Six by Ten

You may or may not have heard me use the term 4 x 4. Usually I mean someone equally short as they are fat. I know it's not nice, but it sure is funny!

Well, my home since February has been a 6 x 10 room in Spanish Harlem. It sounds ghetto, and let me tell you, IT IS! I'll post pictures of it at some point. Every time I straighten up the room, I think, "today is the day I'll take a photo to commemorate this time in my life!"

Actually, I'd say I've made the best of it. I have nice things, so even though my room is small, it is not as horrible as it could be.

The apartment we live in is called a railroad-style apartment, and they're all over New York. Railroad apartment means that there are rooms you have to walk through to get to other rooms. Ours is also a floor-through, which means that our unit is the entire floor of the building. Sounds cool, but again, it means the apartment is about 15 feet wide, by 40 feet deep.

I have to say, of all the rooms I looked at that cost less than $700, this one was the best! It was not the biggest, but it was in the nicest neighborhood, and the apartment actually has a living room. So many places I looked at were in huge, once-grand apartments all around Harlem, but the landlords had closed off all the living space and converted the whole thing into bedrooms. You would walk down these long hallways, and the only open doors would be the kitchen and the bathroom. This one was also the cleanest. I was not about to sit on a toilet that my male roommates had peed all over.

Anyway, my room is actually down the hall from the main part of the apartment. I have a separate entrance to my room too. I actually don't mind it because otherwise, I'd have to walk through 2 other bedrooms.

When I first moved here, there was me, Mary (43-year-old 'artist' and high-end photo printer), and Katie (23, psychology student at NYU). We had a really nice dynamic until Katie was about to move out and then Mary flipped! I've never seen anything like it. Nothing Katie did was good enough for Mary. She didn't buy enough TP, she didn't clean enough, she was home too much (never mind we PAY RENT to live here!). Needless to say, I got a little weirded out and started distancing myself from Mary.

After Katie moved out in March, it was just Mary and me for a month. She decided to use the 3rd bedroom (the walk-through room) as a studio and make some art. She did a performance piece, but that's about it. Oh, and we had a party so Mary could show off some of her art. Which is when I got to meet Dana, the woman who moved in this month. We mostly had fun, but I surely was feeling a little tense because of how she treated Katie.

From even before Dana moved in Mary didn't like her. Dana is 35, has a cat (Mary has 2 cats), is not a vegetarian (neither am I), is financially successful, etc. The problem started when I was back home for Easter. I guess they decided to have dinner together, and during dinner, they started to talk about how they are both Hillary Clinton supporters (yeah! Go Hil!). Well, Dana has strong feelings, and statistics to back them up. Mary also has strong feelings, and hates nothing more than a statistician!

Then, at Mary's party, Dana and Mary's friend were debating the merits of Hillary v. Barack. I'll admit, it was a little awkward. Dana isn't always articulate, and she has this weird twitch when she's nervous where her jaw wobbles. That's the best I can describe it. You'd have to see it. Anyway, Mary flipped out, Dana went home.

The next day Mary wouldn't stop about how much she didn't want Dana to be here, blah, blah, blah. Everything is wrong with her, and she's a freak with her statistics. So, the day Dana moved in, Mary gave her 30 days notice to move out. OUCH!

It has been incredibly awkward since then. Mary has been hiding in her room, Dana has been on the verge of tears, and I've been in the middle. Initially, I thought Dana was a little weird too, but she didn't bother me at all. We've become friends over the last few weeks and gone for long walks to vent about the craziness here. She invited me to her friend's house to watch the Democratic debate. I am so glad I went. I met several major Hillary supporters, including Trudy Mason, who is the NY Democratic Committeewoman.

I guess in Mary's defense, the day before Dana moved in, I told her that I, too, am moving out. I found a great place on the Upper West Side. I love the Upper West Side, and I am stoked to be moving there. My future roommmates are both professionals and in their 20's. I won't be supplementing their way of life, like I am here, and it will be a partnership. Moving there helps me feel better about staying here in NY. There is so much more drama involved with living here, I'm just over it, and I haven't even told you the half of it!

