Category Archive: the condo

Garage trap

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Wed. January 25, 2012

Technology can be so damn fickle, right? I mean, how do we cope when it fails us? Yesterday, as I pulled out of my parking spot to leave for work I noticed a line up of cars heading toward a closed garage door. I rolled down my windows to listen to what discussions were going on. Seems like no one was able to get the door open. We deduced that we wouldn’t be able to leave the garage. I just turned the car around and headed back for my spot. I went back to my suite and emailed my manager explaining my situation. I was debating whether I should wait it out because surely someone would have left an angry call or two to the building’s manager to get the door open, or if I should take the bus to work. Taking the bus would be an hour long journey that I was not keen on making. The other option I considered was if I should take the day off. I mean it kind of felt like the universe was sending me a message, right? I visited the garage every half hour or so to see if the situation improved. Finally, sometime between 9:45 and 10:15 the door was opened manually. That’s when I headed in.

So, that sort of makes me pause for a bit of reflection. It’s not like I was trapped. I mean, I could have easily gotten around by transit or other options. Still, the lack of convenience seemed to trump everything. I won’t say that I was content to stay put, but rather, the other options weren’t appealing enough. That’s ridiculous. Oh well, it doesn’t matter I guess. It all just shows me that I need to be thankful that we’ve got such a convenient life, know what I mean?

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Just a bystander

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Sun. November 13, 2011

Last night I sort of fell asleep in a bit of a stupor. I mean, I don’t remember falling asleep. In fact, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. is a bit of a blur. Anyway, one big thing I do recall is waking up at about 1 a.m. or so. I woke up to hear screaming of some sort coming from what must have been the hallway. The screams were female and sort of short yelps. From what I could hear there was a little bit of commotion to get her to shut up. I was too sleep-drunk to get up and peer through the peephole in my door, but eventually the noise stopped. So there I was lying in bed wondering what the hell just happened. Did I dream that? Was that for real? If it was, did I blithely ignore someone in need? Somewhere down the hallway there’s a unit that seems to have some college-age people. Maybe they were just drunk and being stupid. It’s all hard to tell. Would I have acted any differently if it was obvious that something bad was going on? And what of my neighbours? Surely they heard some of what was going on as well. Would we all be guilty of bystander effect?

Way too many questions. I’m not going to let it all bother me, I guess. I’ll chalk it up to drunken stupidity on their part. And hell, how dare they disturb everyone on the floor.

*shakes fist*

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Order inside and out

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Mon. September 5, 2011

There are always parallels between the environment you exist in and the state of being that you find within. For me it was starting to really become apparent in my condo. Over the past while much of my focus has been on other people. It’s kind of inherent in the job of coaching. It’s also a big part of improv. After all, improv tends to soar when you can successfully build links with others. In terms of self, I’ve sort of been putting my needs on the back burner. I found that this started to manifest itself in my living space by letting piles of clutter accumulate. A little bit here and there isn’t necessarily bad, but things started getting out of hand. This morning when I woke up I had to dodge and sidestep things all over the floor just to get out of my room. I knew that this wasn’t right so I set out today to get things in order.

The disarray in my pad is inversely proportional to the amount of care that I've giving myself lately. Today: I get my shit in order.
Mon. September 5, 2011 7:24 am via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite
@jnery
Jay Nery

This past weekend was somewhat filled with drama. I needed to channel my energies and this was a great way of doing so. My goal wasn’t necessarily to get my place spotless, but to at least get to a point where I could get it to a presentable state if I knew I had company arriving in an hour. Items were shelved, papers filed, rubbish tossed, and carpets swept. The compost bin was rather vile, but no longer so. After hours of back and forth, I ended up falling asleep on the couch for a few hours. Oops.

Well, at this point it’s neater. There are still small piles of clutter here and there, but nothing unmanageable on short notice. Seeing my place like this, I feel like a small sense of pride has returned. Contrary to how things may seem I really do care about my living space just like I really do care about myself and my internal states. Just like I had mentioned about parallels, to me having order inside and out is a sign that I want to be functional and not stumble over things that I’ve been careless to not deal with. It all matters.

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Off of the floor

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Mon. April 25, 2011

It’s unfortunate, but like I’ve mentioned many times one difficulty I’m having is keeping my place tidy. It’s not uncommon for me to get back home at a late hour. By then I’m hardly in the mood to get to work to bring some order back. When I finally do have time, it’s not uncommon for me to occupy myself with other activities. That’s how things go. Just how it is for now. Anyway, ever since picking up a Roomba I’ve at least been keeping the floor someone free of large piles of clutter. I shouldn’t be surprised at all, but doing so has actually made my place seem more open. It’s all an illusion, of course. The more floor space is visible, the bigger and more airy the place seems.

