Amanda and I selected someone to move in with us last Monday. He backed out on us this Monday. We haven't had any luck this week finding someone else to move in. The fish just aren't biting.

I haven't had good experiences with Craigslist users in the past few months. The worst one was a woman who bought an item I listed. She paid me through Paypal, and had me send the item to her in New York.

I sent her a gently used item in good condition, with no damage. A few days after she received it, she sent me an email demanding a partial refund and accusing me of knowingly sending her an item that is not functioning properly. I told her I would not send her a refund for an item that was in the same working condition as when I bought it from the store, and that was still functioning perfectly when I sent it to her. She responded calling me dishonest and despicable. Though I can't say I've never been called despicable in my life (just once, in 8th grade), I can say, in all honesty, that I'm one of the most honest people I know.

Trying to be reasonable despite her nastiness, I told her I would give her a full refund if she sent the item back to me, granted it is in the same condition as it was when I sent it to her. She replied with more nasty lines attacking my character, and said she doesn't trust me to refund her money if she sends the item back. She hoped I would feel guilty for a long time for doing bad business and taking advantage of her.

I didn't feel guilty because I didn't do anything wrong. All I felt was some fear of retaliation in the form of something like a bomb in the mail, or other usages of my name, home address, and email address to harm me. Well, what could she do... Nothing much, really. I maintain that she is just some bitter bitch with nothing better to do, who was trying to take advantage of me. But her trying-to-make-me-feel-guilty tactics didn't work on me. I've had so much exposure to those kinds of tactics in the past that I've developed strong enough defense mechanisms against them.