[Pisces]

This is more a rant to get it out of my system, I suppose, but if you have some advice or something for me, it's greatly appreciated.

My family recently opened up our home to a friend of mine who was in danger of being homeless. I've known him for 8 years. We don't exactly make a lot of money so it was a strain for us to put him up and we told him, hey, we're not going to be able to let you stay here unless you help out around the house and work on finding some sort of job, just to supplement our income. He knew this before he came to live with us. He agreed to these conditions. Being my best friend, you'd think he would be grateful to not be homeless for the winter. How does he show is gratitude? By not doing a damn thing. And when approached about it, he's got all these excuses for why he hasn't done anything other than play his xbox all day. And then he gets bitchy and whiny when we ask him to please keep his end of the deal.

He hasn't been outside of the house to look for a job. He's doing online applications, but we're a very small town and most of our stores and businesses don't even have websites, let alone online applications. =\ We've explained this to him, but it doesn't seem as if he's taken it to heart. "I can't drive, I have no transportation." Well, you've got feet. "My knee acts up. I can't walk far. Plus, I have asthma." Alright, asthma can be a decent excuse, I suppose. But! Hey! My stepfather has lots of days home and a car! He could drive you. What? No response? Yeah, because that actually requires taking responsibility. He won't ask my stepfather for a ride around town to apply at stores, or for driving lessons to get his license, but he'll ask Dove (my stepfather) to drive him 45 miles to see his girlfriend in the next county for Valentine's Day.

In the meantime of trying to find a job (albeit half-assed), he could help do things around the house. We all take part in cleaning the dishes, the floors, letting the dogs outside to pee, etc. General things that need to be done to keep the house fit to live in. Hell, wiping down the kitchen counters isn't that hard. Wet the rag next to the sink, wipe off whatever is there. Rinse rag and hands. Done. We have a dishwasher. Dishes are as easy as load, run, and/or unload. Hell, I'll load it, run it, and he can just unload a couple hours later. Not that hard, yes? It's not like we're asking him to take on the whole endeavor of house cleaning on his lonesome. We're asking him to contribute to the household since he is now part of it. We CANNOT afford, financially, to support his eating habits. Mom hides half the food in her room because if she doesn't, a week's worth of food will be gone in two days.

Oh, and then, the condescension. We're never right. My mother is a Veterinary Assistant. She's so good at her job, she was asking to teach veterinary medicine. She's won teacher of the year. She knows what she's talking about when it comes to animal medicine. My friend and Mom were talking, and he kept insisting she was wrong about the treatment of a sick animal. He's admitted he never even liked the dog his family had had. Excuse me? You're arguing with someone who has performed and taught vet medicine for almost 8 years? And he has to argue about EVERYTHING. Even something as STUPID as whether a PS2 Fat or PS2 Slim are better, when, frankly, we couldn't CARE. He'll make obscure references to the games he plays endlessly. When we don't get the allusion, he must take it upon himself to explain it to us in the most condescending, "You are so stupid, let me enlighten you" manner. It's rude. I like to play video games too. They're fun. But they are not my life. They are something I do when I have spare time. Like the internet and this rant. And he's just do disdainful that we're not Halo junkie like him. =\ Because Halo is so much more important than a job.

I understand he just lost his father and had to move out from his house because the bank was going to take it back. But unfortunately, this is reality and we can't financially afford to let him just laze around. It's going to be almost 6 months since his father died, and 2 months since moving in with us. I can't put time limits or anything on grief and handling it. I can't say that by now he should have handled his father's death enough to function at basic levels. I can't say it, but it needs to happen. At this rate, my entire family is going on the streets if he can't contribute. I realize living with my family isn't the ideal situation, especially when it's forcing him to grow up, but hey, when you're 19, I think he should be damned grateful he's got a warm house and food to eat.

I dunno. I thought he was a better person than this. I thought that since he's been my best friend for 8 years, he'd show a little responsibility and keep up his end. Is it stupid to think that he would, out of respect for our friendship, if not out of gratitude for opening up our home at our own expense?