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this is my former apartment; it was one of those typically Manhattan places with exposed pipes and... strange, cramped, with a shower in the living room! Yes, my shower was adjacent to my range, and next to the kitchen sink, and if i wanted to, shower and saute at the same time! There was also no good place for Acorn's litter box, so I'd put it in the shower, and take it out every time i wanted to bathe. Hence the show would smell like cat poo. Even though it was tiny, I liked the feel of the apartment; it had lots of light, roof access (top floor), it was the "penthouse" so to speak. In the summertime most of the residents, mostly older chinese women and their grandchildren, would leave their doors open and lights off throuhout the day. I could see clear through their entire apartments; they had peeling linoleum floors and walls packed with crap. Their places were darker, seemingly smaller, and unrenovated than mine, which had had new floors, a newish kitchen, and repainted walls. I had 2 a/c units (by accident), modern furniture and lived alone; Other people in my building didn't have A/C, and keeping the doors open would help circulate air, kitchen smells, and basically add another of "window" to the tiny apartments. Apartments that they shared with their entire families just like the immigrants who had lives in these same tenements (with 5-10 people per apartment) a hundred years before. As a Chinese American young profession, I'd wonder how as Chinese people our lives in America could be world different. Still do.

Walking up the stairs, I'd smell my neighbors cooking their dinners for their grandchildren and wished they'd ask me over. I'd also pass the single Latino gentleman on the third floor, and would hear music lessons; in his packed apartment I could see an upright piano, a computer desk, and a bed. I'd sometimes see him teaching the neighborhood Chinese kids guitar. When I'd open my apartment door sometimes Acorn would rush out into the bonsai lady's apartment across the way who's door was open. In the summer, all she would do in the daytime was lay on her bed, with the lights off, fanning herself, int his tiny studio apartment filled with minuature trees.

Though now i live a few blocks south of Canal, not too far away in a nicer, larger unit, I miss Orchard St a little. When my friend Erin would stay over after a late night of drinks and dancing to Morrissey, we'd come back and she'd sleep on the couch, i'd sleep in mybed, and we'd talk until we fell asleep. We'd talk also while I was in bed and she was taking a shower too. In that apartment two people would always be right next to each other. Proximity brings people together, its true. Ever wonder why its always so fun to be confined in a small space with lots of people, like a slumber party? In my new place, Erin sleeps on my couch but is a good ten feet down the hall. I have to practically yodal her my secrets.

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KidGuide, L.E.S is MORE

Tags:

cats , studio , lower east side , les , tiny apartments , weird apartments , manhattan apartments , cat owner , chinese american , tenement , orchard street