I’m declaring it right now. My goal this weekend will be to clear the tables of bills and ads, to mop, then to clear the bedroom floors sufficiently to get the Roomba going in there. Seems like a lot, but at least if I break it down into individual tasks that need to get done I should have a better chance of getting things accomplished. Oh, but if that doesn’t happen at least me place will continue to be under the illusion of looking spacious. Hurrah!

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Heating patterns

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Sat. January 29, 2011

I just got my gas bill for the past month. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know how I let it get to such a high point. Over the month I’ve had it set to a steady 66°F/19°C. It’s not the warmest setting, but it’s enough to warm the place up when things get too nippy. Perhaps I could have set it lower. I mean, over the past few nights I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. You’d think that would be a clue that I don’t need that much heating. Also, I’m out of the condo most of the time anyway. Work, improv, and running take me out of here often enough and there aren’t any pets here that might require some heat. I only have plants here, and I’m almost certain they can tolerate a bit of chilliness.

The bill has a bit of my heating history. From what I can see, most of the time my gas bill is really low. January is my highest month, followed by February where I only seem to use half as much gas as January. Last year, by March, the heating was off and I toughed things out. By that time spring weather was starting to emerge so I was happy enough to just put on a sweater when I needed to. Fast forward to this year, and it seems like the same pattern is emerging. I can almost see the psychology behind it all.

  • With January being really cold it’s far too easy to turn on the heat and just let it run.
  • When I get the bill there’s a moment of “what the hell?!” That, in turn, causes me to use half as much heat in February.
  • By March I feel like an ace at toughing out the cold, so I end up switching off the heat for the whole month.

I still recall Hui stating something along the lines of saving money shouldn’t mean having to be cold. I guess I agree. All the same, I know what my tolerance levels are. If I can save a few dollars and still feel like I’m not freezing in here, then all the more power to me. I’m happy enough to be curled up here under the duvet.

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One year at this address

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Sat. August 7, 2010

I didn’t really realize it right away, but an anniversary just came and went for me without much fanfare. I suppose it doesn’t really warrant too much attention, but I feel like writing about it. August 4th marks the day that I got possession of my condo; August 5th marks the day that I moved all of stuff into my newly acquired space. That’s insane! I still remember the craziness of the first month or two, just trying to get everything organized. Depending on your point of view, I was either sensible or foolish in rushing to get the place furnished with the big items. To me, it was important to get my comfort items purchased and in place. For me, that was a decision that paid off. I love the fact that my stuff is in line with what I deem to be my style, and not a mix of hand me downs. All of that has certainly made my last year here that much easier to adjust to. That’s not to say that I’m done–there’s still a fair amount of stuff here that I need to get furnished and settled, but I’m at a point where I’m content here.

Moving here, there’s been a lot for me to adjust to. The obvious thing is the whole thing about living alone. Even when I was away from the parents in Waterloo, I still had roommates that I had to deal with. That itself had a lot of good things and bad things. At that point I learned so much in terms of domestic life skills. It certainly prepared me for this eventuality. Now that I’ve been on my own for a year, I can honestly say that living on my own suits me just fine. I almost feel like there’s something of a bit of sanctity about this space. Even if I’ve had a bad day at work, or a rough run, or a harsh day socially, I love that I have a space that I can retreat to in order to unwind and recharge. My place isn’t really that large, but it’s sufficient for me. I tried sharing my space with a cat when I babysat Gloria, but in the end I just couldn’t deal with the feeling of another living creature in here. Maybe if I had more space, you know? Anyway, there is no judgment within these walls. That’s important. Perhaps it’s a different story outside of these walls.

Going from a detached house with the parents to a place where you have to be considerate of others was an adjustment. On one side of my unit I have to deal with the passive aggressive woman. If she was the norm, I’d probably already have gone crazy. There’s an online forum for my neighbourhood, and there’s so much negative energy on there. Fortunately, the forum and the neighbourhood aren’t entirely representative of my place. The neighbours on the other side are a new family, and they’ve been friendly to me. There are other small families that I run into regularly on my floor and we’re always cordial and polite to each other. I’ve had to learn to adjust my habits too. God, bringing a sound system with a subwoofer was a bad idea. I can only imagine how much that annoyed the neighbour even if it was turned down to the lowest setting. Of course, why didn’t she just come to talk with me? Whatever. I think we’re all used to each other now. That’s a great thing. I’m also used to this building. God, there are a good number of things associated with this building that make me want to curse. All the same, I’ve adjusted because I know that things can only get better. The neighbourhood is changing. There’s a lot of potential for growth around here, and I am a patient person. Given time, I will be ready to climb the property ladder. For now, I’m happy just being here.

