New Home, New Troubles and a Friend's Jail-Time
The Past Week Has Been Hell
http://www.polycat.net/trent/archives/000436.php
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
If you're one of the two people that read this blog (one of which being me ^_^), then you've most likely been wondering why there hasn't been an update in about two weeks. Well, let me spread some light on the situation that has been my life for the last two weeks. To begin, let me say that on May 1st, I needed to be completely moved out of the college dorms; however, I was not allowed to move into my new two-room apartment (which is located about a mile away from the campus) until May 3rd. Neither the dorm director was going to budge on letting me stay two extra days, and the realtor was definitely adamant about me NOT moving into the apartment until noon on May 3rd (in hindsight, my realtor was just a bitch about a lot of things, and would not budge on anything). So, this was the first bump in what was going to be a very, very bumpy week.
My original plan was going to involve me renting a minivan, storing all my stuff into it on the morning of May 1st (we had to be out of the dorms by 11am), and then just live in one of the University of Michigan's great libraries (no kidding, I was just going to sleep on a couch, and write a bunch of stuff for FileFront in preparation for E3). However, the night before I was to rent my van and move out of the dorms, I got the feeling that I should really call the rental company and make sure that I could rent the car; while on the phone, they asked to confirm my age was over 25. What... the... fuck?! This would've been some great information to tell me before the last minute! So, it's now 9pm on a Friday night, so I was totally screwed in finding another rental company; especially now that I found out a lot of company's have a minimum age of 25 years old. Now, some companies would rent to anyone above 18, but the cost would have been almost three times the normal price (more than $100/day). No way was that happening. So, I looked around, made some calls; and ended up staying with one of my soon-to-be coworkers from Stardock. It was a fun weekend, filled with lots of movies; and I can't thank the guy enough for housing me for the weekend. Completely non-stressful and just plain enjoyable weekend, took my mind off of a lot of the things that were bugging me (the new apartment, starting a new job at Stardock, girl troubles - more on this later, etc.).
Of course, this all changed come May 3rd. The guy I was staying with let me take his blazer (which had all my stuff in it) to drop off everything at my new apartment once he went to work, which is another example of just how far this guy went for me. Wish I could've paid him back more, but all I did was fill up his car, because I knew that he couldn't shove that back down my throat when he saw me (he wouldn't let me pay for anything)... I also meant to leave a couple twenties on the car's dashboard, but I forgot, which pissed me off, but I digress. Anyway, you'd have to be from the area to understand how much traveling I did, but, to give you a rough idea, I traveled to every city AROUND the place I needed to go to. I started off in Livonia (wanting to go to Ann Arbor), then went to Northville, then to Novi, then Plymouth, then Southfield, then back to Livonia, then to Plymouth again, and I finally ended up in Ann Arbor. A 20-minute trip turned out to be about a 2.5 hour trip. I rock. Anyway, once I finally got to the realtor, I was writing a check to pay for the security deposit (which I end up getting back when I move out), and she told me that I "needed to pay with cash." I just sat in awe. What kind of business only takes cash? "Oh, you can pay with a money order too." Thanks bitch. So this caused a nice half-hour delay in moving in. But after that, it was a pretty smooth process.
Anyhoo, after some unpacking, I arrived back at Stardock to drop the guy's car off... Then this is where things start to go to shit again. I'm not going to mention the details of this, for legal reasons, but, basically, I found out that there had been miscommunication between myself and another Stardock guy, and that I didn't have the transportation to work that I thought I did. So, I had until the end of the week to find transportation, which, basically, involved me buying a car and getting insurance on said car. Well, I'll be honest; I'm dead broke at this point. I have about $350 in the bank. I just moved into a new apartment, which means I have to pay rent and be able to get food for myself. Also, being a college student at the University of Michigan, I really had no need for a car, other than during the summer, as everything I need is within walking distance. So, paying for insurance (about $250-300/month for a 19 year old living in a city, and driving an old used car) on top of buying a $1000-1500 car, totaling a max of $1800 as an initial investment, on top of trying to pay rent which is $600/month, split between two people is $300/month (plus internet, $40/month, and electricity, ~$50/month; which would end in my share being $45/month), and that’s a $1000-1500 car, plus around $645/month. This would mean that I’d be bringing home roughly a quarter of what I made each week, in terms of profit. And some of that would have to be put towards groceries.
All in all, I just had to face the fact that I would not be able to work at Stardock this summer, thus making the primary reason why I got the apartment in Ann Arbor for the summer kind of pointless. However, since I had already put down the first month’s rent, and breaking the lease would cause me to lose my $600 security deposit, there’s no way in hell that I was backing out of the deal. However, the whole situation is kind of depressing. I, however, tend to be a very optimistic person, so I wasn’t about to let all this get me down. Hell, at least I still had my job as a journalist over at FileFront; and being that the following week was E3 (May 12-14 to be specific), it meant I had a lot of work that I could do, which means I was financially set for this month. However, it also meant that I should probably find another 20 hour/week job working as a waiter, or working at the local Borders or something. Not quite as career-advancing as a game programmer, but hey, gotta make due with the cards you’re dealt.
