Living in the Lap of Luxury

...or something like that.

I've written previously about where I live.  In a new luxury apartment complex that is the centerpiece of the revitalization of downtown Ronkonkoma at the railroad station.  Honestly, luxury is a big word.  There are no bugs, something that cannot be said of the previous -also incredibly expensive - apartment I lived in before fleeing here.   The staff are incredibly sweet and wonderful, so there is that.  

I had only been here 8 months when NY went on our infamous "Pause".  When we shutdown really, but Cuomo being Cuomo fucking refused to give Newsome the satisfaction of saying New York was also shutdown. Like, you slagging aholes in California may be locked down and sheltered in place, but here in NY, we are just on a pause.

And when I moved here in 2019, I was at the tail end of a years-long bad health spiral that led to poor choices on my part.  Well, one of those poor choices was telling my doctor, post-hysterectomy, that for the first time in my life I was feeling depression.  And then the second was taking the anti-depressants he prescribed me.

Which then made me both suicidal and stupid, because it took me six full months of thinking about how I'd be better off dead to realize, wait a fucking minute, that is a suicidal thought, and I don't have those. 

And so then I had to be slowly weaned off the pills that were curing my depression by making me want to kill myself. 

The other side effect was I stopped caring and stopped being active.  And I had always been very active.  And I ate way too much.  So I gained a lot of weight.

And that summer, I was slowly thinking about working my way back from that.  I even walked a couple of times.  But it didn't last because it was August and so hot, and I figured I'd go back to it in the spring, and that would have been the spring of 2020 by which time I was locked in my apartment and the building was like the Walking Dead.

A lot of people left.  You know who didn't leave?  The fucking bitch who lived across the hallway from me and her prick friend who lived next door to her.  I think he lived with his wife, but it could be his gf, what do I know.  I thought she lived with her husband.  Why did I think that?

Oh, that's right because the miserable bitch said to me one day "oh you have that balcony with all the flowers?"

I said, yep that's me.

"Oh, my husband wanted to get me a balcony but I told him no because I had a balcony."

Is this a real conversation to you?  Because I never knew why the fuck she said this to me.  

Oh your husband wanted to "get you" a balcony but you said no because you already had one?   Was I supposed to be impressed?  Steaming with envy because I could afford to "get" my own fucking balcony? 

Was SHE steaming thinking how dare that fat girl have a balcony that she pays for, I better let her know that my husband would pay for one for me! And in fact, my husband begged to pay for one for me! 

To this day, I don't know.  Though I've no doubt that guy does a lot of begging.  

Anyway, it ends up that the man she calls her husband isn't her husband.  Whatever.  Her and her neighbor friend were the two heads of the "I hate Catherine" club.

And frankly, prior to Covid, I had no idea why they hated me.  I still don't.  

But they were so awful they made my "luxury apartment living" life pretty fucking miserable once Covid hit.  Because they refused to wear masks.  I could try and ignore and shrug off their assholery prior to that.  And mostly be successful because who really cares.

But I was very sick when I first came here, though I'm better now.  And I was afraid I would be high risk.  I would watch them all day long going up and down the elevator with their stupid fucking dogs, they both had those little yapping dogs. 

Anyway, they'd do this all day long, not a care in the world, and completely maskless. I complained to the office all the time.  I know they were personally spoken to by the building manager.

They still refused to wear a mask.

Because of this, I became a peephole spy.  I would stare through my peephole for like five minutes before I would leave my apartment, to make sure one of them hadn't just left their Covid germs in the elevator.  And I saw a lot of shit.  And I heard a lot of shit.  I heard a lot of fighting coming from her apartment in particular.

What I never noticed is that she was totally fucking one of the maintenance guys here.  In fact readers, she was totally fucking my favorite maintenance guy here. 

When I found out last week, I was so fucking pissed. 

She hated me from the moment she saw me to the point that I got so sick and tired of being surrounded by a clique of mean girls that I began making plans to leave the building.  After all, I left high school long ago. 

And I changed buildings.  I call it the asshole building.  My building now has a completely different vibe.  It's filled with fun, friendly people who are my real neighbors.  And they don't bitchface me every time I open my fucking door.  It was so worth the pain-in-the-ass move. 