There’s a lot going for the area. I mean, being steps from a major subway line is insanely convenient. If I was still out on the edges of this big city, I never would have taken up something like improv. I’m slowly becoming more and more acquainted with the city at night. That sounds kind of silly, but when I lived on the edges it was just far too much effort to do anything on a whim. Now it’s a little bit easier. Sure, I’m not downtown where all the action is, but it’s at least several times more accessible.

So yeah, one year at this address. I don’t know how long I’m going to stay here before I get a major itch to relocate to better digs, but that’s something to worry about later on. Meanwhile, I’m going to continue to do my best to live here with a positive attitude, taking the good and the bad and everything in between.

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The new credenza

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Mon. June 7, 2010

Just going to post a picture of the stand that was mentioned in the last post. I’m quite happy with it since it seems to be smaller in depth compared to the old unit, and it has a lot of storage. It means that I was able to clear out two different boxes from my Expedit shelf. I still have to figure out what to fill those spaces with, but I like the fact that I have that option, know what I mean? It feels sort of classy, and feels less of a stop gap measure than the other stand.

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The nugget

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Sun. June 6, 2010

You know, as I was writing last night’s post, I actually fell asleep on my couch. It was the first time I’d done so in a few weeks because I didn’t really want to fall asleep in a location with the possibility of the cat crawling all over my face. I had a lot more to write about my experience with the cat, but I just didn’t get around to it before passing out. So I suppose this post is really just a continuation.

So, a few days ago I wrote about how I seemed to be swaying back and forth over whether to help my friend out and make my place Gloria’s forever-home. There was one incident though that kind of sealed the deal for me. Bear with me, this is a bit of a winding story.

On Thursday, I took advantage of a sale at Leon’s. I’ve been in need of a proper TV stand for a long time now. On Thursday Leon’s put this credenza on sale. It’s regularly $700, and for that day only it went for $350! That’s insane! I took the subway over to the local store and asked for that item. They said that they didn’t have it in stock at that location, but if I was willing I could go to another location to pick it up. I asked if it was something that could fit in my car and he told me it could. I really didn’t want to spend $50 for delivery. Anyway, I reserved the item, paid, then went to the other location. I parked at the customer pick-up area. I got them to bring the stand out. When they opened the loading door to my car the guys could only laugh in disbelief. “Umm…sir, there’s no way that unit can fit in your car.” I laughed along and agreed. Well, fuck. Luckily they had some movers on hand. They agreed to deliver the stand for the $50 fee. I mean, at that point I already had my heart set on getting my stand on the same day, so I just decided to pay for convenience. There was no way I’d have been able to get that stand any other way anyway.

So, when we arrived at my building they loaded it in the elevator and brought it up. When I opened my suite, it was hot and humid. It was also filled with the smell of some cat odour. Privately, I was mortified. I just got them to drop off the stand near the doorway. I didn’t want them to spend much time in there. I paid them and went on to get the stand set up. Before I did though, I decided to go hunting for the source of the smell. I checked around the box but didn’t find any puddles, and the litter box wasn’t particularly ripe. I mean, I cleared that sucker out on a daily basis. I didn’t find anything, so I just opened my balcony door to air my place out. So, I unpacked the new stand, moved it next to the old one and started transferring things over. After doing so I had to move the old stand out of the way. When I did, I finally found the source of the odour. There was a stray nugget of poo that must have been there for a few days. Gross! See, a few days before that she seemed to have accidentally shovelled out a turd. I think she tried to shuffle it around and hide it. In the process it must have broke into three pieces. That same day I picked up two pieces without knowing of the existence of this third piece. Anyway, I nonchalantly picked up this third piece and flushed it. Almost immediately the air quality started improving. That was pretty much the turning point for me. If I come home worrying about how my place smells and whether guests might experience some odd smells on arrival, then that’s just not right.

I didn’t treat Gloria poorly on her remaining days here. I still pet her and brushed her. We really took a liking to each other. Still, I just couldn’t keep up with the cleaning needed to keep her around. I have enough trouble keeping the place tidy on my own. The cat was just adding to the problem. Plus, she helped me to identify what my tolerance levels were. It became pretty clear that I don’t really have a good tolerance for messes that aren’t my own, know what I mean? I think I’ve determined that I’m not really a pet person. See, on emotional terms I’m great with pets; I can form bonds pretty easily. On a practical level, I just can’t deal with the upkeep. It doesn’t make me a bad pet owner, just someone that shouldn’t keep pets. Gosh, does that make sense?

Obviously, I’m sad that it had to come to end like this. Surely, part of me wishes that it could have worked out. All the same, I’m happy that I have my place to myself. I do enjoy my solitude you know. It’ll take a while before my place feels normal again. All I need is time.

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