True Life: I'm officially a New Yorker.

To the outside world, living in New York City seems like it would dream come true. They see it in the movies, they've seen the luxury apartments (or they've seen the ghetto). But when I tell them I live in New York City (as a middle-class New Yorker not to mention recent college grad) I fit in none of the above "dreams".

I'll say it. I live in an over-priced apartment that's probably from the 1950's. When I signed my life away via a year-long lease, the "management" (a landlord who looked like he'd been baking out in Florida for too long on one of his plethora of vacations) handed me a paper warning me of the risks of lead poisoning. I dealt with the mess and the scariness of the ground floor apartment, all because it was in a great location. That's what New Yorker's look for: location. Who cares if it's a crap hole, as long as you can get to work in 15 minutes it's golden. I dealt with the mix up of getting my keys too early and walking in when the old tenants still lived here (the management's mistake). I lived through getting my superintendent fired for making sexual advances on me. I continue to deal with the car accidents that happen outside of my window because I live next to a tunnel exit.
And now I'm attempting to live through this:
No, not attempting to live with Ramen as my main meal (as you can see), but above, above that you can see a huge gaping hole adjacent to a large droop in the ceiling due to a leak. What you don't hear is the water dripping. What you don't see is the numerous pots and pans I've had to put in the kitchen, as well as the huge chunks of ceiling/lead paint all over the counter and floor.

This mess? Ever-growing.
The Superintendent? An escape artist. I see him, and then I don't. He disappears like a magician and fails to let me know what's going on.
Did I mention I've never painted my walls yellow before?
A masterpiece on our ceiling, almost.

This isn't a "poor me" post. This is more of a, "this is real life as a grown up in NYC and it sucks" post.

I sure hope that others that live in New York don't have the bad luck that I've been having.

A related question....How can I get out of this lease?!?!