Like the Middle East, my apartment is currently a war zone. Although my cats have lived together since they were kittens, I would never call their relationship close. They tolerate each other and anything can set off a battle.
Yesterday started so well. I woke up and found both cats sleeping on the pillow next to mine. I thought that was odd at the time but heralded the new peace and prosperity in the apartment. But last night I was watching TV and Peanut was crashed on the sofa. She rolls over and stretches but doesn’t realize that she’s too close the edge and starts to fall off. She panics and grabs the sofa for support but gets the blanket I keep on the sofa for fur control instead and keeps falling. More panic and she hits the ground and is twisting and freaking out and somehow gets into the shelf on my cocktail table and keeps twisting around and panicking. Doodlebug sees this and rather than just sit back and allow Peanut to relax she seizes the opportunity to attack Peanut. Oh shit all hell breaks loose. Hissing and loud yowling and hitting and scratching. They weren’t play fighting. So I yell at them to stop which of course did nothing. They take the fight to my bedroom and I stay in the living room to let them cool off. But they don’t. I hear more loud yowls and fighting. I get in their and Peanut is under a table and Doodlebug has her tail and back all puffy. I get Doodlebug out of my bedroom and close the door so the cats can cool off. It is far from an ideal situation. Peanut will want to eat and visit the litter box. Doodlebug hates closed doors and while complain loudly to open it.
When I was ready to sleep I opened the door. Doodlebug was staying just out of the bedroom and the cats were locked into a staring contest with each other. If Peanut wanted to leave she would need to confront Doodlebug. Just before I drifted off to sleep they were still in this standoff position. Since cats sleep all the time, staying awake to make sure the other one doesn’t attack made them cranky. Later I’m awakened by a fight breaking out. Although I don’t think the cats are going to kill each other, I am worried about becoming collateral damage. I’ve been scratched when the fight comes to my bed. Worst way to wake up ever. So I separate the cats. Peanut stays in the bedroom and Doodlebug is on the other side of the door. And for the next six hours Doodlebug yowls every few seconds. My neighbors must be thrilled. She would stop for a few minutes and I’d drift off to sleep. But then she’d start again and wake me up. I tried to figure out what I could do. If I locked her in the bathroom or laundry room she’d just yell louder and since those rooms face my neighbors’ walls they’d be pissed and bang on the walls. I can’t throw her outside since she’s never been out there, hasn’t had her shots updated lately, and doesn’t have a collar. I thought of going to a hotel (the thought still sounds good). I thought of throwing both cats into a sack and have them work as a team to get out before I threw them in the river.
Even though it is almost noon I feel like I’ve had no sleep. I showered and went to Tacodeli and Sodade and so right now the cats are either fighting or sleeping. I’m exhausted but don’t want to waste the daylight hours sleeping. I want to look at new apartments as my new landlord is pressuring me into signing a new lease (I’ve gone 3 years going month to month) and I don’t want to sign a lease to live in a place far from work and downtown with 10 year old carpet and mid 1990s style.
Yesterday I took the express bus downtown to check out some apartments that have recently gone up. First I went to Amli Downtown which is on 2nd Street and Lavaca in the hip and happening 2nd Street District. These are “soft lofts” which mean the ceilings are partially finished (drywall hides the AC ducts and wiring in parts, other parts are naked cement). The floors are stained concrete. The building takes up a city block and in the middle there’s a pool area. The units they have available in my timeframe would be on the 6th or 7th floor and have a view outward. I wouldn’t be able to see the Capitol but just the “urbanness” or the banks and other tall buildings. The places were about $1500 for 900 sq ft which is a lot more than I’m paying now. Oh, and I’d have to pay for parking which is on special now for $75/mth. What blew my mind was I would need to pay $100 deposit for each cat and an obscene $400 EACH as a ‘pet fee’. According to the rules I could have a 99 pound dog and it would cost less than my two little cats that would have a hard time ruining concrete floors. So between the fees for the cats and ‘administration fees’ and other bullshit it would cost about $2000 to move in. All so I could walk down to the shops downstairs and not drive as far (reverse commute) to work or take the bus in 15minutes.
I went a block away to the newer Amli in 2nd Street about a block away. This building is brand new and also called “soft lofts” which actually I found a little harder than the other places. They don’t have a lot of places left but they did have a 626sq place on the 19th (penthouse) floor for “just” $1949 a month. It does have a killer view of Town Lake, Auditorium Shores etc and there probably isn’t a better place to watch the fireworks. But it was tiny! It reminded me more of my dorm room than an apartment. The floor is plain concrete, there’s exposed concrete on the ceilings. The windows are floor to ceiling. But damn it is tiny. For $1700 I’d have a place on a lower floor with a view of the city and although still tiny, was had a few more square feet in the living room and bedroom. It would have the same cat fees and move in costs. But I’d have a concierge where I could drop off my dry cleaning and he could gas up my car and other things “urban apartment” concierges do. The pool is on the 5th floor and has a nice view of the lake. They must hire models to hang out at the pool as the women were just wow. However, the rooms (it is hard to call them apartments because I’ve stayed in larger hotel rooms) are just meh and would go for $400/mth in a shitty neighborhood.
I could see doing the Downtown property. It would be way more than I’m spending in rent now and way more than I want to spend. I want to look at a few more places. The problem is the new places downtown are high end (and they are building more higher end places). Too rich for my blood. And you should see the condos going up. What recession and housing crash. The Austonian is almost sold out and it is at least a year from being done. The 360 has a 200 person waiting list! (the paper had a story about a couple that lived in the Arboretum area — sort of my neighborhood, about 9 miles from downtown– that bought a small place for $400K in that building to have a place to stay in on the weekends. In Austin you can get a really nice cottage on a lake for that… granted far from downtown on Lake Travis or beyond, the “cottages” on Lake Austin are multimillion dollar mansions).
I had the thought of seeing what is going on in East Austin (an area where in Austin’s redneck past where the ‘Negro District’ and ‘Mexicans’ were forced to live but now is being gentrified). There’s some stuff going up near the new rail line so I could get downtown quick and avoid driving everywhere.
There’s also the South Congress district — once the home of hookers and dope dealers and the Austinites that made ‘keep Austin Weird’ a way of life — has a bunch of high end places going it, forcing the funky people out. Rich white people moving in for the SoCo lifestyle forcing the middle class and poor white people somewhere else.
If we’re not careful Austin will be unrecognizable from what made it special in the first place.
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