Kelly Kumbaya

I was out with some friends at a gig one night. They were aware of my situation: I was desperate to find a roommate and the month was closing in fast. My friend Dave came up and said "There's a new guy in town from Montreal that's looking for a place to live but..." and with that he gave me a look that said "...there's just a smaaaaallll problem..."

"But what? What's that look?"
"eeeyeahh..." Dave continued to look at me with a hint of sympathy.
"Is he a good guy?"
"eeeyeahh..."
"Will he pay rent?"
"Oh yeah. He won't stiff you."
"Would he be good with my dog?"
"Yeah. It's just..."
"Just..."
"Well you have to meet him."

I agreed to meet with him. Kelly came to my house and, after showing him around, I suggested that we take my dog for a walk and get to know each other. I lived near the beach and he was fresh off the plane so I thought it would be a good chance to show off the west coast and our proximity to the water. As we walked we small talked. He seemed like a good guy, a bit odd, but a good guy. After walking for about a half-hour, I thought okay, we're both in a bind, but tiny alarm bells were ringing. One of the first things I noticed was that all he did was talk that anything I did or said, he'd have to interrupt me and then trump me. I forgave this kind of rudeness as it was an informal "interview" and I was sizing him up and trying to figure what kind of guy he was. Here's some of those first conversations:

me: "...and I lived in Toronto for about 4 years before..."
kelly: "yeah I lived in Toronto for 8. It was alright but alot of times..."

me: "...then when I started working for the record store I started to meet..."
kelly: "I worked at every record store you can think of. I was the best person in each of those places because I really knew my shit about EVERYTHING..."

me: "...and I'm trying to get into making music videos."
kelly: "Oh yeah, well I've done lots of those."
"Really? Like you directed them? Who?"
"Oh, tons of people in montreal. Voivod. Metal Church. You name it."
"Really? You directed those?"
"Yeah. I did everything. Sound, editing. Camera. Lighting, Pyro. EVERYTHING."

Wow. This last bit of information was kind of impressive I thought.

me: "You'll have to meet some of my friends 'cause we're trying to get into doing..."
kelly: "Yeah, when I get all my stuff set up I'll have to show you my demo reel."
"Yeah! Awesome!"
"Yeah, it's really awesome."

So with that, I considered the situation I was in and told him that if he liked the apartment he could move in. He accepted and I had 3 days of calm before the crazy storm rolled in.