Sunday, August 30, 2009

Getting the Keys

Two days ago we paid our rent and got our keys. We also paid for a few extra days in August to facilitate moving in.

Samil set a time for us to meet with our landlord, Christina, to get the keys and pay rent. I had actually been away for a few days with work, and I am fairly certain he said he'd do this without me in that time, but he didn't and its not a big deal. Still, it made my schedule a little wacky, but I managed to fit it around the frenzy of packing up, getting ready for work (we're teachers), and the daily nuisances. I get there about 20 minutes early, which was really only five minutes early because Samil and I agreed to meet ahead of time to talk things over. Of course, that's when Samil calls and tells me he can't make it because he's at the mechanic to fix his car.

His car failed inspection for about three weeks, and for the last three weeks, he's been riding around NJ with that big red sticker of shame. I guess he had decided to take care of that in the morning, and went there about half an hour before we agreed to meet to take care of it. Oh, did I mention he failed his exhaust test in the inspection? No, I didn't. He had to have his exhaust system fixed. And he dedicated thirty minutes to do this.

So I pay the rent, which was a little more than what I had in my bank account, hoping I'd get money from Samil that day to deposit, drop off a few boxes, and take off. I had to hide his keys around so he could get in later while I did some stuff I needed to in Brooklyn. Lacking a good place around the house to do it, I decided to hide it at the base of the PERMIT PARKING ONLY sign next to the house. I buried it in just enough dirt so that it wouldn't be seen yet easy to get to, and took off for the city while leaving him a message explaining in detail how to find the keys.

Five minutes later, he calls. Apparently he didn't check my message, and when I told him I left a message on where to find them, he responded "oh, where are they?" "I left a message explaining it." "Ok. But um, hm. Where can I find them?" Rather than repeat that exchange a few times, I tell him again how to find the keys.

A few hours later, I get a call from him again. "Hey, so I'm at the house. Where are the keys?" ::Head against keyboard I'm sitting at in a meeting::: I explain again.

***
Yesterday we moved in the big stuff. It wasn't a big deal, but Samil did miss most of the first trip of stuff because he overslept and half of the second trip grabbing me and him pizza. Not a big deal, my dad was there to help and lots of things like that are really only two person jobs. I'm just trying to give a bit of context on Samil, really.

When we moved in, I put my stuff way far in the back of the apartment to get it out of the way. The reason we didn't like this apartment, really, is because you have to walk through one bedroom to get to the other. Of course Samil wanted the room with more privacy, and so did I but really I don't care that much. Him seeing some of my stuff there resulted in a really painful passive aggressive conversation on his part.

Problem: he doesn't have a mattress and is planning on using the mattress in the pullout couch. Okay, that's not the problem. The problem is that he doesn't like using the couch part when sleeping and pulls the mattress off, taking up twice the space. Wait, no... that's still not the problem. The problem is that the couch sit right when you pull the mattress out, so if he's sleeping on that mattress in the far room, I'm going to have to be uncomfortable on the couch. This is a pretty epic problem in his mind, and we're still awaiting word on how he's going to resolve the issue. When I explained it, he was genuinely dumbstruck for about a minute.

Tonight I moved in the small stuff with my buddy Steve. Samil was in Philadelphia hanging out with some people and is coming back shortly. Tonight's the first night we'll be rooming together.* We may not have Internet, but I'll try to keep updating to let you know how things go.

*this does not include the first month we lived in my 1br apartment that I will explain in more detail at a later time

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