I was living in Toronto and moved back to Newfoundland. I moved into a place with a friend. That friend started to go through some stuff and then started to take advantage of me in a lot of ways. Ways that I'm only still just realizing. Like I was doing laundry earlier and realized she never bought laundry detergent the entire time she was here, just used mine. For the better part of a year. Anyway she stopped paying bills for months and then stopped paying rent for. Last second was like "Evict me and find someone else!" but I was being a moron and was like "Nah you're my friend! Let's get through this!" and then the next day realized that she was waiting for me to do all the work for her. Lost my best friend.

Started looking for another roommate but I've found it nearly impossible. Didn't help I started looking in September when everyone had already found a place for university. At the end of September I had to make a post asking for help and donations to my ko-fi so I could afford rent. October went almost the entire month and I couldn't find someone as well. At the end of the month I messaged my sister, in a deep pit of emotional despair, asking if she could take the only good thing in my life and take care of her if I couldn't find a roommate. I love my cat. She needs to be happy and safe. Even if that means she's not with me... She said yes to taking care of the cat but also that she'd ask friends. And so she did. One of these friends reached out and said "My cousin is looking for a place, here's his number!"

So I texted this dude for a bit and all seemed okay but I was getting slightly off vibes from pics. He had pinpoint pupils in all of them and I could explain it away to an extent because he said he was on disability from an injury so maybe prescription meds did that. But he kept changing his mind about when he was moving in as well as the situations of how it was changing just felt odd. The day he was supposed to move in, October 31st, that friend messaged my sister again saying urgently to not let him move into the house. Evidently, he was stealing from the family to fuel a drug habit and they discovered it last minute when he was stealing their shit to pay for the move into my place. And I was a naive trusting idiot again and didn't bother taking a deposit so I was screwed.

A friend of mine posted here to lemmy saying 'Stamets needs help!' and just like when I asked for help the month before, a ton of people turned up to help me when I frankly don't deserve it. Again, I was able to make rent and even pay bills as people went above and beyond. But the sp3ctr4l specter of finding a roommate was still lingering and unfortunately I was terrified for my cat.

But.

A woman reached out the other day and asked to schedule a viewing. I asked if today would work because I pulled something in my back and I'm all kinds of screwy. She said sure. She showed up and took a look at the place today. Una immediately fell in love with her. She liked the place and we seemed to mesh pretty well. She's got her own cat as well so my kitty gets to have a friend! And... better yet... I get to stay with my kitty.