Frustrated

I have been feeling frustrated for last couple of days; can’t make up my mind and can’t make any decisions. Feel kind of lost in the middle of nowhere. I wish there was someone who could tell me, “Rumana, take this step, don’t take that step” because I can’t decide anything on my own. Not sure if it’s because of the frustration or for something else, I am getting angry very easily. Everything or anything is making me angry; it’s like I am loosing my patience. I have a lot of patience, but now I feel like I am loosing it all …

Renting an Apartment in NYC (Beware of being ripped off)

I have been thinking of getting my own apartment since March, and I became serious about it for last two months. I have been seeing many apartments in Queens in various locations such as Forest Hills, Rego Park, Astoria; but did not like any that I saw and the rent was also very high in all these apartments.

On that day I found one apartment in craigslist.com; the apartment is located in Flushing, it’s a modern 1-bed apartment with Terrace. The pics looked really good. I called the broker and made an appointment to see the apartment.

After work, I went to the apartment to see it, and the apartment was too good to be true for a NYC apartment. I loved the apartment. I loved the terrace so much; the unit is located in one of the upper lever floors, and I get a really nice view from the terrace.

So, I told the broker I loved this place, and I wanted to take it.

She said, ok, I need $200 from you in cash now for the fee. I was like, wow! is this all she charges! (normally a broker charges one month rent or 12 or 15% of the annual rent as their fees in NYC)

So I paid her $200; she and her husband gave me all the papers to fill out, and they said they would give me the result the next morning after I send them all the documents they were asking for.

The next day she said I was approved. And she told me to bring two official checks or money orders for the one month security deposit and one month advance. And her broker fee is 12% of the annual rent. I was like, why the fee is so high!

But anyway, I called her up later again and brought the fee down a little.

But I still was not happy. I felt like they were charging me too much for the fee and I also realized that I made a mistake by not asking her about her fee on the very first day I spoke to her.

So, I arranged a friend to call her up and ask her about her fee. And she told my friend that her fee is one month’s rent! So, in that case I should be paying much less than what she was charging me!

I just wanted to post this in my blog so other people can be aware of that too and be careful when they rent an apartment. Ask the broker about their fee beforehand.

Another point to make here is that always believe in your instinct. If you feel like something is not right, then find out before you step into it.

My San Antonio, TX Trip

I visited San Antonio (SA) in Texas on Saturday, July 12th to spend a weekend there; I came back to NY on Sunday, July 13th.

The significance of this trip was that it was my first domestic flight trip within the US 🙂 ; yeah sounds a little weird as I am a professional young woman living in the United States (or should I say in NYC) for more than 10 years. I have visited other places such as London, Boston, Washington DC; but this was my first domestic trip within the US that required me to take a plane 😀

But anyway, my flight from LaGuardia Airport was at 7:40 AM on Saturday morning. I woke up at 5 AM, left home at 6 AM, tried to get a cab but could not get any since they were changing shifts at that time. But I was able to get a limousine instead; it’s this long, black limousine; it was my first time riding on this kind of limousine 😀 .

I reached at Dallas airport at 10:40 AM; my flight from Dallas to SA was scheduled to leave at 11 AM, but the flight got delayed by 15 mins. So the flight from Dallas left at 11:15 and reached SA at 12:15.

After I reached SA, I went to my hotel room first to freshen up. Then me and my friend went to see the Sea World. The place was huge, but needed a lot of walking and it was too hot and humid. I became tired shortly. They had bunch of great shows, but could not find sits in any of them (it was Saturday and too many people were there on that Saturday afternoon)

Then we went to see the Tower of Americas. It is the second largest tower in the US. Before we went to the top of the tower, we watched a 4-D movie about Texas. When we got into the top of the tower, my friend took me by the corridor where it was so much windy. We could see the entire city. It was already dusk; and the city looked incredibly beautiful.

The next morning I went to the airport and put myself on the wait list for a later flight from SA to Dallas. Then me and my friend went to the River Walk. We ate breakfast there, walked by the river, and then took a boat ride. The ride was sooo nice; but my friend was sweating a lot from the hot and humid temperature 🙂 .

Then I came back to the airport. Since I was on the wait list, so I did not know if I was going to be able to take the flight or not. Finally they called up the names of the people from the wait list; they let 4 people in, and I was the fourth one 😀 .

So I took the flight back to Dallas. But then I had to go to a different terminal for my connecting flight. So, I took the Sky Link train that connects between terminals. I was alone and I felt little adventurous. When I got to my gate for the flight back to NY, they announced that there was some problem in the airplane; so we had to take a different plane from a different terminal. So, I took the Sky Link again to that terminal and came to the gate for my return flight.

While I was waiting at the Airport, my Boss called (I am an IT professional); he wanted to tell me that there was some problems, but I stopped him and told him that I was at the Dallas Airport. He was, oh wow!

After waiting for a long time, I finally got into the plane. But after we all got inside the plane, they announced there would be a storm in NYC during the time the flight was supposed to arrive; so they would let us know in half hour when we could depart. Half an hour later, they announced they would let us know in another hour. I was like, oh gosh! But anyway, the flight finally departed and they said they would take a shortcut to NY; so we would reach NYC by 12 AM. I was soo sleepy but I could not sleep.

Right before lending, I saw one of the best things in my life: the plane was flying right above Atlantic Ocean, and then once it got into the city, the plane started flying on top of Manhattan; the view of Manhattan from the Airplane at midnight was one of the best things I could ever see. The plane flew on top of Manhattan about 2-3 times, then came to Queens and landed in LaGuardia Airport.

I got off from the Airport; waited in the line for a taxi, and took a cab back home.

Overall it was a great journey. The next Friday before I left office in the afternoon, my boss was asking me, where are you going this weekend? He started jocking with me that he can no longer assume anything about my weekends anymore 😀