Roommates... on my search to find a home

So I have always fashioned myself somewhat of an Anna Madrigal type when it comes to my living situations. A whole lot of character, quite a bit of class and sass, and the attitude and wisdom of an old sage... well, that's how I see myself anyway...

Tonight Frankie, Mark and I were talking over a haircut about the new roommate that's going to be moving in on Thursday, and it got us talking about all the different roommates that I have lived with over the years. I have been thinking about making a list, and now that it's fresh in my mind I'm going to list them here!

The first roommate situation I lived in (people that are not family) was at the age of 14, when my Dad and his band came back from their tour of USO bases across Europe and moved in with us in a two bedroom apartment in Mission Viejo. Karen and Jamie, the keyboardist/background vocals and the Lead Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter and all around cool cat. Together the six of us shared that two bedroom apartment for about six months til we found the house on Cecelia and moved there.

After Jamie and Karen parted and moved on, we had an unusual assortment of roommates live in our spare bedroom. There was Josh McLellan, the son of one of Mom's Colorado friends, followed briefly by an ill advised move in of Nicole Baldwin who actually brought the police with her to my parents house to collect her belongings after stiffing them of two months rent. My parents... the hippies... blech. Hate her! At that point I had taken up residence in the garage, and briefly shared my "room" with my ex-girlfriends ex-boyfriend Jason. I think he ended up in Australia, but I cant be sure.

After that there was a series of Bass Players that at this point in my memory blend into one, I'll call him Wayne, because I liked Wayne. The last roommate they had in the house on Cecelia was my moms old Colorado friend, Peter. When they moved into a two bedroom apartment, he went with them. I moved out and into The Zoo.

The Zoo. There were six roommates. I couldn't tell you any of their names now, the only one I really knew was the guy whose room I was sharing, my life coach Michael Cooper. He traveled a lot, so I had his room to my self quite a bit. It was a gay house in the 35-45 age range with one lady, who was the epitome of fag hag. What sticks out most in my mind about this house, and the reason for it's nickname, were the animals.

The Zoo consisted of: 5 dogs (Labrador to chihuahua), 6 Cats, 4 Birds (including a parrot a cockatoo and a toucan), 8 fish (from exotic tropical to coy), 2 very large lizards and 1 rhesus monkey, in a cage out back behind the pool. To put it another way, the animals out numbered the people by almost five to one. Interesting place to live. I slept on a pool table here when Michael was getting lucky... not too bad actually!

From there I went back to the Parents apartment and Peter moved shortly thereafter. I stayed with my parents off and on until I joined the Navy. And no... don't worry, I'm not going to list the hundreds and hundreds of men I shared rooms with in the navy... this post would never end, and I fear it could get highly inappropriate!

When I got out of the navy I made a brief pit stop at my parents and then drove the 5 to my new home in San Mateo, California. Just outside the fabled Emerald City of San Francisco.

If you can picture it, try... I moved into a two story suburban family home with a back deck that floated over a lagoon. The place was a hoarders dream. Kinda scary actually... I lived in the master bedroom with my Wife Sarah, her girlfriend Janet, and their best friend Erica. Me on a mattress on the floor in a room with three lesbians. There were others there... the stoner boyfriend and girlfriend at the end of the hall with baby drama... the quiet guy that moved out the month after I moved in (I took his room eventually), and the son of the owner Raul who ran the place... well... sort of.

I met Anderson Jonathan Wilder one night at the Cafe and he let me crash with him at his place on Henry St. The instant bond of friendship was so strong that before the end of the week I had moved in (though it took me four months to get my stuff from Raul's house).

The house on Henry Street. Sounds like a horror story doesn't it. That was where AJ lived, and he didn't even bother asking the master roommates about moving me in. He just had me take over the living room, and they just let us turn it into my room, and that was that. The empty bedroom belonged to Nancy who I saw about three times in the two years that I lived in that house.

The master tenants were a couple named Joe and Domenic and they lived in the bedroom off the kitchen. They had two birds and two wiener dogs and none of the animals had ever left their bedroom. And I do men EVER... not even to go to the bathroom... yeah, they were gross... they would leave food out for a week and slowly pick at it as it grew grosser. They had never once cleaned. And they collected cookie jars (shudders to myself). After AJ moved to LA Jason Bratton moved in, he gave me his skin products and he was great fun. This is also the place where Will Castaneda briefly lived with me, and then forever after hated me.

From there I couch surfed trying to find my own place. I lived briefly with Annie on Fillmore, and briefly with AJ, Breck and Doug at Casa Sanchez. Thanks to the alacrity of lesbian love Steph and Kathleen moved in together leaving Stephs apartment on Geary and Divisadero empty except for her stuff. She offered me a great deal on it, and I jumped at it and for the brief span of nine months I lived by myself in an awesome one bedroom apartment just above the boiler room, which made my floor toasty warm every moment of the day. Of course AJ lived with me again briefly on one of his many SF-LA round trip moves.

Around the time my lease was up there I ran into a guy I had met while he was bartending. Hot Matt McDearmid who I had met socially just a few times, but obviously enough to leave an impression. He told me he was going to Canada for six months for school and he was looking for someone to sublet his room to while he was gone. Again, such impeccable timing could only mean one thing...

A home on Castro.