Karma Cleanser - December 16 2004

Dear Karma Cleanser: About four years ago, I met this woman who turned out to be the cause of a lasting memory. We started talking when I worked nights. I’d visit her on my lunch breaks for good conversation. Feelings were there, but I was young and didn’t know how to express them. She understandably started to date someone else. Unable to handle that, I ended our association.

Since then, I’ve seen her once and we lost contact again. I can’t stop thinking about her and the advice she gave me about life and business.

Otherwise not keeping in touch with her is the only regret I have in my past. I don’t even know if she still lives here in the same city as me. I’m one paycheck away from hiring someone to search for her.

I’d really like her friendship back, or should I just stop wondering and forever let it go?-- Friendship Lost

We don’t want to sound all Celestine Prophesy, but there’s probably a reason this woman keeps popping up in your thoughts. Maybe she had some life lesson for you that you didn’t quite learn. Or maybe she was just really hot. Either way, your answer might not be hiring an investigator to track her down, which just feels creepy and like a borderline stalker. If she’s meant to come back, she will.

br>?Dear Karma Cleanser:
I am in a very dirty living situation with a good friend of mine. We have been roommates for close to a year now, and I am fed up with his living habits. I told him, in a respectful way, that next year I will be going to do my own thing — which really means I will be moving in with a different friend of ours.

I meant well, and gave him plenty of time to find another place. I know he will be pissed to find out I just switched roommates. The only reason why I feel bad is because other friends of ours have done the same thing in the past years. They failed to inform me he was the dirty one until after the fact. Should I have just told him that he is dirty and needs to learn how to clean up after himself, or is it better to not hurt his feelings?-- Spring Cleaner

Break the chain. Your “friends” should have given you a head’s up that your future roomie was a slob, and you should spare the guy’s next housemate the grief you’ve endured. Schedule an exit interview just before you move out and tell him his slovenly behavior is the reason you’re seeking cleaner pastures.

Been bad? karma@creativeloafing.com.