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good thing i got that raise
My landlord, the Greek incarnation of Carmela Soprano, came by today to ask me if I had received her registered letter advising me of a rent increase. How do registered letters work? I thought that the entire point was that you have proof that the person had received your letter. She should have known that I had not, but I guess she wanted to check, so I told her. Then there was this really awkward moment wherein she was like, "Oh, well, you should have," and I said nothing because I was processing the fact that she had just told me in a very roundabout way that my rent was going to go up but not by how much.
I desperately wanted to know by how much, but I could not figure out how to ask in an equally roundabout way. I mean, I guess a normal person would just straight out ask what the increase would be, but I was worried that maybe we were not supposed to discuss it until I had received the registered letter. I don't have a very good grasp of how these things work, and it stresses me out. I guess I should not fret about the legal aspects of it, though, since she is always asking me to write postdated cheques, which I know is illegal here, and I do it anyway. Who says no to Carmela Soprano, though, really? She wears floor-length fur coats and drives a Mercedes and has a key to my apartment and I'm sure her husband could have me killed.
My rent is pretty low in the grand scheme of things, but when you consider that I live in a rather crappy building in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada (which I did not realize until I read it in the newspaper last week, although I should have guessed,) it seems kind of high enough already. Various bones keep appearing on my front balcony and I don't know where they come from. And today there was a used, capless toothpaste tube on the space heater in the lobby. And the washing machine in the basement makes my clothes dirtier than they were before I washed them. I'm just saying. I might have grounds to contest the increase. But I probably won't. Because, see above.
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