Here I am stuckâ?¦ no place to live in a month and a half and no time to look for a place. I have an easy fall-back, but it makes my stomach turn over every time I think about it.

I never planned on living alone. But now it seems as if I will be, and soon.

This means I have to face my fears of complete independence head on.

I have roughly until mid-May to find a new place. A new affordable place, mind you.

One bad thing about living alone, I am finding, is that everything seems to cost more. Rent costs more, comforting necessities like cable and internet cost more (because splitting the cost between one or two roommates is easy and everyone still gets the same amount of goods).

I am broke. Not like the rest-of the-world broke, but college broke. That means I cant afford to pay a lot for rent. And that means my scope is severely narrowed.

I start scouring through Craigslist looking for apartments. Not hookers, but apartments. I get excited when I see one Riverwest apartment with pictures. It is adorable and affordable. It has exposed brick walls, is very spacious and has a black tile shower with glass walls.

I call the man renting the place. No answer. I leave a message. I get a call several hours later. He tells my voicemail that the place has already been rented. Damn.

Back to square one. I have made some other calls, but have gotten no responses. I wonder how reliable these posts are â?¦ how many of these places are still available?

The whole having-to-look-for-a-place thing while having to work and go to school is not easy. I really dont have the time to devote to looking for an apartment, but at the same time I dont want to be homeless.

I know that I can be lazy and just extend my contract at the dorms. But I dont want to, because I am sick of the dorms. They are great for new freshman because they are so damn convenient, and so damn close to campus. The dorms are kind of like a crutch. If you lean on them too long, your leg heals crooked, and then when you finally take the crutch away, you cant walk straight.

I feel I am at the point in my life where, if I dont take the dorms away, I am going to be semi-independent for the rest of my life.

Here I am stuckâ?¦ no place to live in a month and a half and no time to look for a place. I have an easy fall-back, but it makes my stomach turn over every time I think about it.

My situation may look kind of grim from where Im sitting, but to be honest, Im not that worried.

If worst comes to worst, I know a lot of friends that have a couch I could crash on. Not that I want to live on a couch. It would be bad for my back and even worse for my sex life.

So I will continue to absorb my free time on the pages of Craigslist, harassing my friends for rental information, and sitting by my phone after every call I make. And crossing my fingers that the place I can afford is livable and bigger than a matchbox.

> Comments