Happenings in the home

I am living in a beautiful Victorian apartment. There are ornate little details everywhere. It's difficult to try to describe what Victorian means. If you remember Full House, the opening credits show the house where they supposedly live.



These are Victorian homes! They were built at the turn of the century, so late 1800's early 1900's. Basically all of San Francisco is made up of these homes. I had always assumed that only some historic homes in San Francisco looked like this, but actually almost every single house in San Francisco is picturesquely old and beautiful like these houses, including my apartment. One of my roommates Julia was telling me you can tell which homes were built before or after the 1906 earthquake by what style they were built in. Before 1906 most homes in San Francisco were Victorian style homes, and after the earthquake they started building Edwardian style homes. Apparently the Edwardian homes have windows which are more square than rectangular.

Anyway, my apartment is very old. Look at this lever that is at the top of the staircase!



It opens the front door so you don't have to go all the way down the stairs! If you notice, you can see the lightswitch in the background is similar to some of the old lightswitches at UIC's College of Medicine. They have two round buttons for on and off instead of the modern-day switch.

And here is one of the fireplaces. I love the green tile all around. Yesterday, one of my roommates showed me how it is a gas fireplace. You turn the gas on, light it with a match, and you can have a little fire!



Anyway, on Sunday night big drama happened right in this very home, beginning in front of this very fireplace! First, I should introduce the characters. And actually it's quite serious what happened, I don't know why I'm painting this as something funny. First there is Colleen, who has lived in this apartment for 11 years. She's 35, likes celebrity magazines, and talks fast. Her (ex)boyfriend El (I thought his name was Al up until last night!) told me he takes 30 Valium a day (!) and is always high. He seems like a laid-back happy-go-lucky pothead. Julia, who is 24, is an artist/cafe worker who thinks before she speaks. Cori and Phil are the free-spirited (aka hippie but not in a pejorative way) couple living in the 4th bedroom. They are in their late 20s and drove from New York just for fun. Cori often says she "feels called to" something and can feel the energies flowing. They are semi-vegans and eat very exotic things that I have never heard of (i.e. a grain called quinoa, pronounced 'KEEN-wah'). I like to have long conversations with Cori in the evenings.

Last night, El came home extremely drunk. He lost his phone and wallet while he was out, and was therefore very angry. He started slamming doors and cursing in everyone's face. It was pretty scary, and apparently he has been violent in the past. When he wouldn't calm down, Colleen told him to leave. And when he wouldn't, she called the cops! He busted outta here, so when the cops arrived, he had fled! Six cops came into the apartment, searching all over for him. It was pretty weird to see all these cops swarming the apartment. When they didn't find him, one of them questioned Colleen who had made the phone call, and the other five played with the dog.

Besides the violent part, it was actually a bonding experience for all of the roommates. Even though we were all on edge, as the last cop was walking down the staircase Colleen turned to me and mouthed, "He's hot!" and I shouted back, "I know!" Then we all got into my bed and talked. The hippies talked about the traumatic event being related to the corner we live on having a lot of chaotic energy. They wanted to do a "clearing" of the energy. Part of me almost believes them, because they referenced the craziness that occurs on our street corner. Every night there are gang members on our street corner, homeless people yelling, car crashes happening, or hipsters being too cool for the world. But maybe that's just the neighborhood.

Just as a follow-up to the drama, Colleen ran into El on the street and confiscated the key from him. So no more violent drunk for me and my apartment-mates, woohoo! Cori and Phil are moving out at the end of this week and I think Julia's friend is replacing them, and Colleen is going to Thailand and a subletter will be in her room. So I guess the drama is over.