Evening Epilogue: Day 29 (Roommate Wanted) 87/90

Good evening,

You gotta love days off. It offers you the time to do some of the things you want to do but just can’t seem to fit into your normal everyday schedule. Because if this were any other Tuesday, I would have been at work working. Yeah, you get the weekends to do your own thing, but there’s nothing like sneaking in a day in the middle of the week where everyone else is doing the same ol’ same ol’ while you’re free to roam and do your own thing.

My date with my mother went well. She finally got to show off her mystery son that everyone had heard about but never saw. I guess that’s what happens when there’s a 10-year gap between you and your next sibling. I’m so far removed, age wise, from my brothers and sister that I’m a little more independent and more removed from the nest than they are. Even still, it’s always good to return every once and a while.

Overall, my second to last day of fast was good. Cleaned house, spoke to family, got a haircut, and received a check in the mail, but with the good often comes the bad. Along with the aforementioned check also came bills. A few weeks ago I got a written correspondence that my maintenance bill was going to go up “due to the unforeseen increase in home heating costs that have affected everyone.” Well, I didn’t know it was going to be almost an extra $100. Gottdamn. It’s like everything is going up, except my damn paycheck. What gives?

At this rate I’m realizing it’s hard out here for a single person. I’ve crunched the numbers on my budget before and looked at the necessities and luxuries. Although it hasn’t gotten to the point where I’ve cut off the HBO, DVR or the whole damn cable (all potential luxuries but still needs for now) just yet, shit is real in the field. I cut off my home phone as soon as my Triple Play deal was up. I mean, I lived in my spot for a whole year and barely could remember my own phone number. That’s $30-40 that could go elsewhere.

A while back one of my boys said, We’re all just a string of bad luck from being homeless. Like, if you lived in New York and didn’t have any family, then you lost your job, had a medical emergency that soaked up your funds, and just a bunch of other bad variables piled up at once, it could easily be you on the train asking for change. I hope not, but that’s very real. I mean, living in New York we tend to turn a blind eye to beggars with decent clothes on (even the ones that are clearly homeless) and think to ourselves, “Why don’t this fool just go get a job? S/He looks healthy and capable of working somewhere.” But who knows what string of bad luck got them to that point where begging for change was the last step before all out homelessness and destitution. Okay, I’m exaggerating again, but I’m just saying…

Shoot, maybe me calculating how much money I saved fasting the other day was a sign. Who knows, I might just keep fasting just for the heck of it. I’m kidding (kinda-sorta) because it hasn’t even gotten that bad yet, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. Maintenance UP. Electric bill UP. Cell bill UP. MetroCard fare UP. Price of Lactaid milk UP. Everything is UP, UP, UP and HIGH away. Something’s gotta give. I really looked at my new maintenance bill and thought to myself, Damn, I’m gonna need a roommate, a wife, or something to help out with all this shit soon. Because, financially speaking, being single in the big city is just not the move.

So who wanna go half on a crib? I’m accepting applications now. But no funny business, ladies, ’cause ain’t nothing going on but the rent. LOL.