Couch Crashing

Since moving out of the courts I have lived at a number of different places and as I type this I am in beautiful Colorado. The story of how I got here is….. Interesting?

Moving out of the courts I was thinking there was going to be no place to live for me. I was unwilling to sign a lease to a new apartment in Philly before I had a signed job contract and I knew how much I would be making. As it turns out, the Mentor Capital job was a scam. I didn’t feel comfortable with the firm from the start and it turns out that my “gut feeling” was 100% on. After asking a number of perfectly normal questions of Mr. Scott Snyder such as “Where will I be working?” and “Can I see a copy of the Contract before my start date?” Scott and his buddies decided to revoke my invitation to work for their bogus firm. I guess they saw me as someone who wouldn’t fall victim to their scams- and they were right. The sad part about this story is that a number of Villanova students did go to the company thinking that all of the promises of a great job were true. Scott and his “partners” did some stuff that wasn’t right and although I don’t have the full story, what Villanova’s Career Services did tell me is that Scott was now under investigation for fraud. I am pleased not to be involved in this process.

I decided to move in with the now “not so ‘Drunk Paul’”. Paul opened his new apartment to not only me, but also Theo, Quoc, Mark M., and Sean M. (And Lisa). As you could guess, when the landlord found out how many people were living there he was a angry. He came in and yelled at Quoc and Sean and made out lives pretty rough for a bit. Although most of us had planned on staying there for the rest of the summer, this guy was afraid we were going to throw some big party and cause trouble. I mean honestly, no one there was going to throw some big party because most of us were working or, like me, trying desperately to find a job! Quoc stuck his foot in his mouth a few to many times when it came to the Landlord and everyone else in the house elected me to be the new delegate to deal with the situation. I was going to try and explain why and how we were little threat to the landlord and his partners. The unfortunate thing about this was that they had never seen me and having me claim to also live there would only increase the total number of people they were assuming were subletting for the summer. This guy and his “Partners” showed up and told us that we had to move out. I tried to explain to them the situation that the majority of people were working, there were no BIG parties and that as soon as Quoc and I found jobs we would be more than happy to sign a lease. I actually asked him if he had any other places to rent. He yelled at us some more and gave us a week to get out. This didn’t bother Theo as he was moving into the New beta house in Consohocken soon. But for Sean and Lisa, Quoc and Me, this was a huge problem. Quoc decided to move in with Mikey K at a house he rented in Ardmore. McClintick decided to move to a place on campus as he is the basketball manager. I had the option of moving in with Quoc and MikeyK, but I was tired of struggling to find a job in Philly, working part time to help pay rent and spinning my wheels. I decided to help Anderson move from New York City to his new Job with Lehman bro’s in California. The only problem with this is that he wasn’t leaving until a week after we all were supposed to be kicked out of the house. I decided that I was going to “risk” having the Landlord or the police come back and kick me out. This only added to the anxiety that I was living with not having a job, being away from CL and not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. At times I felt hopeless, but I still tried. I would always deadbolt the door so that I might get a few extra seconds to make it appear that I was moving my stuff out if the landlord ever did show up. All of my belongings were packed away in crates and I think I could have actually pulled this off if he ever did come back. Half a week had gone by and Sean and Lisa moved back home, Quoc was with MK and I was the only one left at the house. I had a panic attack every time there was a knock on the door and I dreaded the conflict that was going to ensue if the landlord ever came back. That week was Anderson’s last week in NYC and I was still planning on helping him move. I was really going to move out for a bit and the issues with living would be over. That Thursday I was going to get on a train at 6PM and arrive in NYC that evening. Friday was Anderson’s last day with Lehman and I thought the weekend would be fun in the city with my big bro. Quoc had visited earlier to grab the remainder of his stuff and I was organizing for my excursion to NYC. He, unfortunately, didn’t lock the door while leaving and I had jumped in the shower before leaving to catch my train. My hanging bag was open with all of my clothes on the futon and I was getting ready to leave. As I got out of the shower and had just put shorts on – KNOCK KNOCK- Just who I wanted to see, the landlord. I was topless and still dripping wet. He laid into me with cuss words left and right, yelling at me that he was going to get the cops and stuff. I got angry and started to yell back that I was on a train in an hour and that I’d never see him again. I wanted to slug him a good one and I’m sure he wanted to do the same. I kinda wished that he would have taken a swing at me. Sure, I understand his point that we were “squatting” on his property, but at the same time, the lease was on my side as I had not been there 2 weeks and there was a 2 week guest policy. I didn’t have the energy to explain this to the guy, but whatever. At the last minute I decided to load my car as full of my stuff as possible as I was afraid that the Landlord might come in and try to throw some of it away. My car is currently parked at the Villanova Universities main parking lot fully packed. Ahh the stress.