OTAS, you found it

With all the hoopla about having settled, most of the people who know me know that’s a crock of shit. New York, for all its glory, seems to try to squeeze every dime out of me. And the latest is the rent increase from my landlord has thrown me over the edge. Perhaps another rent increase wouldn’t be so bad if I haven’t spent the last year mouse-proofing my apartment, settling in, and dealing with living all the way on the Upper East Side. Another 10% is ridiculous. So I’m in the market for something else.

People who know me are usually shocked that I live uptown. Is it that I’m “cool”, “trendy”, or any of that bull shit? I’m not, relative to my fellow New Yorkers, I’m certainly not. The reality is that I’m gay and most of us don’t live on the UES. But I’ve never cared –that much – to fit in to the “scene” and didn’t care to spend $3 grand for a broker so I settled here in the UES.

But that’s all changed now. I think I’m going to find something smaller downtown, or something similar in Brooklyn, to save money on rent. And between that and the decrease in cab fare that I’ll have to pay when coming home drunk, this is a prudent thing to do.