That’s Stella

Another reason I’m looking forward to moving into my own studio: My house mate has been eating my granola! Firstly let me say that I am all up for sharing. I’ve lived with two house mates previously and it was all sharing is caring and making big dinners for everyone and taking it in turns to cook. But when my housemate holds tight reigns on her Haagan Daazs, then there is no reason she should be eating my yummy granola! I mean, I don’t blame her. I should’nt have just left the jar in the cupboard for all to see - it looks amazing. Apple, raspberry and cinnamon granola clusters. Oy! To die for. It was also a tad pricey, hence why I was a little pissed to see half the jar gone.

I am moving out next Wednesday. I am actually really sad to leave this place. I’m only 200 metres away, but the only thing my new apartment is missing is a front stoop to sit on to wait for friends or people watch.

I spent my Saturday afternoon laying on the grass in Central Park reading the New York Times. I had magnificent views of grand buildings lined up along Central Park South, but I was amongst the greenery. I bought a chocolate covered ice cream and iced tea, kicked off my ballet flats and wriggled my toes. I listened to Air on my iPod and in between reading and people watching, I looked up into the bright blue skies and cherry blossom trees that hung above me.

When I walked home along my street lined with brownstone houses, there was a slight breeze and I was showered with white flower petals.

I purposely got ready early, went downstairs and sat outside on my apartment stoop waiting for my friends to come and fetch me for dinner. I watched people eating outside at the restaurant on the next block and people walking their dogs or coming home with grocery bags. I saw people carrying Trader Joes brown paper bags and grinned because I knew the pain of shopping there. Groceries are super cheap, but the only Trader Joe’s in Manhattan was 10 blocks away from my neighborhood and it was always a struggle going home.

Later in the evening after dinner, we headed to the White Horse Tavern and sat on picnic tables outside on Hudson Street, drinking beer and checking out the crowd.

I walked past Magnolia Bakery on my way home and smiled at the line of people that wrapped around the block - all for frosted cupcakes!

Life is oh so sweet right now.

I heard from our friend that he was going to be in town this week. I hadn’t heard from him and was a little taken aback he hadn’t told me. We had a great time hooking up in LA and he’s been the one calling me and trying to hook me up for dinner with his mom to meet her.

I was at Explosions in the Sky on Tuesday night when I finally got a text from him saying he arrived on Monday night for business and wanted to see me. I had always dreamed of seeing Explosions in the Sky (an AMAZING band - romantic and intense) with a loved one and was a little disappointed I missed my opportunity.

Anyway he called the next morning and asked me out. He said he was here on business and had to have dinner with his boss and colleague that night and wanted to introduce me and his best friend to them. I said yes - I wanted to see him so badly, but hours before meeting him I tried to think of ways to get out of it for some reason.

Dinner was amazing. AMAZING. We went to a really beautiful restaurant. It was buzzing with people and it was dark and fancy but had soul. A pianist and saxophonist played in the background. It was a fixed menu and the service was like none I have experienced before.

During dinner, he put me on the phone with his mom and she told me she heard a lot about me and wanted to meet me soon and invited me over for dinner. She sounded really sweet.

I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the bill. I knew he would pay, but I was planning to do the polite thing and offer to pay my share. Let me say, thank God he said I didn’t have to worry about it before I could get my wallet out because my $40 definitely would not have covered it. My share alone was $345. Yes. My share alone. The bill in total was something like $2k. My meal that night is pretty much my living expenses budget for a week and a half. INSANE.

We made out but it was his best friend who took me home in his sports car because he had to work that night since he flew out the next day.

I’m in a pickle. So my Girl Travel Buddy (GTB) is back from her jaunt around Europe. She’s been away for a month. Before she left for Europe, we said goodbye to Boy Travel Buddy (BTB) as he went back to Perth and that was sad because it was like the three amigos had split up.

Anyway GTB is staying at my apartment for a week till she gets herself settled and that is totally cool - obviously. Luckily for her my house mates are also cool about this. But now she has decided she is going to stay in a hostel for the rest of the month. It’s kinda sucky, but she can’t stay in my apartment as this isn’t fair to my house mates. It’s a tiny apartment as it is with 3 people living in it, let along 4 or 5 (we have another guest coming to stay this month). To be fair, there was a vacant room in our apartment and I offered it to GTB but she didn’t want to commit to anything and NOW she’s screwed herself over.