But the idea that she was fucking the maintenance man right underneath my nose and I could have totally fucked with her about it, gets me so mad.

Cause I would have fucked with her.  To be honest, I may still fuck with her. 

And if I had known I would also have had a word with him.  Like, dude, do you know they don't wear masks and I'm high risk?  He must have known they hated me, God knows what she said about me.   I'm not worried about that, believe me I had the last laugh, and frankly I usually do.  How do you think I found out all about her?  Because he recently told me.  

What is wrong with people that they behave this way though?  Why did she hate me?  I get that she and her little sidekick ahole hated me after I reported them for not wearing masks, but why did they hate me before that?  And while we are on the subject; why not just wear a mask?  

Well, in the meantime, starting in spring 2020, I did go back to exercising, I did pull  myself out of my downward mental spiral, I did lose a lot of weight.  My spring 2020 daily walks turned into daily jogs.  I finally feel like myself again.  So things do get better sometimes.  But what I wonder is, was this all just a mean girls thing?

Did they perceive me as weak and easily bullied?  Would they treat me differently now?  With assholes like that, probably.   

So this is life in a "luxury apartment complex" on Long Island.  They just can't keep the aholes out.  Well, it is Suffolk County, what do I expect. 

Think about it.  I bet you anything that in a non-luxury apartment people would have been so much nicer to me than the assholes in building two. Sometimes I will we be walking and run into one of the office staff taking someone into building two, and I know they are showing them an apartment, and I want to yell out "no, not building two, that's the asshole building!"  Instead I just shake my head and think "poor bastard."

I wish I could have spent NY Pause not in that building.  But my apartment also directly overlooked the pool.  And during the summer of 2020, they had live music here.  So even though I was not one of the people who said fuck Science, and ran my ass around Fire Island partying, I got that weekly reprieve.  Where I would take my bottle of Rose and go down to the pool and sit and watch the band, and then stumble my way back up to my apartment.  It was something.  Actually, in 2020, it was a lot. 

But I definitely do wish that I had known that bitch was screwing the maintenance guy while her not husband husband was off to work  - because he had to work during Pause.  He's a cop.  They're all cops. 

I would have stood by that peephole all day waiting for him to go in there, and then opened my door every single time he came out.  Just to fuck with her.  Believe me I would have let on to her that I knew what she was doing.  Information is power, but you have to have it at the right time.  I don't know what I can do with it now, but she does still live here.  And I do see her and her husband who isn't her husband from time to time, and maybe I am going to fuck with her the next time I see them.   

Maybe I won't.  I guess it will depend on both my mood and how big of a bitchface she throws my way. 

I did get some other new information about my complex this week.  There is a lot of new building going on, but since this place has completely filled up post-Covid I was afraid they were only going to be new apartment buildings.

But in fact, they are going to be a mix.  Like New Village in Patchogue, these are going to have apartments on top, and restaurants and bars street level.  That's why I moved here and I can't wait for those to open!  I want to be able to just walk downstairs, into a really cool bar or restaurant, eat, drink, dance, and then walk home.   Covid delayed all of that. 

I mean, this revitalization is a 30 year plan, and I'll be dead by then, but the bars and restaurants were supposed to be in one of the earliest phases.  I really don't want to leave here.  I thought at some point a portion of these apartments would go condo and I might buy mine.  I don't know if that will ever happen for many reasons.  But even after everything, spending 2020 in a place most people fled (lost their jobs, moved back home? I never knew), living in the asshole building for far too long, I really love it here. 

I bet if I knew all the shit that goes on here though I could really write a hilarious weekly apartment living newsletter.  Let's face it; those two weren't the only ones fucking on the downlow.  I can only imagine.  If I had caught him coming out of her apartment back then, I probably would have done a sendup of it right here.  The thought of it makes me laugh.  Nobody really reads this blog, except once in a while when I write about General Hospital, and do hashtag GH on Twitter.  Isn't that funny?

It's just an exercise for me.   Practicing so I don't get rusty.   Oh how I could have skewered her and her little sidekick too.