I had trouble even finding an apartment. People aren’t really willing to rent to sex offenders. I had gotten a job at a Carl’s Jr., but I wasn’t...allowed to work up front and deal with customers. I could only flip burgers for minimum wage. But when you’re in a halfway house, you find that you’ll take any job. It didn’t matter that I finished my degree online while in prison, then got a Master’s in English. Nobody would hire a felon and a sex offender. My place was a walk-in closet, essentially,. 3. You can watch the dog run away from home for hours.4. People will assume you live on a farm.5. Daylight savings time? Who the hell needs that!TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN MANITOBA1. You wake up one morning to find that you suddenly have a beachfront property...2. Hundreds of huge, horribly frigid lakes.3 Nothing compares to a wicked Winnipeg winter.4. You can be an Easterner or a Westerner depending on your mood.5. You can pass the time watching trucks and barns float by.TOP REASONS TO LIVE IN. Your wash complete you don your simple shift and admire your wooden staff, inset with a single emerald as the focus of your magic.As you enter the main hall you see Alaria standing before the other high mages of the tower, ready to set your quest. You have been looking forward to this moment, when you can free yourself through your own effort.'My student' Alaria proclaims 'are you ready to go forth on your task'?You thump your staff against the ground as the ceremony demands. 'I am, my. She settles back into her end of the sofa and watches me chew. We’re looking at each other – we always look at each other. It’s like a game, like playing head-to-head chicken on the dodgems at the funfair, seeing who will swerve first. I swallow. Hard. She looks away. Yesss! One to me. I decide to quit while I’m ahead. ‘I’m going to take a quick shower,’ I say with an attempt at authority, struggling up from the quicksand of floral cushions. ‘OK, but you smell pretty good to me,’ is her easy.