There was only one catch, the unit would not be available till the middle of August. As my Brooklyn Heights sublet runs out on the 28th of July, I needed a 2-3 week place to stay. This was how I met Alton. I was searching the Craigslist "shared housing" section and came upon a weekly rental in Bedsty. I was searching for ads that contained the words "Park Slope", and the writer of this ad cleverly put "Park Slope" in the body of the ad (I think it was something like "close to Park Slope, Williamsburg, Boston, Martha's Vineyard,..."). Anyway, I responed to the ad (I was getting very good at writing these intro mails), and within 12 hours I got a call from Alton.
Confession: it wasn't until I had been living in the studio for 4 days that I finally figured out her name was Alton.
Next morning, I was off on another great adventure to the land called Bedsty. Now, those of you readers that know me know that I sometimes have problems with directions. Well, this was no different. I was so confused by the instructions that I became hopelessly lost. Now this wasn't Alton'sfault, but mine. Things not to do when getting directions:
1. Don't get directions while shopping at Dean & Deluca's during rush hour.
2. Don't be eating while trying to listen to directions.
3. If you only have 3 viable brain cells, don't rely on memory.
During my "walkabout", I travelled from sketchy urban areas (ganglandish) to the Hacidic Jew area of Brooklyn. Eventually the stares from the Hacidic Jews walking by me eroded my will enough to call back for aid and assistance. Let me tell you, getting the "stare down" from passing Hacidic Jews was quitenerve wracking. I think what they were thinking was "Why are YOU sweating, we are the ones in suits". Side Note: In my attempt to find out more on Hacidic fashion, I found this site: http://crjew.vshirts.com/.
Well, I called and was able to get back on track and find the apartment building. The building was a huge 5 story grouping of artist lofts. Alton's unit was on the 5th floor and thankfully there was an elevator. The room I ended up renting was damn big and one wall was almost completely windows.There was a bed (yea!) and a desk and chair (yea), and more importantly, an unsecured Netgear wireless network I could piggyback on (hoo-hoo!).
Over the next couple of weeks a dresser, table lamp, bookshelf, and mirror made it into my room. Now Alton is a recent art school grad, who doesn'thave money she can just throw around. So how did she get all this stuff, craigslist. The deals she would find on craigslist for free stuff was pretty amazing. She could put Crate & Barrel out of business if she had her own truck. As it was, she was able to transform both her rooms that she rents intovery nice furnished units. I wish I had photos of the place, because it was very funky and very cool...
Alton is pretty unique. She has what you'd call a "free spirit". Besides her urban "Hunter Gather" skills, she has a tendency to get into very interesting situations. Also, she has distanced herself from the whole "aquisition of wealth" and embraced the "life is for living" philosophy. Very Bohemian.
Now Alton has 2 rooms she rents out fairly consistently, and during my 3 weeks there I was able to see the other room change hands. I don't remembertheir names (of course), but the first tenent was a Junior in film school (midwest) who was in NY for the summer doing an intership, and the other was a professional dog walker. He has 2 awesome pugs names "Mao (black)" and "Fidel (Tan)", and one of my true joys during this time was to watch the 2 lads fight with each other. I was like "why can't you 2 communist leaders just get along". Ahh, to see them fighting brought back memories of the cold war, those were the days.
Here are a couple of pictures of the boys.
During my stint at the "bedsty loft", I was able to be the cook for 2 weekly dinners. Both dinners were amazing and fun, and of course I cannot rememberthe names of any of the other diners other than myself and Alton. I do have a photo from each party and here they are:
All of the other diner's were friends of Alton's. They were all really cool and everybody had a great time. The food was great and so was the company.When I was this age (mid\late 20's) I had many similar parties, and it felt great to relive that experience with a new group of people. It was with mixed feelings that I ended my tenure at the "Bedsty loft", I was excited about having my own space, but sad about leaving a great community of people.
All hail Alton.
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