THE NEGATIVE REACTION

It took a while, but my luck finally ran out

It must have been 1993 or 1994. Karis had moved back to Minneapolis with my son. She moved out and basically ended our relationship. I was living alone in a two bedroom apartment by myself and struggling to make ends meet to pay the rent. At the time, I was in a Pracs study and was complaining about my current situation. Of the guys in the study who was a regular I knew said he would be willing to live with me and split the bills and pay half the rent and all that jazz. At the time I was more concerned about paying the bills than really doing a background check on my new roommate. Boy, I should've known better.

the first month was ok, then it got bad

The first month was cool, bills got paid on time, rent was paid and everything was good. Then I noticed my new roomie "Darren" was using my soap, conditioner and shampoo. After a few weeks of going through my toiletries, I decided to keep my stuff in my room, out of plain site. At the time, we were keeping completely different hours. I was working during the day, then spending my nights at the computer lab toiling away on my senior dissertation as I was desperate to graduate and get back home so I could reconcile with Karis. Darren was sleeping in and not working (which was a bad sign) and staying up late. The only time we really passed each other was in the morning. He would be up at looking for a job, and I was heading off to work or class. This is just about the time the landlord started coming around looking for him.

Fall turned to Winter and he wasn't paying the bills. I found out he ordered some porn on MY cable bill. Then he wouldn't give me money for the bills for heat, water and the cable. I figured the easiest way to get him to pay was to just let it get cut off. I decided to continue paying for the heat for obvious reasons, but then he stopped paying rent.

Spiraling towards the end

After several months of bizarre behavior which included not taking showers, ordering porn and then trying to tag along with me when I went out, as well as leaving his "How To Pick Up Women" book laying around as well as constantly asking me to borrow him money, I knew the end was near. Even when his "best friend" showed up and I really had to make an effort to ditch them, I ran into them when I got home at 2am. They were still up and Darren's friend had pulled out his porno mags and then kept telling him he was a douchebag and an asshole. He started asking me if Darren had stopped paying his bills. I thought to myself, "oh shit, this is a pattern, time to get out while I can." and then proceeded to verbally tear him apart. He was pretty entertaining, but at the same time, it was very troubling for me. I knew this was not good.

At the time, I was only hoping I could get through the Winter and get home without any other issues. The landlord wasn't happy, and every day brought a new adventure. I started figuring out when he was coming and going and told the landlord. One frosty morning, the landlord was waiting for him and I swear I thought he was going to knock him right into the snowbank. A short stint delivering phone books kept Darren afloat long enough to pay the landlord and then flee town. You can't imagine the relief when you come home and your cowardly roommate has left. He moved out during the day without telling me. Just kind of fled the scene. by this time, I was close enough to finishing school, I really didn't care. I knew I could manage for another month or so until I could move out. About three days later, I put in my notice to move out.

There are very few things I remember about Darren, other than he was the worst roommate I ever had. I can only thank god it was short lived and nothing major happened.

I moved out and got back home. It was a rude awakening. When I get back to Minneapolis, Karis wasn't interested in dating or getting back together. This was the beginning several moves I made between Fargo and Minneapolis over the next few years. I finally moved back for good in January of 1997.