Some of you may remember an older post on my crazy living situation at 47th Street and 7th Avenue (where I lived in a one-bedroom apartment converted into a three-bedroom apartment with 7 different strangers over the course of one year...). Luckily, I escaped this revolving roommate situation last summer when good friend of mine from college moved up here and we found an apartment together--one where I actually signed a copy of a real lease with the owner of the building. In other words, one that was not being sublet illegally to the highest bidders. It's a wonderful thing, legitimacy.
In other parts of the country, I'm pretty certain that people typically don't live with complete strangers, except maybe their freshman year of college--and then it's widely considered pretty unnerving, as exemplified by the premise of the horror flick The Roommate. So, this summer I was pretty excited to have scored a semi-normal living situation (as normal as sharing a studio converted into a two-bedroom in Chinatown can be, anyway). But, suffices to say, it was awesome to actually know the person sharing my bathroom with me!
My roommate and I had a pretty good run for several months and all was hunky-dory, rainbows and butterflies and general mutual respect for each other's own limited space in this spatially-challenged apartment. But, as all good things must (especially living situations with people in their early twenties in a city which encourages constant change), this has, sadly, come to an end.
My roommate is moving in with his long-time boyfriend this weekend. (Damn stable relationships and the havoc they wreak on others!! Kidding. Mostly.)
So, this means April first I will be living with craigslist stranger #8 since I've moved to New York. I'm not at all worried about it. I've met her and she seemed nice enough. She's just moved to the city from California, has already landed a job at a restaurant, and wants to be a pastry chef. I smell delicious food things in my future!!
I just thought I'd write this post to give anyone who cares to read this blog an idea of how different expectations for living situations are here than in the rest of the country. The cost of rent in Manhattan is crazy ridiculous and prohibits all but those with the most lucrative, high-paying jobs from living alone. The result is that people often end up sharing very small spaces with total strangers--which while scary, is also sort of awesome, because it gives you the opportunity to meet different kinds of people and experience the city with a fresh set of perspectives. It also prevents one from going totally nuts, sitting alone at home in an apartment with no one to talk to but oneself...Not that I've ever caught myself talking aloud alone in my room before. That would be pretty weird, right? Hah...ha.
So anyway, April 1st is a new chapter in my life up here. I'm really sure it will be great, but, if you guys don't see a post from me for a while, maybe check in and make sure I haven't been murdered in my sleep? K, thx!
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Also, if you haven't done so already, go here to give money to disaster victims in Japan. Tons of people over there still don't have running water, food, or electricity. And that's just unacceptable.
And, if you haven't seen my newest article for YPG, check it out here. It's about honing amazing networking skillz, definitely a necessity for us twenty-somethings living through this recession thing...
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