2005/05/13

Think long and hard before renting from a private owner

I moved into my apartment in September. It's a two-family house on a "residential street". I live in an urban area and I love it. There's always salsa and merengue playing, there are lots of kids, and it's accessible to all of the major highways. I took the apartment because it was very cheap, closer to the boyfriend, and I have a dog. The owner, who happens to live in the house next door, is a nice gentleman in his late fifties and my downstairs neighbor is a single woman, also in her fifties. (Of course, I'm now realizing why she lives alone. She's a fucking wretch who has no concept of human interaction.) When I moved in we had a few conversations with them about our lifestyles and it seemed like it would be a dream come fucking true. My dog is wonderful. He's not aggressive at all, but he does enjoy barking. He doesn't bark at night, but during the day with traffic and whatnot, of course. For the past 2 months, the whore has been either leaving me notes taped to my door or telling the owner that he's disturbing her. I leave for work at 7am and I'm home by 6:30pm on average. She is a secretary at a school, so I'm assuming she leaves around 8 and is home around 4. Are you seriously fucking telling me that between 4 and 6 my dog is torturing you? I asked old boy and he said it happens when she's pulling up the driveway. Imagine that. A dog barking at a car in his driveway. So multiply this by 60 days or so. She likes to slam her door in my face also. So I get home from work yesterday and they're just finishing up a conversation. Yippee. He asks me for the hundreth time if I can find somewhere for my dog for a while. NO. I got him from the spca and I'm not putting him anywhere. He's the best dog ever. So then he goes into this whole thing about how they've known each other for a million years and she's been renting from him for ten or so and that she's his priority tenant because I'm not going to be there forever and he made an exception by accepting the dog in the first place and he can't keep getting complaints from her and not do anything. So I asked him why he doesn't see that this is the most ridiculous bullshit ever, and he couldn't answer that question. I either have to find a situation for my dog or hit the skids. I looked in my lease, and there is a part about the terms of the agreement being entirely dependent on his determination about what is a bother and so on. So I've been looking for another arrangement for a few weeks anyway, but nobody wants to rent to you if you have a dog in New Jersey. Or the rents are outrageous. There's an apartment by the boyfriend, but it would be 90 FUCKING MILES! ONE WAY! I don't think I have it in me to do that 5 days a week. I'd be traveling through New York City every day to and from work. I'm not giving up my dog. He was at the shelter for 2 years before I got there. This blows.

2005/05/12

2005/05/10

Uh, No?

I don't claim to lean lef tor right, politically speaking. I'm not a believer in labels when it comes to these things, so I do make a solid effort to look both ways. Having said that, I really don't know what to make of The Huffington Post . I'm all about free speech, but I've always agreed with the opinion that having a microphone in front of your face as a result of celebrity does not automatically entitle you to presenting the convoluted ramblings that escape your embattled psyche to the rest of the world as expert thought. Leave that to us, please. --Stepping off soap box-- Um, so yeah, as I was saying, my personal experience with famous people has helped me to the conclusion that 90% have no concept of the life of the common human. So where, pray tell, do you, Mr/Ms. famous for whatever reason, get the notion that I can relate to anything you say or do? I'm pretty sure that it's been many moons since you did a few loads of laundry at the laundromat, or paid a cell phone bill yourself, or got into an arguement with the evil wretch that hates your dog. It's just another fine example of the better-offs trying to feel "common" by researching trends and trying to "be down". Go shit in your hat.