Blog 32 More of my First Shock of San Diego

(The older scouts trying to teach me to surf!)

(OK! Why I had to move from my first house by a month.)

When my friend and I moved into a furnished two bedroom home on a month-to-month contract, it was like he changed overnight to this clean-FREAK! This was an old house, it had its charms for the past, but my friend did not agree. Now, it is said that people have radars about other people and can make a quick decision as to if you wanted to be friends.

But my roommate actually got ANAL about cleanliness. He noticed that the last time someone waxed the kitchen and dining room, that there were hairs and little specks of dirt dried in. The 1960 shag carpets were dirty way down deep. On a Saturday that I had extra detail, then went out and partied that evening with the girls across the street, he decided to strip, scrub, and re-wax the floors. He rented a rug doctor for the day, so he was cleaning all day long, literally.

We came home a little tipsy and the first thing I did was lay down on the living room carpet. Within seconds, I was drenched from head to toe in soaking water. I jumped up and ran into the dining room where I had my shoes stick to the floor and pulled off. Thus, leaving my socks the next culprits, and then my bare feet. While I am all but cursing about my attire, my roommate was yelling that I was leaving tracks in the floor. The girls jumped on the couch and would not move. They were laughing so hard that it just made my roommate more mad. I truly did not know how to act. The next day, I paid for the equipment to re-do the floors and carpets!

The next Saturday was my Boy Scout Camp out. I returned Sunday and told my roommate about the trip. He asked me if he could sign up as a leader. Another twist to the plot. I had no reason not to help him sign up. (even though I had a horrible feeling about his motives.) After my Red Cross Class, the next week was my turn to clean the house. Also, that week, my Roommate’s Father came for a visit. He was a great guy, and all week he would tell me he wished his son was more like me. I told him that his son was a great friend.

(The shock that took my breath away.)

The next time it was my turn to clean house, I stripped the beds to clean our sheets. I lifted up his mattress a little higher than usual and saw the tip of a magazine. I said to myself, “That little devil, I never pictured him a magazine reader! When “curiosity killed the cat”, I pulled the magazine out and thought, ” Wow, that LITTLE DEVIL!” It was a XXX gay magazine. I could not believe it. I tried to ignore it, but I do admit I looked at it. It might have been there before we moved in. So, I wrote a note that said we needed to talk about it when he found this note. I placed it in the magazine about three-fourths in just to see if he was looking at the entire magazine. I DID tell one of the girls so she could help me make a decision. I knew she would not gossip.

Sunday morning,(the next day), my roommate quietly came into the living room and said we needed to talk! I did not expect him to approach me so soon. It put me in a situation, knowing my own past. I told him that I did not care if he was gay, but I was concerned about his motive for joining the scouts, and that I would have to move so we would not be put together if it got out. I asked him to quit the scouts. That was my only request. I assured him we could stay friends, but he needed to be careful.

I gave him the rest of the month to find another roommate, while I looked for an apartment around Kensington, I found a furnished studio. Yes, it had one large room that half was a living room, and the other half had a bed in the wall to pull down at night, and flip up into the wall during the day. I had a very small kitchen and beside that I had a medium sized rest room that included a closet! I stayed there the rest of the time in San Diego before going to Washington, DC for my schooling.

(I could not Convince my Roommate to Resign from the Scouts.)

I told my friend that if he would not quit scouts that I was going to go to the Scout Leader and tell him. He refused, so I did. Since he had not been involved for 90 days, he could be resigned for no reason. And so he was resigned! It did not take him long to find another roommate that moved in when I left. He and I remained friends since we had to work together.

He came to work one day with a black eye and looked very bad. He confided that his roommate beat him up. He moved back on base and stayed there until his next assignment. Ironically, it was to the school in DC, also. And as fate had it, it was the same classes I had. All that is coming in blog 34.

There are a few more things that happened while we waited for our school. (This will be Blog 33.)