This has been the week from Hell – truly.
On Monday, my roommate, K., sent me a text to let me know that he’d be moving out by the end of October, as he’d found an apartment with his girlfriend. Did I receive that text? NO! Why? Because he sent it via his iPhone, which the media has documented as having problems as far as sending text messages! I had no idea, until he knocked on my bedroom door on Tuesday to see if I’d received his text. He’d also sent me a text earlier that day telling me that one of his friends was interested in moving in, which could possibly save me the monotony of yet another roommate search. Of course, that text hadn’t come through, either. I told him to CALL me rather than text me anything important. He told me that his friend would be by the following evening to meet me, so that we could talk about his possibly taking the room. On Wednesday I came home and waited (and waited) (and waited) to hear from or see either K. or his friend. I sent K. a text, but didn’t hear back. After more than an hour, I got frustrated and simply listed the room on Craig’s List. Naturally, as soon as I’d done that, K. called to say that he’d TEXTED earlier (yet again) to say that his friend wouldn’t be able to take the room after all, but he’d told our other roommate, A., that he could have his room (since it’s bigger) and I could rent out the smaller room instead. That’s all very nice, but… K. doesn’t have any say as to who takes the larger room, or the smaller one, for that matter. Besides, due to all the miscommunication because of those damned iPhone texts, I’d already advertised the large room. I was in the midst of setting up appointments to show the room the following evening. In the meantime, I sent the other roommate, A., a text to explain what had happened and let him know that potential new roommates would be coming by on Thursday evening to view the larger of the two bedrooms. A. asked if I could change the ad the following day. My response was that I detest searching for a roommate so very much that I was ONLY going to show the room on Thursday night and pick from whoever showed up for their appointment. A. was disappointed, to say the least.
When Thursday arrived, 8 men came by in half hour increments to view the room. Of the 3 women I’d contacted, none of them ever got back to me at all. Since A. was home, I mentioned to everyone that the smaller room was available if they’d prefer to move into that one and pay less rent. About half of the guys seemed amenable to that. I was amazed at what some of them told me. Two or three of them currently live in the inner or outer Richmond and can’t wait to get out of there. It’s even colder and more foggy than this part of town, plus there’s not much nightlife within walking distance of their apartments. They hate riding the 38 Geary bus, too, which seems to be the most hated bus line in all of San Francisco. One guy told me that he had 3 roommates, but two of them had significant others that were ALWAYS there, so, in reality, he lived with 5 other people and 2 dogs. He can’t take it any more. Another guy said that he shares a 6 bedroom house in the Mission with 5 other roommates and pays $1800, plus utilities, for a room half the size of our larger bedroom! I was shocked. Who in their right mind would pay $1800 for a room in the Mission?! The Mission is old and all of the buildings are run down and falling apart, everything smells like urine, people sell used goods all over the sidewalks, there’s no parking, there are gangs on the outskirts… yet it’s considered “hipster.” When I gave him a tour of the laundry room, yet another guy said that he pays $4.00 to $4.50 per washer when he goes to the laundromat in the “outer” parts of San Francisco! And to think, I complain about the $2.00 per washer and $1.50 per dryer that we pay in our building!
I narrowed it down to 3 candidates. My third choice was an Irish guy who works for Abercrombie and Fitch. He’d lived in Boston for awhile, too, but is currently staying with friends. I’m not even sure what it was that I liked about him, yet I could have sat and talked with him for hours. My second choice was a Croatian guy that is a graphics designer. The personality was there, plus he was really honest about why he wanted to move in (he was the one with 5 housemates and 2 dogs). The other roomie, A., was enamored of him as well. My first choice, however, was an Asian guy who does data analytics for Thred Up. He’s from North Carolina and has only been out here for 7 months. When I asked him about Thred Up, he gave us quite a spiel. You could see what a salesman he is! He doesn’t cook (i.e. no mess in the kitchen), he’s not in a relationship (i.e. no significant other always in the apartment) and he was the only one to show up with his credit report. Not only that, but I remembered his E-mail. It said that he came “smoke-free, drug-free and pet-free, but not sarcasm-free.” Corny, I know, but it made me laugh. I made him an offer today and he accepted. Even better, he’s happy to take the smaller room and offer the larger room up to A.
All in all, the roomie thing, which caused me stress the moment I found out, ended well and quickly. Hopefully, there won’t be any drama before November 1st gets here.
At work, two of the admins for another division were unexpectedly fired. One had been in the office for 7 years, while the other had been there for about 5 years. We were taken aback. Rumor has it that their “skill set” wasn’t up to par, but come on. It took 5 to 7 years to figure that out?! Meanwhile, some of the other admins are watching their back ’cause they’re getting a little nervous.
Speaking of work, I managed to move all of the legal working files (25 drawers full), move my main boss’ office, move the other new attorney’s office (but she only had a few things, as she just transferred here) and my mess of a temporary cubicle over to our brand, spanking new, newly carpeted and newly cubicled/newly conference roomed original side. It wasn’t fun. I took my time, as in all week, since my back still hurts a bit. I seriously need a deep massage on my lower back. The stress of moving things was still there, though, particularly since it was also in the midst of my PMS.
To top off my week, I had decided to dash down to the Tenderloin on my Friday lunch break to pick up banh mi for my two attorneys and my other favorite person in the office, an analyst named A. As I stepped off the bus over in the Tenderloin, the Muni police were there and asked to check my Fast Pass. I gave it to them and they ran it through their scanner thing-a-majig about 3 times. They told me that there was NO cash value on it at all, so they’d have to give me a ticket for $106!!! WTF?!?! WTH?!?! I explained that my company pays for my Fast Pass and they send me an E-mail every month when the cash value has been loaded on to it. They’d sent me an E-mail on September 23rd saying that my cash value for October had been loaded. The Muni police were slightly sympathetic, but said that I have 21 days to fight/dispute it. Well, guess what? I’m leaving the country in 10 days!!! Oh, my blood pressure was rising. I went back to the office and handed out the banh mi first. All 3 of them had gotten the roast pork banh mi; I’d gone with the pork meatball. A. was skeptical of the meatball one, for some reason, so I offered him a taste of mine. After one huge bite, he was impressed and said that he might just order that one next time. Ok, back to our regularly scheduled bitching… I then called the company to query them as to what was up with my commuter benefits. They said they’d have to “research” it, which would take 48 business hours. Later that afternoon, I took my card down to the BART station to have them run it through to detect whether it was damaged or defective. They said it was fine, that the October cash value was on there, but it had just been loaded THAT DAY! I should have asked them exactly what time it had been loaded, so I’d know if it was before or after the Muni police ticketed me. (I also suspect that the scanner thing of the Muni police could have been off kilter.) All I know is that I am going to be WAY PISSED OFF if I have to pay $106 out of my pocket.
Now it’s nearly 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night. Maybe if I stay inside, nothing more in the way of bad luck can happen to me. But I need a Coke! Should I order delivery?!