Think a thousand square feet is too small to share with a stranger? Pssssht.

I am sitting on my back patio, it is cool and cloudy. It’s 7am on Saturday morning and the clouds have been threatening to rain since yesterday afternoon, I love sitting back here. It’s become one of my favorite places. My patio is adorable, vintage painted wrought iron patio furnishings covered in twinkle lights, lots of plants, mostly succulents and right now it smells amazing. I can smell my neighbors white lilac when the breeze hits just right. That, mixed with the smell of my fresh cut lawn and the rain that is looming in the air… Mm, so peaceful, it’s magical.

Last night my old roommate came and hung out with us, we spent all afternoon in the backyard expecting it to start raining and to be sent inside but instead it eventually got dark on us. We had a fire, and roasted brats over it like we were camping. Yes, there were s’mores. These are the experiences that feed my soul. And they are cheap (which is a requirement, really) less than $20 to entertain four humans on a Friday night. The fire was obviously free, the brats and S’more supplies are all on special this time of year.

I love my old roommate, she was my first roommate, the Original, my client-turned friend who needed a place to stay a little while back, so she moved in with me for a couple months, and it was awesome! She helped out around the house, she would watch Jordan if I wanted to go out in the evening. She maybe would have stayed but she wanted to share a place with her daughter who is currently going to school. Have I mentioned that I live in a tiny house? Less than a thousand sq. ft (3 bd 1 ba) is not enough room for three full grown humans, 2 cats, her daughters dog and a 10 year old boy. Let’s be real. But having her here did make me realize that having a roommate was a smart option with housing prices STILL RISING in Denver. Jordan and I loved having her here, and we miss her tremendously.

We have had 2 roommates since the Original, an entitled 28 y/o who had just moved here from Florida, complained about EVERYTHING, rented the room for 2 months and moved back to Florida toting that he had “learned so much” in his short time here. My current roommate though, is a pretty perfect roommate, seriously-nearly-almost PERFECT… but alas, she’s in the process of moving out but is paying me rent until she *eventually* gets all her shit out. Let me explain why she’s so perfect… She moved in the day she came to check out the room, she is a total rad nerd (just like me), it was the middle of last month and she paid for her deposit, her background check, the prorated amount for the month all in cash and moved her stuff in… then said she was going to stay at her boyfriend’s place. Two days later she then gave me “notice” (along with a somewhat valid reason why she was moving), move out was set for the first. Now here it is the 7th of the month, she has yet to sleep in my house, and she has yet to move out either. But she has paid for every day that she has used my spare room as storage. And that is awesome. 🙂

So I got to thinking… What’s makes for the perfect roommate? Basically, I want a roommate that pays rent on time every month, but doesn’t actually live here. I feel like I have had plenty of relationships with absentee friends and partners… I should be able to find a roommate matching this description with minimal effort, right? Can I find another roommate as awesome as this rad chick? I am a big fan of “The Secret” Law of Attraction… you know (if you don’t- https://youtu.be/zdtqLNeK6Ww -educate yourself.). I think it’s a good idea to really meditate on what I want in a roommate, and send that shit out into the universe… So, here is my check list so far… Please feel free to give me a heads up on the essentials I missed and need to add to my request to the universe.

Best Roommate Ever List:

  • Pays rent in full, on time.
  • Doesn’t hate children, doesn’t have to “like” children, just has to be cool with mine.
  • Should really be cool with cats… (I have 2)
  • gainfully employed
  • buys TP when it gets low without being asked
  • Someone who isn’t home too much (or at all)
  • could possibly work long hours + a sizable commute…
  • maybe in a serious relationship, but still wants to maintain their “own” place
  • spends most-all free time with SO, at their place.
  • straight up travels a lot, would be cool.
  • and of course, kind, trustworthy, generous, and clean.

 

Law of Attraction- MANIFEST THAT SHIT!

 

You breath, eat, love, smoke weed, laugh with neighbors…

walk on the ground, breath in the air, soak up the sun and love.

Love so much. As much as you can possibly send into the universe.

this. is the beginning.

this. is the beginning.

“This is your very first post.” … indeed it is. Hi, I’m Angelique. I am taking a break from job hunting to write this, my very first public, real, blog. I am sitting at my table… looking at my son sitting across from me on his laptop where he is staring at me with a sense of frustration, because he is trying to get on the internet, and I don’t have wifi. I have a cell phone that can be a “hot spot”, it’s not all that hot, more like an hours-old-bath kind of hot. you know.. not actually hot. at all. Jordan fucking hates it. He hates that we don’t have internet. But internet is expensive, and he’s ten. He doesn’t need it for work, but if he has school work, or if he wants to play on the internet , we use my phone, or go to a coffee shop.

See, I am a millennial, but I’m borderline too old to be a millennial, nut my latter childhood we were poor so even though the cool tech stuff came out while I was still young enough to get really into it, it was too expensive to access until I was reaching near-adulthood. So when I got my first PC and internet as a 17 year old gal (fuck yeah AOL!!) I used my computer for 3 things, writing bad poetry in beautiful colors and fonts, downloading music from the then FREE and LEGAL Napster and talking to my friends/making new friends on AIM (America-Online Instant Messenger). It was a magical time really… I digress…

I obviously want to have internet back before Jordan turns 17, but right now, I am working thirty something hours at a gym, as well as working in a salon a couple days a week, as well as random makeup artist gigs, I work a lot. But I live in Denver. And it is so very goddamn expensive here that in order to survive as a single mother I have to have multiple jobs and live in a dive that still costs 50% more than the most expensive place I’ve ever lived, and it means cutting down to the BARE essentials and finding a housemate for the dive.

At this moment I am re-grouping, my boy and I are getting by on the bare essentials. And I have decided to trade in a career of highs and lows, feast & famine as a freelance makeup artist for a new start. I’m quitting all the jobs, and getting one job that pays enough to survive on while I grow and learn in a new career. This is terrifying, but as someone who has spent a substantial amount of my life at or near the poverty line, I know how to appreciate the things that really fucking matter. And I know how to go without the thing that don’t. Don’t get me wrong it fucking sucks sometimes. But most of the time it’s kind of nice to not have all the “noise”, life is simple, relationships with the people you love, share experiences, making stories, these are the things that really matter. Is that such a bad lesson to teach your kid?

So I am here to share my journey. Being poor as fuck and making it work by the skin of my teeth… and learning how to budget.

You breath, eat, love, smoke weed, laugh with neighbors…

walk on the ground, breath in the air, soak up the sun and love.

Love so much. As much as you can possibly send into the universe.