PLIZE COL MY - SPIRO

Yesterday, I woke up at some point in the afternoon, delirious from either a cold or its treatments, various cold medicines, one of the two, or the two in combination, making me feel totally off-kilter. I have missed school and work the last two days, this cold and fever coming out of the blue and taking me down. I noticed a business card slid between my door. A note written on the back of the card saying "PLIZE COL MY - SPIRO."

I called him, worried what he might say. I for some reason was imagining he was going to say my neighbors behind me are complaining about me masturbating. Again, might I mention that I was on various cold medicines and not thinking very coherently. What he actually called to say was that he wanted to sell the apartment building and that it would sell better if he cleared it of the tenants. He offered me two months to move out, $2000, and my security deposit back. I asked him if I could think about it before accepting and call him back today.

My lease actually expired back in October and I have just been continuing to mail my monthly checks. This offer that he gave me, from what I understand via looking at various sites, is actually better than he needed to. As a month-to-month tenant, he legally only needs to give 30 days notice. I think that he believes I am still on a lease with time on it which is why he made this offer. Last week, he asked me if I could fax his lawyer a copy of my lease. I told him I would as soon as I found it. I was never able to find it, but this must have been why he was asking. Luckily, it seems he had no record of my lease either and didn't know that it had actually ended, otherwise I doubt I would have been getting this offer of money to move out.

And so, knowing that this was probably the best deal I could hope for under these circumstances, I accepted his offer today and am just not going to pay rent these last two months here. Now, though, I have to find a new place to live. Lately, I have been thinking about how much I like my apartment and like my neighborhood. Both have grown on me so much in the last few months. I might not be able to live alone anymore though. My rent in this apartment is really cheap considering what other 1 bedrooms and studios are going for in this neighborhood. I had planned on staying here for quite a while, knowing that given my current level of income, I would not be able to find any studios or 1 bedrooms in Bushwick that I could afford. This neighborhood, even in the year and a half that I have lived here, has jumped up in rental prices so much. The New York real estate market is insane. I don't understand how everyone affords these prices. And so it looks like I am presented with the option of moving really far out in Brooklyn, to far areas of Crown Heights, to Rockaway, or to areas of New Jersey (which is not really an option I am considering) if I wanted to continue to live alone, which I do. The alternative, which may likely happen, is to find a roommate situation, so I can live in a neighborhood that I would actually enjoy living in.

New York is rough, will knee you in the crotch just as you are feeling really confident and skipping down the street. It's always a challenge, which is part of the appeal. It's a hard game that I am determined to beat. Bowser keeps stomping up and down, not wanting to let me pass, steam blowing out of his nostrils, ominous music playing. There is some combination of buttons I need to hit on the keypad to beat him. I am going to. I am going to win this game.