Absentee Blogger

Sorry, I've been a bad blogger. But I'm back now.

So a bunch has happened in the last month and a half! I got a job, moved into my small room in NYC, visited home for Easter, and decided to move again!

Let's go through those one at a time.

JOB
Can I just say, "yay!"? I can't tell you how good it feels to be working again. I'm learning all sorts of new things, getting paid more than I was in SF, AND I have less responsibility.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my one and only other entry, but I was really adamant about not going back into property management. I was going to be an event planner! Well, I'm over it for now.

At the end of February, I started working at a really high profile building kitty-corner to Central Park. I'm the senior Administrative Assistant, so for all you gals I worked with at CB, that means I'm a Property Administrator again. Except this time, I have an assistant! Who also happens to be a temp who thinks he's my boss.

Apparently, he's a little bitter because I'm the one filling the permanent role here, and he thought he would be awarded the position. Whatever, you snooze you lose, buddy.

There have, however, been some pretty funny interactions--I just wish the building managers had been listening to his rants.

The first time I realized D hated me was when I asked one of the managers here how to order cups for the kitchen (This admin thing is new to me!).

Apparently, D overheard this and took great offense to it. Because (now envision a very petite, gay, African-American twenty-something talking with his arms--not hands--arms) he monologues to me, "Adriana, I'm noticing a lack of communication here, a major concern of mine is that we don't communicate. You don't know what J (the other temp) and I have done for the last several months, you don't know ANYTHING! You really need to ask us when you have a question because we probably have the answer for you. You don't need to go ask the managers, just ask us. And just so you know, we ordered cups before you started working here."

During this whole exchange I stood there with a shit-eating grin on my face, stunned that he was saying this. So I said back to him, super-professionally, "D, I am trying to build relationships with my managers. I'm sorry if you feel that I'm not coming to you with enough questions, but I don't want to burden with my lack of knowledge. And besides, I asked you earlier how to order the cups, and you told me you didn't know. It's also been two weeks since I started working here, and we haven't recieved that cup order that you made before my time. Do you think maybe it was lost? Oh, and I'll be sure to come to you with ALL of my questions from now on."

He gave me the cold shoulder for the rest of the afternoon, and finally I asked him, "D, Did I do something to you?"

In return I got another monologue, this time about how I am terse. Damn straigt I'm terse! Things were ok since then. A lot of uber-politeness between the two of us. Then there was this week!

Here's what happened on Wednesday: Derek, the guy from the mailroom upstairs, comes into the office and hands D two interoffice envelopes. D immediately shoots back at Derek, super sarcastically, "Now Derek, you know darn well I'm not the only Administrative Assistant here! Walk these over there!"

My big comeback is, "That's Tenant Administrator to you! Ha Ha Ha"

So Derek gives me the two envelopes, we make introductions, Derek goes on his way. I take the two envelopes, and drop one on each manager's desk. When I come back out, D is laughing and looking at me (I swear I don't have a complex about this!). I'm like, "what?"

"Adriana, you are Something Else, Hahahaha!" he says.

I replied, "I'd rather be 'Something Else' than 'More of the Same'. What did I do this time?"

"I can't believe you just put those envelopes on Paul and Jean's desks!"

"What? That's who they were addressed to."

"Haha. No, no, no, we're supposed to open the envelopes for the managers!"

"Well, we're all big kids here, they can open their own. I have other stuff to do."

"Ha ha ha. Something Else."

5 mins later

"You know, Adriana, we may all be big kids around here, but there ARE procedures that you need to follow."

WHAT? WHAT? DID THAT REALLY JUST COME OUT OF HIS MOUTH? Oh. My. God. You uneducated little shit. This is war now. I'm the boss.

So I did what all warriors do. I tattled on him to my boss! Ha ha. Guess what?! He's out. Per my command! It turns out all I had to do was mention this to a manager, and we're done with him! Justice is served. However, he's still an uneducated, passive-agressive little temp, and I have to put up with him until (if) we find a permanent person. Yay!

I'm sure I'll have lots more good work stories, but for now, that's it. I'll tell you about my current home next time.