Spreading the Love

So, Jill and I are real-estate moguls. We're wheeling and dealing, talking leases and deposits and sublets and contracts and all that. During the course of our search for a great San Francisco sublet, we came across a small studio that we really liked. It was small, cute, and in Nob Hill, a really nice neighborhood in the heart of the city. Jill and I are psyched. How cool would it be to be moving to San Francisco October 1 yet have a place all lined up in the middle of June? We'd have it made in the shade . . . 

Well, it didn't work out. In order to take the place off the market, we needed to provide at least a month's rent right away. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a ridiculous demand. In fact, most landlords require first month's rent and a security deposit equalling another month's rent. Jillian and I, being big spenders and poor savers, didn't have this cash lying around. I guess we knew this and didn't really want to think about it. We asked this nice landlord in SF if we could pay with a credit card or, you know, our good word, or even better, our good looks, but no dice.  Once we have cash in a few months, we can see if the place is still available, but chances are it will have already been snatched up by some ugly, mean people. Sadness permeates the land.

As often happens in these situations, it turns out to have been a blessing in disguise. On closer inspection, the apartment really seemed kind of small, and there were no windows looking out to the street. Now if you've seen our Bay Ridge place, you know we've got lots of windows and really great views. I don't know if we could coop ourselves up in a tiny SF hole in the wall, never seeing the light of day unless we scurry out onto the sidewalk. So look at that -- we're lucky, lucky I tell you, that we didn't get the apartment of our dreams!

Despite our change of heart, we didn't like have our choice made for us. It's like how you'd rather dump someone than be dumped, or how when you're playing basketball, you always enjoy playing offense more than you do defense. As fate would have it, however, we were soon given the opportunity to walk the walk. (In a side note, I was recently copyediting a manuscript where an author wanted to use the phrase "walk the talk." When I pointed out to him that this, um, made no sense, he refused to listen to reason and insisted on keeping it in. Being an editor will make my blood pressure rise and temple veins swell with frustration. Breathe, Niko, breath.) 

We had posted our apartment sublet on craigslist, though we weren't sure if we were going to have any interest. We really like living in Bay Ridge, but do people living in New York for only a short period of time really want to live in Saturday Night Fever territory? I mean, for those looking for the quintessential New York experience, we're a bit far from the main action -- not quite the boondocks, but definitely the outskirts. But lo and behold, we had a lot of interest!

Our main prospect has been a couple, both of whom are medical students doing internships or fieldwork or something or other at various Brooklyn hospitals. They sound like really nice people, and they need a short-term place for the exact time period that we'll be gone (October through December). Ah, but there's a hitch. Our dream tenant, our shining medical students, can't afford first month's rent and deposit right now, but they will be able to pay it in a few months. Could we find it in ourselves to accept the $300 nonrefundable deposit, a promise of future payment, a signed lease agreement, and the permanent home address of one of their parents, so we know where to send the men with baseball bats should they flee town on us? Are we that magnanimous? Are we that generous? Are we that in tune with the ebb and flow of the universe?

Yuck -- my own medicine tastes terrible!

Look, you can't treat others well if you don't treat yourself well, and you can't treat yourself well if you don't treat others well. A general openness and compassion and good will are necessary for general happiness. We'd love to have a deposit and firth month's rent -- we really would. With that in hand, we'd have the cash to perhaps get our hands on our own dream SF apartment sooner rather than later. But that's just not how it's gonna work out this time. I don't know why or how or if anyone or anything is responsible -- but in this world system, at this time, this go 'round, in this instance, our job is to learn patience and compassion and empathy.

We told our dear medical students, "No problem." And you know what? It really isn't a problem. We want to wrap ourselves in a warm blanket of security and certainty -- in mid- to late June, we want to everything wrapped up for our October 1 move. We're scared, anxious, and unsure. But doesn't that contradict the nature of the journey itself? Aren't we going to experience something new, take a chance, shake things up a bit? Well, once you get in that game, I feel you have to accept its rules. If we want rock-steady stability, we should just stay where we are, not move anywhere, and not do anything risky or fun ever again.

So great creator of the universe, take note of our actions, and please plop squarely in our laps a great SF sublet with great views and kind landlords willing to be flexible with deposits and first month's rent!