Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Roommate concerns in Indy

It's been far too long since my last post here, so allow me to provide some brief background information: I'm settled in to Greenwood, IN (just south of Indianapolis) and living with Delphi and two other roommates. They're tolerable, most of the time, but the infamous wonder twins certainly get on both Delphi's and my nerves from time to time. They rarely clean up after themselves and blame us for the mess, they have a cat that they'd never asked either of us for permission on and that technically violates the lease, they never lock the door when they leave or enter the apartment... I could go on, but ranting on the Internet isn't going to change any of those things. In short, though, they're far from ideal roommates but usually don't cause anything terrible to happen.

In the last month or so, Delphi introduced me to some of his friends up in Carmel (just north of Indy). We hit it off well, to say the least, and I've spent each of the last several weekends up there, hanging out for board games, food, and the like. The lease up there runs out in July (a month later than the one here) and they've suggested I move in with them. I've hesitated to take them up on the offer, in part because I still might be resuming my role as a truck driver and thus have little reason to pay rent on a place that I'd never be staying at. There are four of them sharing a three-bedroom townhouse; two are in one bedroom and one in each of the other two. Up until this morning I'd been idly batting the idea around, but hadn't really had much of a reason to push for that

Remember how I'd previously said that the wonder twins usually don't cause chaos? Well, it was caused this morning. I woke up around 11 AM to the sound of one roommate shouting at the other to let him in, followed by the sound of breaking glass. At first I thought it was someone's ex coming back to start something, but I found out within a minute or two that it was just the two of them being ... well, "wonderful." The one who wouldn't let the other in basically freaked out, refusing to do anything about the situation. The rental office was closed, apparently, so they haven't been informed of the situation. Delphi provided the number for the 24-hour maintenance line, but the offending roommate decided to not call them, instead wanting to get quotes from independent contractors for window replacement rather than get it taken care of as quickly as possible. So we have a half-broken window and no plan on getting it fixed. This adds yet another reason for the apartment complex to evict us, one that would be pretty obvious without them doing an inspection.

I've elaborated the situation to the furs in Carmel, and they made the offer more interesting: they'd move around such that two of them are in each of two bedrooms, leaving me the third bedroom to myself. The monthly cost would be about the same ($260) for the time being, though I already know that they're extremely unlikely to renew the lease and I'd have to move yet again by summer. This would be quite impractical, if not for a rather interesting job opening: a spot in operations in Indianapolis. That's right: I could hypothetically stay with Schneider and just transfer to an office job with a stable schedule, the same benefits, and the perk of not having to drive all over the place 25 days a month. I originally got into the job because I wanted to travel... I think that I've done enough of that for now and wouldn't mind switching to a different part of the business.

If I end up in an office job - with Schneider or otherwise - I'd have little reason not to move in somewhere on a more permanent basis. Delphi's planning on moving in with a friend of his when the lease runs out here at the end of June, so continuing to live with him isn't an option under any circumstances. The furs up in Carmel are going to disperse at the end of July, but the two that are sticking around have expressed interest in me staying with them; they'll just need to find a new place to live as the current one (at $1,300 a month including utilities, Internet, etc.) wouldn't be affordable for just three people. The sooner I decide what I'm going to do, the sooner I can work with them on trying to find a new place that is both convenient to everyone and reasonably priced. But that also requires that I commit to moving in with them and paying rent for the next twelve months, something that I can't justify doing unless I'm going to be staying local.

All of this stuff needs to happen in pretty short order. If the wonder twins do end up getting us evicted, we'll have as little as 72 hours to get everything moved out. I could probably get my stuff taken care of within 12 hours, if I have somewhere to go lined up; at worst I could temporarily get a room at an extended stay place while the details are ironed out. I don't have much faith in things remaining stable here through the end of June, so getting out earlier might be a good idea... but it requires that I have somewhere to go and reasonable confidence that I'll be staying there as opposed to going back on the road for several weeks at a time. I haven't prepared a resumé since a computing class in my first year of college and I don't think that I have much to put on one of those regardless. I haven't really looked at apartments in ages, so I wouldn't have a lot to go on there. I'm basically kinda left hanging here, with time steadily ticking away, and only a vague plan to fall back on if shit hits the fan.

So.... help?