Jason Rodriguez - The Moose in the Closet: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Only stories here from now on. Go to POSTCARDS for production stuff and Live Journal for everything else.

______________

By the time Friday rolled around I thought I was going to get laid off. I honest to shit thought my boss was going to lay me off after my first week of work. I really didn’t do anything. I read some stuff – sent some emails, met my coworkers and filled out documentation. I left before 5PM everyday of the week.

I was so afraid that my boss was going to lay me off that I snuck out of the office that Friday without saying goodbye to anyone, thinking that would buy me some time.

My relocation check cleared and Robin and I were able to explore the city a bit more. I was excited to look up my boy James, the only person I knew who lived in DC, but he was out of state that weekend at some mini-baja competition. I was the youngest person at my first job, a little over 22 – everyone else was well over thirty and most of them had families. Living in a hotel doesn’t do much for the social life, either. Robin and I were on our own for our first weekend in DC where we actually had some money in the bank.

The concierge at the hotel told us to check out Adams Morgan, the busiest area for DC’s nightlife. We take the metro there and walk outside to find a McDonald’s, a deli and two Indian Restaurants. We were…upset…and figured we just moved to the lamest city in America.

Of course the bumping part of Adams Morgan is about ten blocks from the metro station but we didn’t know that – we just went to an Indian Restaurant, ate well, drank even better and made our way back to the hotel thinking we made a huge mistake moving to this city.

The second day we went apartment shopping but ended up in a whole different type of ghetto. Robin went to look for apartments earlier in the week and came back with pictures of some nice ones but they were all studios – she couldn’t find an affordable one-bedroom in the District that was in a “recommended” area. I was determined to find one, however, so I picked out some places that happened to be in South East DC.

Let me tell you a little bit about DC. One of the worst crime rates in America. People think the whole city is a shit-hole but that’s not true – 90% of the crime takes place in Southeast DC and the surrounding areas.

After looking at one apartment we called the Ellicott House and told them we’ll take the studio. (This apartment wasn’t even Anacostia, either, 90% of the crime in Southeast DC takes place in Anacostia – I have only two stories that takes place there and they’re both fucking excellent).

The Ellicott House on Connecticut Avenue – our first apartment. A six-hundred square foot studio on the fourth floor of a 14-story building. Tennis courts, a gym, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, a hot-tub – all stuff we hardly ever used during the year we lived there. I took the place based on pictures Robin took and got developed at CVS. We were moving into the place in two weeks. The only problem was that we couldn’t afford to stay in our current hotel for another two weeks – we’ve already been there for over a week and the room cost us over a hundred bucks a night.

So we needed to find a new hotel. And that’s where the Rosslyn 50 or whatever the hell they used to call it came in. Comfort level was about to decrease and it only gets worse.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

0 Comments

Previous Posts