing beacon of suck, flashing out "Get Your Suck Here, 50% Off Our Usual Low Low Prices."

Because if he was cute and nice and not married, of course he was going to be gay.

She looked resignedly around for her future fake cute nice gay roommate.

Re: Roommate Exercise #4 [7/18]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Wow, Francine," Katchoo remarked, wandering over with just the hint of a smirk on her face. "I didn't know you swung that way."

Re: Roommate Exercise #4 [7/18]

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine matched smirk with WTF. "Towards boys that don't want to date me? Where've you been?"

Re: Roommate Exercise #4 [7/18]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Comforting them," Katchoo said promptly, feigning innocence and doing it (deliberately) badly. "You mean you never noticed all this time they come crying to me when they realize who you've been pining after all this time and get their poor little hearts broken?"

Roommate Exercise #5 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Person A, who owns the house, is trying to kick out her roommates for nonpayment of rent, and Person B needs to get Person C to pay her share.

Roommate Exercise #6 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

The Board of Health has come by and declared your squat condemned. Persons A and B need to figure out what to do next.

Re: Roommate Exercise #6 [7/18]

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

Michael glanced around for a partner.

Re: Roommate Exercise #6 [7/18]

[heromaniac]

Momoko chose the scenario about squats. Carrying her notebook with her, she bounced over and smiled.

"Hi! Can I be your partner for this session? My name's Momoko, and I'm new to Fandom so I'm not very familiar with the idea of squats but I think I know one guy in my world who does it and he's a criminal. Do we have to be bad to live in a squat? That wasn't in the lecture."

Re: Roommate Exercise #6 [7/18]

[rebelheartalien.livejournal.com]

"...hi, Momoko, I'm Michael. No, you don't have to be bad, you just have to be poor."

Re: Roommate Exercise #6 [7/18]

[heromaniac]

"Ah. I see. Well he certainly is." Momoko nodded and thought about the scenario for a moment.

"So, our house - can it be a house? - just got condemned and we're poor. If we're not criminals, can't we just go to the mayor's office and tell them that we live there and that it's our home so they shouldn't condemn us and make us move out?"

Roommate Exercise #7 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Person A's significant other is staying over all the time, messing up the bathroom, and not paying rent. Person B needs to ask about this, preferably without starting a fight.

Re: Roommate Exercise #7 [7/18]

[minnesota-teen.livejournal.com]

Amber chose this scenerio because really, talk about making her mad. Depending on whether she was A or B. In this case, she'd really like to be B.

Roommate Exercise #8 [7/18]

[tyler_gone]

Person A ate all of Person B's peanut butter and didn't replace it, and Person B is jonesing for a PBJ.