I'm moving out! Two weeks into the new year and I can tell this is going to be a really exciting one. Generally speaking it seems like it will be a who-knows-what's-next fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of year, but in a good way. Starting with figuring out where the heck I'm gonna live, because it sure as hell wasn't gonna be at my parents house for much longer. It's funny how time seems to go by so slowly but when I look back, things were happening pretty rapidly. And that's the way I like it.
I officially started my apartment hunting last Saturday (thank you Craigslist). I am now an expert finder of red flags. Anyone who just lists their number is creepy, never trust any picture you see, even when they look amature. Scammers apparently have horrible grammar. Which doesn't make any sense. But I guess that's why they're a craigslist scammer and have never moved on to more professional, high profile scams. Am I right or am I right? In strictly my opinion- the ones that sound like you might have written them yourself are the ones that are most promising. Would you write NO Tv NO drugs NO alcohol for all your potential roommates to see? You my as well say don't ever expect to have fun or enjoy living here. Chances are you wouldn't be able to stand them either.
Now I am a wise craigslist browser, and it didn't take long for me to learn. This week I saw three apartments, Tuesday, Wed, Thurs. I have a feeling this is going to sound a bit like Goldie locks and the three bears which is kind of how I felt in general, looking for a place in ny. Me the young vulnerable girl from Jersey and New York - a bear of a city that could very well eat you alive or suck your life savings out from under you before you realize it.
Anyhow, Tuesday afternoon comes and my sister and I take the 1 up to 86th street. I really like that area of the city, there are shops around and I know people who live close by. As my sister and I made it up the 6th flight of stairs when we realized that was either cat piss or bad Indian food we were smelling and I began to feel apprehensive. I rang the door bell and an older black man opened the door, I tried to introduce myself but he didn't seem to notice I was talking, instead he motioned to what was the bathroom and continued to watch sports center as if his life depended on it. The place was dirty, there was a mop by the bath tub and the place had obviously not been renovated in the slightest from the '50s. It took about 10 seconds for me and my sister to get the hell out of there, meanwhile in my head I'm being my paranoid self, running through every way this guy could decide to abduct us or murder us, hello CSI: NY.
The next day a friend and I checked out a place farther north on the West side near Columbia. It was very nearly Versailles compared to what I had witnessed the night before. Hard wood floors, a bathroom with out a mop, and no creepy dude. Definitely a step up but I still had to see other potentials in order to make a final decision, I don't want to make a rash decision just because I happened to see a slightly terrifying option to start with.
This post is getting entirely too long. More on the apartment search in my next post.
I'm sure you're wrapped with intrigue.
