Bad/Good

It's hard coming up with pictures, so here's a cool Talking Heads one.

This weekend has been one of the most turbulent of my life, in both good and bad ways.

BAD: I actually had a near violent altercation with my current landlord. A month ago when it was decided I would be not renewing my lease, he said he would always call me when he was going to show the apartment. I said that would be fine since I wouldn't be home most of the time. Whatever. The less time I have to deal with him, the better. I find out on Saturday that yes, he has been showing the apartment without telling me from my ex-roommate who was home for just such a pop-in. WTF mate? So on Saturday, the doorbell rings furiously for a couple minutes. A couple minutes because I always try to wait it out and see if he'll just go away (this should not be etiquette with a landlord; in this case it's necessary). He wouldn't so I went downstairs to find him with a trio of Asian men. He's showing the apartment. I let him in and ask, "oh, is this the first time you've shown the apartment?" "Yes! Yes! First time, of course!" "Oh, well, I just heard from Jon that you showed it yesterday, and you didn't let me know." "F***! I don't have to let you know s***! It's in the lease, I have 60 day! 60 day, I can show whenever I want!" "That's fine, you just said you'd call me as a common courtesy."

This back and forth continues until we get to the apartment. Upon reaching the top of the stairs I say "Just show the apartment, I don't want to talk about anything else." This makes him really mad but it's necessary to say since every time he enters my life, he veers off topic and ends up spending 15 minutes telling me why I should leave the toilet seat down.

We enter and he says "You know what, I don't like you so much, and I tell your mother this." Whatever, I go back to my room and sit there while he shows the apartment. He gets to my room and says, "Here's bedroom, this guy lives like this. Filthy." He then starts telling me how horrible a tenant I've been, how I have "a shitty face" and how I need to learn to respect people. The Asian men are pretty speechless. "Don't rent from him, he's a horrible landlord," I calmly tell them. I then tell the landlord "You don't respect me. Might I remind you of the time that you instructed me about answering the phone for 10 minutes? Or when you busted into my apartment the morning after I was broken into and interrogated my sleeping guests? And how you think I should call you everytime I leave the apartment or have anyone over? If I should have that courtesy, you should have the courtesy to call me and let me know when you're showing my apartment." "F*** you! You respect me, I could be your grandfather! You need to learn respect!" "If you're so mature, then why are you yelling at me and telling me I have a shitty face?"

Note that I was remaining calm and seated and saying all of this passively, to further illustrate how insane he is.

"F*** you! You are done and I am glad to never see you again! Horrible!" All 3 Asian men peek their head into my line of sight, smile awkwardly and say "Sorry!" I say, "No, that's okay! You guys seem great and I hope you find a great place. Have a nice day!"

They all leave. I'm infuriated. But I know I totally got the better of that altercation.

Then today the real estate broker we're using, who is an incredibly nice and gracious guy, calls and says that just in case the apartment falls through he has a small two-bedroom/kitchen/bathroom apartment for us for significantly cheaper. Okay...but, you know, Hal has an apartment full of furniture that won't fit into an apartment that doesn't include a LIVING ROOM. I'm not going to be homeless on Tuesday, but things are stressful and...ugh.

GOOD: I had my first practice session at UCB this morning (noon-3, so afternoon I guess) and it went great. I was working with 12 new people and being instructed by Gavin Speiller, one of my UCB heroes. So, you know, joyful joyful. I got some nice notes and I'm starting to learn more about game (Bill Bellamy?). I got all the apartment news in between and, due to my lack of sleep and general grunginess, I felt horrible going into class. Somehow, though, I managed to have what I thought was my best class so far. I took Shannon's notes and only played characters of either high status or overblown confidence, and it was a ball. I got to do my Jon Daly (of Mother) impersonation twice; he's the default guy for cocky confident improv in my warped mind. So much fun and I really felt myself starting to learn more about game and second beats and how to interact to back line support and tag outs and whatnot. Back line support is something that, while I'm nowhere near sure if I'm really good at it, I really enjoy. I like actively listening to a scene and then trying to figure out what I can do to toss something new in or help out my teammates. This is what I want to do: I want to be the guy that comes in, moves the scene along (with or without laugh) and gets out before it gets all clustery. I'm learning how to do this while also learning how to diversify my characters. NERD ALERT.

I also got to know someone a lot better this weekend, which definitely goes into the good pile. Seeing this person made the nasty of Saturday tolerable and forgettable. No matter what, come Tuesday I will be entering a new and long-lasting phase of my life in New York City and it's one that, judging by this weekend, I'm both ready for and looking forward to.