Grown Up Housing

I do not have grown up housing. I was loosely housed in sublets for a couple of years in New York, and then somewhat disastrously lived in student residences last year. (If anyone wants to know why movies about college kids are inane, it's because the social life of college kids is really, really mainstream, uninteresting and dull. It's only fascinating and important if it is a) going to happen to you because you are a teenager waiting to get out of the house or b) a college kid yourself. Trust me. I was a grown-ass woman living in a dorm. 45% of the time when girls in college get drunk and cry they think it's because they're not pretty. FACT. Backed by my own scientific eaves dropping.)

Instead, I have been house-sitting all summer for a friend of mine's parents. They have a palace. OK, so not quite a palace, but a three story brownstone in Park Slope, which I've had the run of by myself, barring a few visitors, for a couple of months. This sounds amazing and is great and I am grateful for my luck. But. It's not mine. Not only "not mine" as in "I don't own it or rent it", but "not mine" as in I'm staying in their son's old room, which is plastered with posters of ice hockey players and baseball games. Without space for my stuff - mainly a lot of books - which instead cover the floor.

Plus, my friends' parents are back from their holidays next week, and I was worried about invading their privacy. I thought I would have to move out before the deadline of doom strikes (I need to hand in a bit chunk of work on September 30th), and have been panicking about it a little. Until my grant comes through, I don't really have the money to move... So I would have been dependent on my wages being fronted by my bosses. And even that may not have been enough. There have been plans of living with my sister, with friends, with basically anyone who would take me in for a couple of weeks - all at a time when I'm meant to be getting down to deadline.

Normally, I would just have let this situation slide, and waited it out until it became unbearably stressful. But! Operation Adulthood being what it is, I decided to actually ask if I could stay here until at least early October. They said yes, which is great news! It saves me money, and I don't have to move while I'm on deadline.

The tricky part of staying is that they have also offered me to housesit later in the year/early next year... Which is a great offer - because, again, I would be saving on two months of rent, and part of Operation Adulthood is that I want to become more financially stable (read: less of a financial disaster). At the same time, I feel a need to settle somewhere, to actually live in an apartment for a year. So... not sure. Don't have to answer yet, but definitely one to ponder.