April 1–June 30, 2004 — Different rooms

It didn’t come as much of a surprise. I’d known for a long time that Amy would be moving to Goderich for the summer and that she wouldn’t be moving back to Toronto in the fall. I’d always assumed I’d be moving in May, if not to Montreal then to somewhere else in Toronto.

And Montreal having been eliminated a few months before, at the beginning of April I found myself lazily searching for a new place to live in Toronto.

Before I really started to look, I received a mass email from Matt, whose web site I’d helped out with a year or two before and who I’ve kept in touch with on and off since 2001. He and two roommates were looking for one more roommate, but only for four months, from May to September.

Figuring that there would be a lot more of my friends looking for places to live or for roommates in September, I emailed him back and said I was interested. I visited him the next morning and met Maggie and Mez, his two roommates. They had no objections, so I started packing and didn’t think about it anymore. I would be moving back to my old neighbourhood, too — up towards St. Clair West, but closer to Christie than Oakwood this time.

After moving, I started mentioning to most people I knew that I would be looking for a place to live again in September. After a few false starts, Mimi told me I could move into the basement of the house she and her three roommates share; I would have my own kitchen and bathroom, and I wouldn’t be paying much more rent than I’m used to.

For the first two months back near St. Clair West, I didn’t see very much of my roommates. I was working at home all the time, and they were mostly working on the NDP campaign for the federal election. (I was the only person in the house not doing anything for the NDP aside from attending a rally because the Constantines were playing.) After the election ended, it wasn’t long before I was working to get the Doublenaut office set up and eventually spending most of my days there.

I doubt I’ll spend much time at home when I move in September, either. As I understand it, there aren’t really any windows, so I will be living without natural light. I also don’t think I’ll be able to afford a phone line. I might buy a TV so that I can watch DVDs at home. I’m also thinking of trying to live without clocks, just to see what happens. I worry that I might start sleeping 12 hours a day in the absence of natural light, though, so I might have to get an oven timer that I can set to 7.5 hours each night to keep me from getting too much rest.

Anyway. That’s why I’m going to end up moving twice and living in three different houses with nine different roommates over six months.

But at least I don’t have to think about it. Also, The lease at Mimi’s house runs out one month after the lease at the Doublenaut office, so next summer will be the time for decisions. Which leaves me a year to do what’s easy and not really think about anything else.

I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it, though.