I was quick to discover that working an internet-centric job is a hard thing to do when one doesn’t have access to the internet in one’s apartment though. So, I called Comcast to set-up a date for someone to come set everything up in my apartment so I could quickly get back online. First three calls ended up with me getting hung-up on in the process of going through the various menus. The fourth call resulted in someone who couldn’t operate the computer she was using, and was unable to get my address punched in. The fifth resulted in me setting up an appointment for Sunday (it was currently Monday); but said that I should call back the next couple days to see if any other times opened up. So I did so, and one of the people set up an installation date for Wednesday (it was Tuesday when I called, and the receptionist said “How does tomorrow at
My original plan was going to involve me renting a minivan, storing all my stuff into it on the morning of May 1st (we had to be out of the dorms by 11am), and then just live in one of the University of Michigan's great libraries (no kidding, I was just going to sleep on a couch, and write a bunch of stuff for FileFront in preparation for E3). However, the night before I was to rent my van and move out of the dorms, I got the feeling that I should really call the rental company and make sure that I could rent the car; while on the phone, they asked to confirm my age was over 25. What... the... fuck?! This would've been some great information to tell me before the last minute! So, it's now 9pm on a Friday night, so I was totally screwed in finding another rental company; especially now that I found out a lot of company's have a minimum age of 25 years old. Now, some companies would rent to anyone above 18, but the cost would have been almost three times the normal price (more than $100/day). No way was that happening. So, I looked around, made some calls; and ended up staying with one of my soon-to-be coworkers from Stardock. It was a fun weekend, filled with lots of movies; and I can't thank the guy enough for housing me for the weekend. Completely non-stressful and just plain enjoyable weekend, took my mind off of a lot of the things that were bugging me (the new apartment, starting a new job at Stardock, girl troubles - more on this later, etc.).
Of course, this all changed come May 3rd. The guy I was staying with let me take his blazer (which had all my stuff in it) to drop off everything at my new apartment once he went to work, which is another example of just how far this guy went for me. Wish I could've paid him back more, but all I did was fill up his car, because I knew that he couldn't shove that back down my throat when he saw me (he wouldn't let me pay for anything)... I also meant to leave a couple twenties on the car's dashboard, but I forgot, which pissed me off, but I digress. Anyway, you'd have to be from the area to understand how much traveling I did, but, to give you a rough idea, I traveled to every city AROUND the place I needed to go to. I started off in Livonia (wanting to go to Ann Arbor), then went to Northville, then to Novi, then Plymouth, then Southfield, then back to Livonia, then to Plymouth again, and I finally ended up in Ann Arbor. A 20-minute trip turned out to be about a 2.5 hour trip. I rock. Anyway, once I finally got to the realtor, I was writing a check to pay for the security deposit (which I end up getting back when I move out), and she told me that I "needed to pay with cash." I just sat in awe. What kind of business only takes cash? "Oh, you can pay with a money order too." Thanks bitch. So this caused a nice half-hour delay in moving in. But after that, it was a pretty smooth process.
Anyhoo, after some unpacking, I arrived back at Stardock to drop the guy's car off... Then this is where things start to go to shit again. I'm not going to mention the details of this, for legal reasons, but, basically, I found out that there had been miscommunication between myself and another Stardock guy, and that I didn't have the transportation to work that I thought I did. So, I had until the end of the week to find transportation, which, basically, involved me buying a car and getting insurance on said car. Well, I'll be honest; I'm dead broke at this point. I have about $350 in the bank. I just moved into a new apartment, which means I have to pay rent and be able to get food for myself. Also, being a college student at the University of Michigan, I really had no need for a car, other than during the summer, as everything I need is within walking distance. So, paying for insurance (about $250-300/month for a 19 year old living in a city, and driving an old used car) on top of buying a $1000-1500 car, totaling a max of $1800 as an initial investment, on top of trying to pay rent which is $600/month, split between two people is $300/month (plus internet, $40/month, and electricity, ~$50/month; which would end in my share being $45/month), and that’s a $1000-1500 car, plus around $645/month. This would mean that I’d be bringing home roughly a quarter of what I made each week, in terms of profit. And some of that would have to be put towards groceries.
All in all, I just had to face the fact that I would not be able to work at Stardock this summer, thus making the primary reason why I got the apartment in Ann Arbor for the summer kind of pointless. However, since I had already put down the first month’s rent, and breaking the lease would cause me to lose my $600 security deposit, there’s no way in hell that I was backing out of the deal. However, the whole situation is kind of depressing. I, however, tend to be a very optimistic person, so I wasn’t about to let all this get me down. Hell, at least I still had my job as a journalist over at FileFront; and being that the following week was E3 (May 12-14 to be specific), it meant I had a lot of work that I could do, which means I was financially set for this month. However, it also meant that I should probably find another 20 hour/week job working as a waiter, or working at the local Borders or something. Not quite as career-advancing as a game programmer, but hey, gotta make due with the cards you’re dealt.
I was quick to discover that working an internet-centric job is a hard thing to do when one doesn’t have access to the internet in one’s apartment though. So, I called Comcast to set-up a date for someone to come set everything up in my apartment so I could quickly get back online. First three calls ended up with me getting hung-up on in the process of going through the various menus. The fourth call resulted in someone who couldn’t operate the computer she was using, and was unable to get my address punched in. The fifth resulted in me setting up an appointment for Sunday (it was currently Monday); but said that I should call back the next couple days to see if any other times opened up. So I did so, and one of the people set up an installation date for Wednesday (it was Tuesday when I called, and the receptionist said “How does tomorrow at
