Living With Norman Bates

In preparation to start clinicals in Blackfoot, Idaho I began looking for rooms to rent on craigslist. The only place I could find in Blackfoot was a listing for a shared room for $375 per month. I contacted the person listing it and asked about the living situation. I was told that the rent included a private room and a shared bathroom with use of the kitchen and laundry facilities. He said that there was another renter in the basement and that he lived in other upstairs bedroom with his two small dogs.  I asked what size the bed in the room was and should have been concerned when the response was " I will have to ask my mom, she knows all that stuff". I told the guy what my situation was and that I was not going to start until the 14th of June. He told me that I had better hurry and get some money to him because he was receiving multiple calls on the room each day. Armed with this information I decided that I had better travel up to Blackfoot in the first week of June to secure the room and then go home until the 14th. This I did. I arrived at the house which was very similar in appearance to the Bate's Motel.

The owner was a 30-something guy who was a little too friendly. He wanted me to sit and chat with him and commented on each item I brought into the house. The outside of the house was totally thrashed but the owner and his brother had redone the bathroom, kitchen and put in new carpet. My room had been hastily repainted and the closet doors were missing and the shelves had fallen out and had been inexpertly reinstalled with a significant slant. The door was quite a bit too small for the jam and the door knob was old and did not close properly. Luckily I had brought a locking door handle from my house to put in. I started to take off the old door knob when he came slumping over and asked why I was switching out the handles. I told him that it made me feel more comfortable to be able to lock my door. He said that no one else had ever wanted to put a lock on the door before. At the time I was thinking "Well I also don't want to wake up in the night to you standing over my bed watching me." So after securing the room and moving in my stuff I left and did not return until the 14th. Things were OK for a couple of days except for walking in on my new roomie and a girl he was trying to woo. On about the third day I got home at about 9pm. I walked through the back door and noticed that the table was set for two and that one place had been used and the other had not. My roomie was sitting on the couch in the dark glaring at me and said that it would have been nice to know that I was coming home so late. Bewildered I asked why he had been waiting for me. He said that he had made tater tot casserole and thought that we could have dinner together. I told him that I had stopped and eaten at Subway on my way home and had not expected him to make me dinner. He huffed and said that it would have been nice to receive a call informing him of my plans. I had a pretty creepy feeling that night as I lay awake. I got up and did a thorough scan of the room to check for any cameras that might be there or in the bathroom.  Luckily I did not find any. I went to work and recounted the story to my compadres who also thought that it was quite weird. They all made reference to the craigslist killer. The next night after work I went to visit a friend in Pocatello and did not get home until after 11pm. My roomie's dogs started yapping away when I came in and he came out of his room in nothing but his boxer shorts. He barred the way to my room with his body and started to ask me where I had been. As he talked to me he began stroking the hair on his chest. I almost barfed.The next day I let my boss know all the weirdness that was happening and he said, "We have got to get you out of there, I have thought for a long time that I should just rent a place for the students to stay, let me make some phone calls." By the end of the day he had found a place and told me that I could move in the next week. He went to a local furniture store and bought new furniture for the entire house including queen sized pillowtop mattress, washer and dryer, big screen TV, couch, recliner, dresser, coffee table, complete kitchen set it was awesome. Anyway I told my roommate that he would need to post his room for rent again as I would be moving out. He flipped. He went on a rant of how I had to pay for two months because I had mentioned being in Blackfoot for two months when I had emailed him about the apartment. I reminded him that I had lived in the house for a week and paid for the entire month and that we had no contract or even verbal agreement on how long I would live there. He went off on how untrustworthy Mormons were and how every Mormon that he has ever known is exactly the same. This went on for a while and then I finally bid him goodnight and locked my door. He yelled and threw things and turned his TV up really loud and made phone calls complaining about dishonest Mormons. Partly because I feared what would happen if I left my things in his house for the day, the next morning I woke up early and packed up everything and was gone before he woke up. I moved into my new place which is a beautiful two bedroom apartment surrounded by wheat fields. Things went along well for a few days and then my roomie started threating to sue me for July's rent via text and messages on my phone. He went as far as to say that he was going to go to the hospital and tell them how dishonest I am so that they will kick me out. Well, needless to say I do not live in fear of getting kicked out of the hospital and I have successfully blocked all future calls for the aforementioned roomie. However, should you find my cold dead carcass in some ditch look at my phone and all the texts are saved there.

 This is a picture of my new apartment and the view from the backyard. I have the entire upper floor of the house and the bottom floor is a completely separate apartment. My boss pays the rent and we are only responsible for the utilities. My boss is the most generous human being I have ever met.