Characters and such

Several things I do and see around my neighborhood in NYC are very unique, as I’m sure any new place is to new residents.


One thing about my neighborhood that I’m finally getting used to are the characters that linger around. The first man, I am confident is a hoarder. This is because I have seen him, number one, picking out of the trash, and number two, putting trash into one of three vehicles he owns that are stuffed to the maximum with trash inside. He is very kind and a little odd, as Alex and I found him washing his jeans in a bucket full of water on the sidewalk about a week ago. The hoarder has filled his cars with so much junk, that he now has to strap garbage on top and onto the back of his cars.


Character number two is good friends with our superintendent, and is our makeshift “doorman” that you can pretty much always find on the steps outside of our apartment. He is very kind, although I can’t understand 90 percent of what he says. Picture the guy that mumbles from the movie, “The Water Boy,” and you will have a perfect idea of my neighbor. This wouldn’t be so bad except for that he makes a comment every time we see him outside. It’s getting a little easier to decipher his words, but smiling and shaking our head usually does the trick of fending him off until we get inside.


Since our apartment is over 100 years old, the plumbing does have its flaws. For example, when turning on the water in the shower, think about how you usually get to the hot water, and that will give you cold water. Now, barely turning the nozzle, when you think you’d get cold water, is where you get hot water. It’s just a reversal of what I’m used to, but not that difficult to adapt. This brings me to my third character- our toilet. Yes, we have given her the animate pronoun “she” although “she” happens to be an inanimate object. This is because each time you go to flush “her”, she lets out a little screech until the water is down. Sometimes her screeches are louder than others which for lack of human contact, perhaps, in turn forces Alex and I to comment on our opinion on her mood for the day.


Another small adjustment we have made to our Midwestern lives is going the extra length to save some money. We have found that even the off-brand of cereal at our local grocery store, Gristede’s, is twice as much as we want to pay, and half as tasty. We have beat the system though, and now get our cereal from CVS. Yes, this may seem odd, but the local CVS is always running a deal on cereal, whether it be two for $5 or two for $4, it beats spending $6 per box. We may not always get our first choice, but usually Kellogg’s and Honey Bunches of Oats are in the mix, so we are content with this extra step to splurge later on something better.


Oh, the things you’ll find in time when changing you’re state of mind.