When I got my apartment in down town Madison, something inside me shifted immediately.

When I got my apartment in down town Madison, something inside me shifted immediately. I have no exact clue of what it was, but something definitely moved. Having the comfort of some place that you can actually call home will do that to anybody. The first time that you have the ability to leave your home and come back to it and have it be in the exact same shape is a very empowering feeling. I was king or if you prefer, queen of my one bedroom, vaulted ceilings, hard wood floors, kind of creaky castle….. And I loved every moment of that year.
Getting to this decision to move came quickly after I had spent 2 extremely long months living with a friend outside of Madison. The city was named Sun Prairie and that’s exactly what it was to me, a prairie; A prairie with in at least a 30 minute drive to anything remotely interesting to me. Every day grew more and more mundane and the only thought that continued to beat me in the brain was “you did this once, it was called high school.” So, I just had to tell my friend who had so graciously let me move in there, that it was time for me to leave. It came out kind of like a falling dam. “I have something to tell you” dribble dribble, “I’m realizing that it wasn’t the best idea to move this far out of town”. The cracks are getting bigger. “It’s not you, it’s me.” And then the dam just bursts. “I’m a gay man. I need more things close to me like boys, sex, my gym, bars I can walk to. I don’t even feel comfortable here because your hardly here. I might as well live by myself. I’m going to move downtown as soon as I find something.” So the dam had broke. Did I mention that it was a gay dam?
So my search began and immediately it was one hell hole after another. One day, my friend Alyssa was with me and we went to see a studio on the lake. It was such a small piece of poop that the parking spot that I would have to rent was as expensive as the apartment was. I was getting nowhere fast because the gap between college apartment prices and nice apartments was huge. So, finally, I found something. It was in a great young neighborhood, around some great galleries, coffee shops, and wonderful restaurants and bars I could walk to. Yes, I lost it. I lost it because every other twenty something who had a salary that wasn’t anything to brag about was looking at it too. Disappointed about what had happened, I met a friend for a beer, then another and then it’s an after bar at her house.
While at her house, I checked my email and found a response to an ad for a one bedroom in the East Johnson district. I made an appointment to meet up with the landlord the next day and that was that, nothing more to it because I was already defeated. It is so humorous how we can equate house hunting to a new, about ready to bloom relationship. Many of us get so disappointed house hunting that we completely crumble when the situation doesn’t work out. The exact same thing happens when we start dating someone who we think could progressively turn into our significant other. All of a sudden, they don’t call back and what happens? Devastation
At 1:30 the next afternoon, I pulled up to this two story house with a white picket fence on Gorham street and walked to the door. I knocked, looked up the stairway to where the apartment was and was startled when I heard “you can tell that lazy mother fucker to get those pipes cleaned in the next hour or I’ll come over and stick my hose in there myself”. How was I to continue this when I haven’t even met this possible landlord? So I did what any normal person would; I started laughing my ass off.
The voice then responded by laughing and screamed down, “well you might as well come up now that you’ve heard that.” I ventured upstairs and was greeted by a big jolly man. He had a big thick beard, dirty work cloths and a fantastic disposition. He introduced himself and said here’s the apartment. I fell in love immediately.
I took a few moments to look at the basics, noticed the track lighting, the amazing light from both sides of the apartment, Lake Mendota was visible through the bare fall trees, and how this space felt warm immediately. I then got into a little more conversation with my soon to be landlord and I learned that he has a plumbing business. That would put our not formal introduction into context then. I also learned in that brief conversation that if a party happens, be respectable and that he doesn’t want any drugs in this apartment besides pot, if I smoke pot. This jolly man was just a big ole hippy and he ended our conversation with this. “Take some time with the space, I’ll be downstairs. If it speaks to you, come down stairs and write me a check.” With that said, I had my new apartment.