Rowen

Ok, it's been a long ass time, and I'm finding that lately, I could use a place to get my thoughts out of my head. A pensieve, if you will.

Today's issue goes back a few months/a year. My roommate asked if his girlfriend could move in with us. Scott and I were all "sure! And it brings down the rent! YAY!" First the landlord went all "you're going to be using more water. . . I'm raising the rent 200 dollars!!!," prompting Scott to bail. I had my knee surgery, and the girlfriend got more and more "You're ruining our honeymoon!" Finally, I decided it was time to leave. A friend of mine owns a house WAY out in Brooklyn. It was roomy, and looked like an ok deal. He was making a big thing about giving me a discount, though, in exchange for favors/being his eyes and ears so he wouldn't have to travel out there so often. Well, after doing some research, later on, I found out that he originally was charging 200 dollars above market price, and was giving it to me for the market value of the area, but still expected me to be grateful that he was giving me a "discount" and was hoping I could pay more when I found a better job. It was September, the market was hanging on by a thread, I had just had my surgery, so I was taking things one day at a time. However, after telling me OVER and OVER again about how he didn't want me there long, because he wanted to sell the house, he convinced me to put the bills in my name. While he was also bitching that I might take advantage of him.

Well, my friend found some other people to live in the house, and for a while, things were fine. We all paid rent on time, the bills got paid, and life was fine. Then I lost my job. Then one of the roommates moved out, and I couldn't find someone to cover his spot. So, the landlord/friend guy kept bitching that I wasn't looking hard enough, while not doing any work to find someone on his own. Meanwhile, stuff kept happening in the house. One big thing was that a window in the basement apartment that wouldn't close. The guy called the landlord, and the landlord asked me to look at it. I looked at it, and realized there was nothing I could really do. The landlord didn't want to spend any money on it, because, in his words, "The house is probably gonna get torn down anyway, so why should I spend money fixing the window?" and then got pissed because the other guy didn't like that, and I couldn't adequately make the landlord understand everything all at once, and said he might need to come out and see it. He got all pissy, and basically told me it was my job to handle that shit.

Anyway, I finally moved out. During the last couple weeks there, I kept looking for roommates (landlord kept bitching about that. And did nothing to find any himself.) I finally moved out, though some of my stuff was still there, due to a blizzard making moving almost impossible. The landlord came home to try and show the rooms, and some of my stuff was there. The people he was showing it to apparently took off. I can infer somethings on this, but that would just make the whole situation worse. Anyway. I finally moved out. He said I owed him money for the last month. I gave him an itemized bill showing that he still hadn't paid his portion of the bills and if we were going that route, he owed me money. He said he could take me to small claims court for the lost rent from the two possible tenants, and called me ungrateful because he gave me a birthday present. I told him I'd take care of the bills, but wouldn't pay rent, because his portion covered my portion. He took about 2 weeks to finally understand THAT, by which time I told him I never wanted to hear from him again.

We were part of a gaming group, though, and I had to stop due to my work schedule. I finally found some time and expressed interest in returning. Landlord had been taking time off because he wasn't working much and was spending all his time in a depressive funk. Apparently, he's come back. And apparently, has stated that he won't be in the same room with me. The group has more or less decided that since he was one of the founding members, he does get to stay, if it comes down to a choice, although I have made it clear that I am more then willing to be civil and even sit down and talk about this to get us through this. He says that he can't do that. It's just too hard. Mind you, this was the guy who bitched that I was playing a victim.

Oh, and this is also a guy who's in his 50's, so there goes the idea that we age with grace and maturity.

Last month our gas bill was 60 bucks/person. This month, the gas bill was 45/person. My roommate thinks that this is too high and that it's because of the space heater I bought. I tried leaving it off during the day, but my room got WAY too cold and it then means I have to put the heater on high to get it back to a normal level. So, I've been leaving it on, but on the power saving setting and on a lower temp. Yet, I think my roommate has been sneaking into my room and turning it off.

Goddamned mother fucker. We need to have a talk.

Holy crap, this woman at the USPS customer service was completely unhelpful. And I wasn't being my normal bitchy self. But, she kept saying things like, "Sir, we can't continue unless I have all this information about how the package got sent out." This is after I informed her that I was not the sender, but the recipient, and the sender is sitting on his ass doing nothing but telling me that the tracking number says that it got delivered to me. I'm thinking I might write a review on amazon about this. Not very pleased.

Meh. Work has been interesting. We've lost some of the good people, and I'm finding the corporate office is rather retarded, but I think that's everywhere. It's more just a reminder to me that I need to not stay there for too long.

I've been out in Long Island doing a children's show, and it's been interesting. Some of the cast is very immature, and frankly, I don't see how people can act that way. Though, at the same time, I also wonder how much is me. I tend to be pretty introverted and don't like to drink, so I automatically tend to ignore people who "party." So, maybe I come across as a bitch, I don't know. Today, I had a costume issue and ended up doing the last dance number completely blind. I didn't say anything about it afterwards, and the only person who seemed to give a shit was the stage manager. A part of me dosen't mind. I consider myself a professional, and that's what a professional does. When the stage manager was talking to me about it, and I said that I did the last number blind, one of the girls said, "Welcome to the club." Now, it's this type of stuff that kind of pisses me off. I'm pretty sure that if it had been just about anyone else in the cast, everyone would still be talking about it, and there would have been much "OMG, are you ok?!!!" afterwards. I get ignored and a bitchy comment. Meh.

Well, not entirely, but I'm damn close and not sure when my next pay check is coming. It could be in a week or two, or it could be in a month. I had a job interview today and it went well, up until we got to my november schedule. I swear, people see it and freak. What would they say if I had a real job and couldn't quit it for another two weeks? would they be freaking? I don't know.

