BiCoastal Chronicles--A New Apartment and a Little Babysitting

The joy of living is, you never know where you will be when you get the news. Adam and I were in Ojai petting goats just minutes before we found out about the Twin Towers being ruined by some Jihadists.

So today, when I called the management company about the apartment in Queens...and they said, “Yes, you’ve been approved,” who knew I would be sitting all alone in my sister’s house in Cresskill, New Jersey with nothing to do except to celebrate, as a party of one?

I immediately called Adam, my State-of-California-Recognized-Domestic-Partner, and of course he was thrilled and relieved.

I called friends, sent emails, etc. We were approved by the very scary Coop Board. Those two mooks just had to make us sweat it out a little. Why do people make people sweat things out? I always try to make people as comfortable as possible with immediate response.

I know this sounds like I made up the original conflict...as if I am writing a reality show...but it really did seem like we would perhaps not get this apartment because the guys who sat across from us just seemed to, I don’t know, hate us? Or were we reading too much into it?

My friend, Todd, warned me that this whole process would bring up issues...and it did. I thought I would be all calm. I wasn’t. He also said that after this, I will never have to deal with these people again.

Happiness all around. I wish I could say I am now excited...but frankly, I only feel relieved. I think I’ll become more excited once I get the hell out of New Jersey.

But tonight, the sweet truth is, I babysat for my five year old nephew. That little cutey-pie is so tender and new. Humans are intense...at every age. He tried so hard to be a big boy. He really wanted to be good with Uncle Donald. I made him a little dinner. We played some badminton. We colored. He is at an age where he really wants to figure out what he is good at. And as of yet, he does not know. We would start to draw and he would stop drawing if he thought I was better at it than he was. He has to learn about nine million things and just thinking about it makes me feel like...shit, man, good luck! He’s smart, very articulate and is obviously from my family (He takes medicine for heartburn and asthma and at one point, we had to go into the bathroom to get the anti-itching cream for the bite on his leg.) He is ridiculously sensitive and if there is a God, may she help him! He did very well for most of the night...but after I read him One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (which frankly, does not hold up), and I left the room...he just fell apart. “I want mommy.” And he couldn’t stop crying. So, I brought him back out into the living room and we sat together on the chaise until he went to sleep and I carried him back to his bedroom in his Scooby-Doo pajamas and he said to me half asleep, “I cried because I was scared to be alone.” And I thought, “Kiddo, you and everyone else.” And he went to sleep.