In my last post I talked about how I came to be living where I am this summer. Now this was mostly to justify how much I pay for my current situation…. When I was talking with my current landlord, they wanted me to realize a few key facts about the place. I would be living in another unit behind their house, I wouldn’t have a kitchen, I would have to go to the laundromat for laundry, and they would provide linens and such. This meant several key things that I later discovered. I would have to eat out for every meal (or eat pantry snackables), I would be sleeping on the cheapest polyester sheets from Ikea, and I would be living in a 10ft by 12ft portion of their shed that they had renovated. Lucky me got all this for only $1200 per month.
My first night in California was actually really nice. My Lyft from the airport dropped me off at their place and they showed me the code to get through the privacy fence. They took my past some lovely planters filled with vegetables and pointed out the fruit trees in the backyard. They took me all the way to the shed out back. Built into this shed was a normal door like you’d find on a house. Not too bad there. Now I will admit I wasn’t really sure how big 120 square feet was or what it would feel like. When they opened the door I was greeted by a full bed that had been made up all cozy for me. It was incredibly thoughtful of them and really helped being in a new city on the other side of the country.
Upon further inspection I realized that a full bed takes up about a third of the room that isn’t bathroom. The rest of the room was populated by a free standing clothes rack and a large shelving unit. For all the knickknacks that I was able to fit into my suitcase I guess. They brought me some food any something to drink and I went to bed after a day of traveling.
The next day was Sunday and my landlords took me out to breakfast at a really good diner. Getting out of the car near the diner was when I first realized where I was. The richest metropolitan area in the country. More millionaires per capita than anywhere else. Parked out front of this tiny diner with a long line waiting was both a model S and some flavor of Aston Martin. This was normal to the bystanders.
I have even devised a game that I play while walking home from work around the same theme. I take count all the teslas that I see in the first 15 minutes of my walk. My record so far is 33 in case anyone was wondering. That number is counted just from the teslas that I happen to see while not glancing at my phone or catching Pokemon.
After a lovely brunch at the diner, they took my to a Walmart that was near to the house. I got some toiletries and food while they shopped in T.J.Maxx next door. It started to rain while we were shopping so they drove me home too. This is only the second time I’ve rented, but I can only hope that I have such hospitality in my future. Two weeks later a wonderful addition to my little shed arrives. A fridge! now I can enjoy room temperature food or cold food! My pallet dripped in anticipation of the culinary masterpieces I could concoct. Then about another week later I was gifted with an almost color matched microwave that annoyed all of us with it’s pigment. With those additions I was able to take complete control over the temperature of my food! I could microwave potato chips! I could… make ice!
The next lovely additions came I think two weeks after that when one day they knocked on my door and asked if I wanted a little desk. This would be supremely better than destroying my entire spine by using a laptop on a bed all summer. So I said yes. The next day, I came home from work to a cute little Ikea desk and a pair of chairs in the room. The first things that I did was plop into a chair to take my shoes off. Then I noticed the color rubbed off on the wall from doing so and scooted each furnishing about a half inch farther away from the wall.
Additions to my situation have been fairly stagnant since then except for a window mounted air conditioning unit for when it got super hot. I’ve pretty much just been working and running and sleeping. With the occasional many hours of youtube or Netflix thrown in, of course. Maybe some summer I will actually manage to have roommates I know.