settling in
Shobhit worked his last closing shift at Big 5 last night, not getting off work until 9:00, which I spent the evening with Ivan. Ivan had said he wanted to get pho' for dinner before he went on a weekend trip to Portland, having brought it up on Monday maybe (it might even have been Sunday), so I suggested Wednesday.
Well, we still went out for pho', but I learned while we walked home from The Pho' on Broadway—his favorite pho place, which I like too just because it's so affordable—that he's postponed the Portland trip after all. His friend apparently told him this weekend wasn't the best for him and asked that he visit another time. So, Ivan said he would just give us his first rent check today, which I told him we would prorate. We agreed to use today's date as the official start date of his officially living with us.
So, there it is. Ivan is officially living with us again, now for the third time. His first was the last eight months of 2014; his second starting two years after that, for 14 and a half months from late 2016 to early 2018. His return this time is after three and a half years, two years of which were out of the state entirely (one of those years out of the country entirely). He doesn't seem to have any particular timeline in mind for this one; all I can say is, I feel like he likes living with us, so it could be a while. Or, as I have already said, he typically tires of his situation in little more than a year and then decides he wants to move somewhere else again. He said last weekend that "I think it's time to settle down," but then he said that a bunch of times in 2018 as well, when he thought he was moving permanently to Vancouver, B.C. and that lasted all of three months.
In other words, there is truly no telling how long he'll live with us this time. Shobhit wanted to increase the amount of rent we had agreed on last summer when I thought he was returning then, and it really has had me worried about overcharging Ivan or taking advantage of him. But, then I looked up available sublet situations listed on Craigslist, and honestly I think what we're asking is fair, at least for similar offerings. Ivan is getting a lot included in that price, after all, that he has never gotten in his other living situations: a bathroom effectively all his own (Shobhit and I never use it when Ivan, or any roommate, is living with us; it only gets shared when we have company over); in-unit laundry; and the amount we quoted is to include all utilities as well, including water (which Ivan uses a ton of), electricity and internet. I'm still going to take a hundred bucks a month off the payment I give to Shobhit for paying down the mortgage principal, because if I just let Shobhit take all that rent revenue and I continued having to just pay the utilities on my own while another person adds to their usage, my budget would get completely fucked over.
Ivan didn't balk at the asked price increase, in any event. It does kind of suck having money get involved like this between good friends, but, whatever. I also mentioned to Ivan while we were walking back from dinner that I just recently realized that he's now moving into the realm of my long-time friends. We've known each other seven years now; he was in his late twenties (28 technically, though he turned 29 literally days after I met him) and I was in my late thirties (37 technically, though I turned 38 days later—Ivan and I have the same birthday) when we first met. I guess, time will only tell how sustainable the current living situation is. The future is wide open. The only key thing right now is, Shobhit has put in his notice at Big 5, and thus the timing could not be better for him to be getting some rent revenue again. He told me this morning that it will cover a shocking 40% of the wages he'll be losing by quitting that job.
He still has his other job at Total Wine & More, where he will now expand his hours again, and he is also actively looking for other work. He does want to take a trip to India sometime this year, though. I'm concerned about the COVID situation, but he's feeling like it's been too long since he has been able to go back and visit his mother, and he can also cash out some of his investments there again and bring back some money. It only occurred to me now, though, if the COVID situation will necessitate his visit be longer, with anything like quarantine requirements. Which it appears there are currently, although not for as long as he typically stays there anyway.
Anyway! I rode my bike home from work, and Ivan was reading at the dining table; we chatted for a while and it was not long before we left to walk to The Pho'. He asked me yet again, "What are we going to watch tonight?" I couldn't help replying, "Are you going to ask me that every night?" I do have other interests and things to do! But, with Shobhit working late, we did wind up watching something after we got back, after some back and forth in an attempt to agree on something. He started reading through his list on Netflix, and I decided I would watch I'm Thinking of Ending Things again. A second watch didn't really make me like it better than I did the first time. I gave it a solid B and I stand by that, but a whole lot about those final scenes remain baffling to me.
Ivan spent a fair amount of time just looking at his phone, which I honestly think might be just one of his many other legitimate compulsions (he is on the autism spectrum, never clinically diagnosed by self-regarded as Asbergers even though he knows that's not considered a thing anymore). Still, that could not have made it any easier to figure out what the hell Charlie Kaufman was going for with that movie. Ivan did turn to me once and say, about the couple who are the two leads, "I think they're both insufferable twats!" That made me laugh. Anyway, I can't say that he particularly enjoyed the movie, but I suspect he just likes having an excuse to hang out in the living room rather than just locking himself in his bedroom. Tommy almost never sat out in the living room with me, although I'd have been happy if he did; I always got the sense that he was just too self-conscious about it. He would only sit on the couch in the living room if he was home alone, and then when I got home he'd just get right up and leave the living room. I think Ivan feels far more comfortable just existing among us, but then, I have a lot longer history with him now.
Shobhit got home just a few minutes before the movie ended. I bought a bowl of pho' to go for him to have for dinner as well. After that it was basically time for me to start getting ready for bed.
[posted 12:34 pm]