Let The Games Begin

In reality, the games (in this case, the search for a new roommate) have already begun.  They officially commenced Wednesday night and will be over this coming Tuesday night.  I advertised the room on Sunday night and was immediately inundated with something in the realm of 30 E-mails, with about 10 to 15 more each day thereafter.  Wading through them and actually reading each of them is rather time consuming.  You get all kinds, too – people asking if they can have pets, if their friend can move in with them, if they can move in a few months later, if I can show them the room via Skype, if I can call them on the telephone, etc.  Once I find people who sound like a good fit, I E-mail them to try to set up a date and time for them to view the room, then wait for their response.  It all moves along at a pace much slower than I would prefer.  I set up several appointments for Wednesday and Thursday after work, one for this morning and the final one for Tuesday evening.  Surprisingly, there were several people that made the cut, which is rather unusual.  One guy who definitely is NOT being considered couldn’t look me in the eye for more than 2 or 3 seconds at a time.  Maybe he was shy, maybe he was nervous, maybe I intimidated him or maybe he had something to hide.  Whatever it was, it was a very big con for him.  In the past, my habit was to schedule 4 or 5 people in half hour segments each evening after work.  It gets tiring asking the same questions of them while answering their same questions, though.  I just wasn’t up to it this time around.  That’s why the showing of the room will be over on Tuesday night after the final person comes by.  Then I’ll narrow it down to my top 3 choices, contact them again asking for credit reports and any other questions I’ve thought of in the meantime, then probably have them meet the other roommate, K.  The first candidate was a very attractive man.  What was running through my mind was “Danger, Will Robinson!  Danger!”  Another candidate was so excited about the room that they E-mailed their credit report to me soon after viewing the room.  Yet another candidate tried to bribe me with photos of their homemade macarons, which looked professional.  They said that if they were chosen, I could be expecting a bunch of macarons the day they moved in!  The big decision could be made by next weekend; that leaves me the rest of the month to devote to the gym, cleaning my room (a never ending process) and rearranging the kitchen a tad.  Having a new roommate always brings new energy into the apartment.  That, my friends, is exactly what’s needed right now.