A guest is like rain: when he lingers on, he becomes a nuisance. (Yiddish Proverb)

D/C moved out last Thursday. He cut short his two week stay after only four months, which is a good thing because I was literally at the point of changing the locks when he went off to work.

It wasn't that he was difficult to have around. He stayed in bed all day, out of the way, so we hardly knew he was around. If asked, he was more than willing to help with an occasional household chore or to cook dinner. He only spent one weekend in jail (a misunderstanding with a sober cop), and only had to be escorted home by the police because of his drinking on one occasion. He was always polite. My co-workers thought he was cute (although none were willing to take him off my hands -- I asked).

And truly, my impatience with him had nothing to do with the lack of rent, contrary to popular belief. (Just to be fair, I did receive a total of $120 over the four months; less than $10 per week toward the household bills and groceries.) When I said he could stay with me, I had no intention of charging him rent. I know how difficult it is to get back on your feet after a run of bad luck, and I wanted D/C to have an opportunity to get a new start. What irritated me is that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity. He was content to stay in bed all day, doing literally nothing, until I got mean and forced him to find a job with a paycheck. He didn't appear to mind feeling like an unwanted guest until I forced him to look for a place of his own. And when pressed about the drinking episodes (the only house rule I had was no drinking -- based on his brother's warning that D/C becomes nasty and violent drunk), D/C blamed everyone except himself.

Now that he's gone, I miss having him around. I wake up in the middle of the night, worried that he's not home yet until I remember that he has his own place now.

Family is family. And family should always be there for each other. So I don't regret saying, "Yes, of course you can come stay with me for a couple of weeks." And I will probably answer the same way, if asked again.

Only, the guest bed has been moved out to the trash...