Roommate is being horribly type A and young. Not immature, but just young. You know, when they haven't had the experiences yet and are making these decisions, and you just stand there going "What in pajiba's name are you doing?" I think it's cause it's bill time. I want this to be over with. I have money.

There's no auditions this week, which is good because I ran out of resumes and need to print up more. It's bad, because I'm suddenly at a loss as what to do with my time. So, I end up surfing the net, being bored, and generally annoyed. YAY!

Right now, the major annoyance is the new roommate. He's a cool guy, I just think that it's been a curse of mine that I get annoyed by my roommates. He kind of reminds me of my grandmother. Both of them will think nothing of plopping down lots of money on random shit, but then will traverse across the globe in search of discount, bulk rice, or some other silly product that they wasted more time/money looking for then just buying the name brand. He then cooks large amounts of the rice and mixes it with over cooked, dry chicken and canned veggies. I keep forgetting that outside of my family, most men don't know how to cook. That always shocks me. not that I'm some culinary master chef, myself, but I still try. Oh, and there's also the fact that he got mad at me one day because I didn't clean one of his bowls properly after using it, when he leaves dental floss all over the bathroom floor.

Oh well. It could definately be worse.

I heard back from the hotel I interviewed for. They kind of pissed me off because I'm sitting here telling them I'm willing to not act to follow their stupid schedule, but that I basically needed weekends off in November because of a prior commitment. Apparently, they don't see that as an asset, and since they make their schedules based on seniority, I'd be working evenings and weekends. So, they aren't hiring, but are willing to see what's available in December/January. I'm thinking, if they aren't willing to compromise for me, why should I compromise for them?

Meh.

I bought a mouse today. Like for my computer. I haven't used a mouse in about a year or two. My motor skills are confused. I'm also a bit wigged out because it's 67 degrees outside, and I'm finding it unseasonably warm. WARM! In the 60s is warm!!! When did I become a Yankee?!!!!! GAH!!!

I think my roommate must think I'm crazy because I said I was going to be busy this morning. Well, I have been busy. Busy on hold. Oy. I never want to deal with UHaul again. I'm being a nice guy and not yelling at people and I'm still being shunted around. MEH!

I got a message from someone wondering if I was dead or something cause they hadn't seen me on Livejournal in a long ass time. Anyway, I graduated from the program I'm in. Yee haw. Now it's off to try and do something in this big crazy world of New York. I really don't know how to make that sound any less "Sex in the City" then it already does. Anyway. Since it's been a while, and since I don't seem to have as much human contact as I did before I moved out of the dorms, this is going to be mainly a bitching post. So, why don't we start it off with a big ass list?!! I think that'd be great!

David's Grand List of Things that Annoy me about NYC

1) Minorities I'm sure you're going to be all *shocking!* I'm sure a lot of it is because I live in a neighborhood populated by hispanics and asians. I'm also just as sure that if I lived in one of the neighborhoods populated by rich white people, I'd want to kill them as well. However, there are some differences. Latinos in NYC like to walk slow, and place themselves RIGHT in the spot that causes the most traffic disruption, even if no on else is walking. Asians just walk slow. Black men have an extraordinary large personal space, which means they get pissy when you bump into them on a SUPER crowded subway. Black women take up a lot of space and talk loud. REALLY loud. Right now, it doesn't seem like an issue, but it is when you're trying to get somewhere and having to dodge the pissy black man and thuggish latino guy who get upset cause you bumped into them on a crowded street.

2) Equity For those of you who don't know, Equity is the Actor's Union. Yes, we have a union. There's work in Equity, and there's work outside of Equity. However, for all the perks that you get by being in Equity, it's really a crap shoot. Just cause you're in Equity, dosen't mean you're any good or professional. There's plenty of tours out there that get lots of recognition and you can do well in. There's also plenty of Children's theater in Des Moines that are Equity, and you'll join it by joining them, but no one knows you. So, I can go to auditions that are Equity, but you don't always get seen. And Faggoty McFaggot who got his equity card by blowing the director of Crappy McChildren's Theater in Des Moines, gets to audition because he's got a card that should mean something, but dosen't really mean a whole lot.

3) The Queens bus system Whoever designed this should be shot. It has no actual design. The map looks like someone had a big map of Queens and threw a pot of spaghetti at it and there the lines were. You really can't get anywhere. Which sucks because there's only about 2-3 subways in Queens. And they ALL follow the same route.

4) My apartment this is more of a lump category because I don't really hate my apartment. It was a last minute thing and it's not that bad of a deal. Well, once we get a third roommate. My current roommate is fine with not having a third for a while, but never seems to understand the fact that I can't afford what we're paying without a third person. I don't have my parents footing part of the bill!!! Roommate is also one of those weird straight boys who has no problem footing lots of money for an ok apartment but then balks at buying name brands. He's also one of those guys who eats a lot of ramen and hamburger helper. Sure, i've liked both of those before, but . . . not in bulk. It always makes me feel "huh?" when guys don't know how to cook. Or do much with cooking. Then again, my dad was the chef in the family. oh, my apartment is also a mile away from EVERYTHING. There's no grocery store nearby, there's only a laundromat and a deli. That's no problem in Houston, but I don't have a car. Well, I DO have a car, I just don't have any access to it. (btw, any of you need a car? Mine's not too old, and I want to sell it)

This isn't to say that NYC is a complete bust. There's things I like, and not all the above is as crazed as I'm making it seem to be. Right now, I just need a job. Or a sugar daddy. That'd be nice too.

I saw 110 in the Shade today. It was pretty good. Starbuck was rather miscast, and the costumes were too pretty, but other then that, I liked it, for what it was, which is at times rather boring.

i know that's a wonderful write up, but I'm taking it easy this weekend.