In reality, this post has been at least 2 months in the making, and in hindsight, I should’ve been writing this as I was going through each situation… BUT I was mad enough at the time to remember everything pretty vividly so bear with me as I go through this venting process.
I’m going to be giving you, the Reader, a little walkthrough of everything that I went through at my first living situation in Los Angeles. I’ve hinted at it before, but my initial living situation wasn’t the most ideal, to put it lightly. The essential set up was that I was paying Apartment Prices to rent out a room in this person’s house, all utilities included, and the room itself was a good size with its own private bathroom.
On paper, it all sounded good. It was already furnished, had Wi-Fi, “All Access” to the kitchen, I could come and go as I pleased, etc etc. But Then I moved in….
The Move In
For the duration of this post, the individual I was renting from will simply be known as the Landlord. When I initially moved in, the L.L. was very kind. They helped pick me up from the airport, made sure I got settled in, and treated me almost like a parent would treat their child. In fact, those were the exact words that they used. “Anything that you need, just feel free to ask..”
The Room Design
When Someone tells you that they want you to “treat the place as if it were my home,” then that’s exactly what I intend to do. Granted, I’m going to be respectful, but my hometown is on the other side of the country, so at the very least,I’m going to hang up my posters and switch out the smaller T.V. for my own.. Which became minor problem #1… Me “changing around the furnishings of the room.” Which apparently doesn’t factor into making the place like my home.
The Wi-Fi
Let me start this paragraph with this. It’s 2015. The days of Dial Up Modems, DSL, and slow Internet in general is pretty much over… Or so I thought. Within a week of me moving in, I found out that slow Internet did indeed still exist, and I was in the only household that still believed in sticking to the basics.
I was downloading and uploading some files that I needed, light stuff (we’re talking megabytes not gigs) and I noticed that it was taking a really long time to download. So a few minutes later, I get a text from the Landlord, in which they asked me if I was downloading anything. I said “Yeah I’m just downloading some files that I needed.”
“Oh. Well here we’d appreciate it if you did all downloading after 6:30 P.M. The rest of us need to use the Internet, and downloading slows everything up.”
Uhm… What?
Now.. I’m a reasonable man. I’m not expecting blazing fast Wi-Fi (Although if it’s there that’s even better) but if downloading some files can slow the Internet to a crawl, that means no Netflix, no Online Gaming, None of the perks of the modern world can be accessed until you finish whatever it is that you do at 6:30??
During my time here, I spent a lot of time at the Library, various Starbucks Cafes, and basically anywhere that had Wi-Fi of a modern age.
The A/C
In comparison to Miami, Los Angeles might as well be in a constant state of “Fall.” Except for the summer that I moved over here.. Where it was almost 100 Degrees every day for almost a month.
So a sane mind would probably think, “Hmm, it’s 83 degrees in the house during the day (and at NIGHT!) guess I better turn on this Central A/C that I have in this house, in order to keep myself and my tenants cool…
Instead “To Save On Utilities” We all had to live in a sweat box, especially at night, where it was so hot that cracking a window open actually seemed to make things worse. The Landlord’s “Excuse” for this was that the “Cooler Weather was coming” which made absolutely no sense because 1.) it was hot RIGHT NOW and 2.) According to this other modern invention “The Weather Forecast” the cooler weather was, in fact, not around the corner at all.
And that’s it for part One.. I had to split it up into two parts after I realized how much left I had to write, this could’ve easily turned into a short story… Until next time 🙂
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