Now in May, I’m moving into my new apartment. And GTB wants to share the apartment with me and at first I was cool with this because she’d pay half the rent, but since having her stay with me this week, I don’t know if this is going to work out. At least in this apartment, despite how cramped it is, there are separate rooms and a lounge room. GTB is really incapable of going out on her own and exploring the city, so I feel like she is constantly with me 24/7!! The other night I was SO cranky because I cooked us lunch and it would’ve been NICE of her to offer to help wash the dishes. So I started washing and she offered to wash the dishes and I said OK. The next night the dishes were still there and when I asked about them, she said she was “taking back” her offer to wash the dishes. So I ended up cleaning! FRICK! I asked if she wouldn’t mind hanging in the lounge room for 30 minutes because I needed “Me time” and she acted all offended.

I mean, despite how annoying she can be sometimes (hell, I am too) I actually don’t want to hate her after May so I told her she MIGHT need to find her own place. My new place is a nice studio, but there are no rooms and no privacy and place for personal time! Plus admittedly, I was really looking forward to having my own place.

Of course I feel terrible because she doesn’t have any friends here in NY except me, but she’s not exactly trying either. If we live together in May, I’m not going to be able to go out with my friends on my own because I’ll feel bad about leaving her at home and honestly, I don’t want to become like a two-person act. I discussed this with her tonight after I came home from a date, and told her that there was no way one could go out without inviting the other, and she said “But I let you go out on your own tonight!” and I had to remind her IT WAS A DATE and not inviting her was a given!

It is a wonder how we travelled for 7 weeks together living in small hotel rooms or relatives bedrooms, but I think we survived because Boy Travel Buddy was our buffer.

Plus… I must admit I am a little bitter she has seemed to bypassed the most excruciating experience that New Yorkers go through - apartment hunting. I feel like she waits for me to find a cushy place and then decides to join the party. It is definitely a lesson everyone should experience to really appreciate and love your home!

What do you think? Is it better to be a good person and let her live with my in May but hate her at the end of it? Or ask her to find her own place and still remain friends?

My sublet at my apartment is coming to an end this month. I’ve already been looking for my May apartment, more then a month in advance, especially seeing as this apartment was so hard to find in the first place. I’ve come to love this place despite the flaws that I’ve listed below to make me love even MORE the new place I found for May. It is quite a gem (let me just say, my own studio, balcony and elevator) but I’ll tell you more about it when I move in. Here’s my list of flaws of my current place:

1) The NARROW bathroom
When you sit on the crapper, your nose is a mere 10 cms from the wall if you’re sitting slightly hunched. This really rules out any chance of getting any decent reading done in there.

2) CREAKY wooden floors
They are SO loud. I pretty much know all the bowel movement times of my housemates and they know mine because we have to walk past each others rooms and make a racket walking on the floors to get to the bathroom. You can also hear the neighbours on the top floor.

3) NEIGHBOURS (in other buildings)
When you stand in our kitchen cooking, our neighbour in the building NEXT DOOR can pretty much see you tearing up as you chop onions and can SMELL what you’re cooking. This is especially awkward because I like to cook in my pyjamas. The other day I heard someone sneezing and I thought it was my house mate - it wasn’t. It was the man on the top floor in the building next door. I could’ve whispered “Bless you” and he would’ve heard me. I thank GOD none of the neighbours are getting any because that would be really awkward and I would be envious.

4) HOUSEMATES
I think I got really lucky with my housemates considering horror stories I’ve heard from others (New York is full of mental people and kleptomaniacs apparently.) However, numero uno flaw with the housemates is their laziness! I am always the one taking out the garbage (down 5 flights of stairs) 3x a week, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping…So the other day, the light in the bathroom blew a fuse and as a lesson I decided not to do anything about it and would let them deal with something for once. I have my showers in the morning when I can get natural light so I’m not fussed. My house mates response? My American housemate moves out of the apartment for a fucking week and the Aussie housemate (who is 6ft and is the most capable to do anything about the high ceiling light) goes to the deli across the road and buys a candle.

5) 5 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS
Enough said. The UPS man or delivery boy always gives us evils. I am in the habit now of tipping generously. Usually you tip 15% but the other night my Chinese came to $12 and I still gave the delivery man a $5 tip - $1 for every flight of stairs.