divine angst

Tell me how bass-ackwards THIS is:

Our future management company sends out lease renewals to tenants. If the current tenant doesn’t renew, the company assumes they’re moving out and RELETS their apartment. But what if the tenant decides, oh, TWO WEEKS before they’re supposed to move out, that they don’t WANT to move out? THEY DON’T HAVE TO. The company just “accomodates” the people moving in by putting them in a similar or better apartment, with rent discounts if necessary.

OK. Hold on. Isn’t the proper way to manage tenants completely OPPOSITE of the above method? Every apartment I’ve EVER lived in assumes the tenant is staying unless the tenant gives written notice that they’re leaving! That would seem to be the logical way to manage tenants, at least to my mind. But hey, what do I know about property management?

So we’re working on a solution.

The building has already reserved a different unit for us—same floor plan, five floors lower in the building. (We were supposed to be on the top floor, with no one above us.) I have two big issues with this: (1) there is an increased likelihood of noise, having an apartment above us, (2) the laundry and exercise room would have been ONE flight of stairs up for us; now they’ll be either FIVE flights up or a VERY SLOW elevator trip up. (The elevators are ridiculously slow.) I was hoping to avoid the elevators except when going OUT; now we’ll have to use them to go UP also, for laundry and exercise. (Mr. Angst suggests that the five flight trek will be a good warm-up for working out. I am not convinced. That also doesn’t improve the laundry situation.)

Our leasing agent is meeting with the regional manager this afternoon to find out what sort of additional “accomodations” they’ll offer us, since we’re getting an apartment that’s equal on a floor that’s not as good. In other words, what kind of monetary discount are we going to get? And then, I suppose, we’ll have to sign a new lease, or a lease addendum, since our current lease is INVALID.

After all of this is worked out, the apartment locator we worked with is getting a negative review from me about this building and management company. I hope they will refuse to work with them in the future. They specialize in helping graduate students find housing and I imagine this kind of crap is just what they’d like to avoid as they grow this portion of their business.

From the BTQ boys.

1. What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?

I usually turn off the light around 11 pm. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but generally, around 11. I wake up at 7:30 during the week. On the weekend, it depends on whether or not I have choir or plan to go to the pool or something fun like that. If I sleep in, I might stay in bed as late as 11:00, but I’d say 9:30 or 10:00 is more the average.

2. What do you want done to/with your body after you die?

Haven’t really thought about it, thanks. But I’m not keen on the idea of embalming or of sticking my embalmed body in a hyperbaric chamber under the ground. I do like the idea of cremation; I also like the idea of a green burial.

3. Describe your dream house.

Space for everything without being empty. Cozy without being cluttered. Other than that, I don’t have a lot of requirements. Hardwood floors are nice. So is central air. And a good neighborhood with good schools, but I think that’s a given.

4. Are you an excellent driver? Do you speed, or drive the speed limit? Ever been ticketed?

I’m a pretty good driver. Right after I got my car (after college), I had a string of accidents—fender-bender type accidencts—but it’s been years since I hit another car. I have had two speeding tickets ever; the first was fair, the second was not (I was following traffic AND I was on the way to pick up my wedding dress. Cop didn’t care. Totally uncool). In general, I speed a little—maybe three-to-five miles over the limit on city streets, and no more than 10 over on the highway. I’m not a patient person, remember? Also, if I have any sort of expired sticker—inspection, registration—I don’t speed at all.

5. What is your favorite animal, mineral, and vegetable?

Animal: puppy, Mr. Angst
Mineral: Is iron a mineral? How about the minerals in our tap water that make my hair so frizzy?
Vegetable: Broccoli, summer squash, asparagus, tomato (I say it’s a veggie, so there), avocado, snow peas, sweet peas….I could go on.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has shipped to me from the UK! I know, it’s not nearly as exciting as getting it tonight at midnight, but at least I’ll have the British edition in five to seven days. The rest of you suckers will have to be happy with the American edition.

Phbbt!

In other news, no return call from the leasing agent.