Moving Adventures, Part One

My former roommates gave us the boot, telling us we had to be out by May 1^st because Crazy's dad was moving back in. He's taken a job here that should start in June. We scrambled to find a place. Our finances did not qualify us for a regular apartment, there was a waiting list for the low income apartments, and we didn't have any alternatives for places to go.

So we went to Craigslist. There were several requests for roommates. Most of them were for single roommates. We found a few that didn't specify and I called and emailed several people. For the most part, we were told no couples and/or no pets. Even though I have a letter from my doctor that forces landlords to accept my cat as my companion they were reluctant to take us.

Then we found one which was very sparse. There wasn't much to go on but we decided to contact the person anyway. We went out and took a look at the house and room. The house was a little battered but repairs were on the way. Some of the things were broken but again repairs were on the way. It was a small house, built back in the 60s.

The room for rent was smaller than the one we lived in but it was a little cheaper and away from Crazy, though we would miss Nice. We got to meet one of the guys in the house. He was the one who wrote the ad and he's technically the owner. It's his family's house. He's lived there all of his life. He seemed pretty easy going and his description of the other two guys living in the house were pretty chill.

Himself and I asked about Reidar, if we did move in what would be the pet deposit. He said no deposit because he had a few stray cats that wandered in and out of his house. Himself and I went home to discuss it. We took a few days to wait for more responses, and to discuss what the landlord/roommate said. One of the major benefits was there was no property management company which meant no credit/rental check. This was important to us.

We called back and asked a few more questions regarding the prorated amount since we only had enough for the first full month and the deposit. He agreed to let us split it up for three months. We thought about it for another day and then called him back and told him we'd take it. We took him a money order for the amount and started moving in.

H is for Heroes/Heroines

Let's talk about heroes and heroines.  Both of the personal varieties and those that we create for our novels.  Heroes are there to give us hope.  They give us something to believe in outside of ourselves.  I think Skillet gave the best definition of a hero in their song, appropriately called "Hero".

A hero (or heroine if they're women) is someone who looks beyond himself (or herself) to help others.  They move beyond their own lives to touch the lives of other people.  They make the decision - whether it's consciously or subconsciously - that they're going to do what others can't/won't/are afraid to do to help others.  This is what makes a hero.

There are reluctant heroes, especially in fantasy and science fiction.  The first reluctant hero to cross my mind is Garion out of David Eddings' Belgariad series.  By the time of the second series, he's kind of gotten used to the whole hero thing.  But in the first series, he didn't want to be a hero and was actually very whiny about it too.  In Ender's Game, Ender was a reluctant hero.  He didn't want anything to do with fighting and ended up helping save the universe from a terrible threat.  I'm not as familiar with reluctant heroines, but if there are any out there please let me know.  I'd like to read more books where the hero/heroine AREN'T aware of their destiny or are trying to fight it.

My protagonists - my "heroes" and "heroines" - are all hopelessly flawed individuals who end up fighting those flaws in order to help others.  In a way, they also help themselves because they're forced to rise above who they are to accomplish what they need to.

So what are your thoughts on heroes/heroines?