Neighborhood vignette #1: The one with the super
My building super just upped and left the country. I had no idea she was gone, until I saw the announcement scribbled on the whiteboard in the lobby. My first thought was, Great, now I'll finally have to speak to my landlord regarding my apartment and rent from now on. I've never met the guy, because the super took care of everything, from closing our deal with him to making sure he gets the rent, or at least, giving me his bank account number so I could pay him more directly.
This morning at nine, still awake after an all-nighter, the temporary "volunteer" super called on me. Cheerful, friendly woman; I tried to stay back as far as I could, lest I be contaminated by her bubbliness. She just wanted to remind me to have a hose fitted on our air conditioner, so it would no longer drip in the hall. Yeah, I know putting a bucket in the middle of the hall to catch the water from my a/c isn't exactly Martha Stewart-ish, but I've been too busy to follow it up.
I told the super I'd follow it up soon.
She went on to talk to me about the improvements she was planning, such as redoing the hallway floors, which meant that starting next week, we would have to remove all our door mats.
Huh? What should we wipe our shoes with then?
Oh, I'll show you the new mat we'll all be using. For uniformity. Wouldn't that be nice?
Yeah, because that's exactly what I want in life-- uniformity. Nothing excites me more than being mistaken for any of my neighbors, because godforbid I might actually be an individual.
To my credit, when ten years ago I automatically smiled at people's silly yet well-meaning ideas, this time I just cocked my head and gave her a blank look.
We'll also have the same shoe racks outside the units, so the shoes won't clutter up the hall.
I smiled at this one. That's ok, I don't leave my shoes outside my unit. Are you kidding me? That's just gross and tacky. Plus, my shoes are nice, and might be coveted by my neighbors. And you know what coveting neighbors are capable of.
This morning at nine, still awake after an all-nighter, the temporary "volunteer" super called on me. Cheerful, friendly woman; I tried to stay back as far as I could, lest I be contaminated by her bubbliness. She just wanted to remind me to have a hose fitted on our air conditioner, so it would no longer drip in the hall. Yeah, I know putting a bucket in the middle of the hall to catch the water from my a/c isn't exactly Martha Stewart-ish, but I've been too busy to follow it up.
I told the super I'd follow it up soon.
She went on to talk to me about the improvements she was planning, such as redoing the hallway floors, which meant that starting next week, we would have to remove all our door mats.
Huh? What should we wipe our shoes with then?
Oh, I'll show you the new mat we'll all be using. For uniformity. Wouldn't that be nice?
Yeah, because that's exactly what I want in life-- uniformity. Nothing excites me more than being mistaken for any of my neighbors, because godforbid I might actually be an individual.
To my credit, when ten years ago I automatically smiled at people's silly yet well-meaning ideas, this time I just cocked my head and gave her a blank look.
We'll also have the same shoe racks outside the units, so the shoes won't clutter up the hall.
I smiled at this one. That's ok, I don't leave my shoes outside my unit. Are you kidding me? That's just gross and tacky. Plus, my shoes are nice, and might be coveted by my neighbors. And you know what coveting neighbors are capable of.
Geek urbanite blogs about living alone, working independently and why we love the 
1 Comments:
i also don't know about what coveting neighbors are capable of? if you will get then please blog on this I AM WAITING ......
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