When we last left Our Hero, he was in a tiny basement studio in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

It wasn't all bad. I liked the landlord, and the feeling was mutual. The rent was low. It was, in short, the very best I could do under the circumstances... the circumstances being that I was an underemployed copyeditor with lousy credit. But it was very, very small. Most of my stuff -- including almost all my books -- were in storage. (It did not escape me that the amount I spent on storage probably exceeded the value of the books being stored.) There was only a shower, no bathtub.

By this summer, I found that my circumstances were somewhat better, and started exploring my options, looking mostly in Jersey City. Rent in Jersey City is generally lower than in New York City proper, while having a short commute to Manhattan. Granted, it means accepting that one is moving to Jersey, but there are worse fates. I kept tabs on Craigslist and eventually checked out a couple of apartments.

The first was in an excellent location, just a few blocks from the PATH train station. Nominally three-bedroom, in a boxcar arrangement, with the bathroom all the way at one end, but the rooms were small and oddly shaped; I wasn't sure that my queen-sized bed would actually fit into any of them. (It would have fit in the final room, which was presumably meant to be the living room.) The building seemed a bit on the run-down side, though the apartment was clearly starting to be painted. And it was at the upper end of my price range.

The second was in a somewhat less convenient location, a few blocks from the bus or light rail, which could in turn be used to get to the PATH to New York City. It was a slightly smaller apartment, but the rent was lower, the apartment was on the ground floor, and the building looked like it was very well maintained. I decided that I wanted that one, and no doubt would have applied for it if the manager hadn't said that I'd need to apply in person, rather than over the Internet. I did plan to do so, but I was also busy working... and by the end of the week, just before I would have arranged to go file the application, I saw another ad on Craigslist that seemed worth checking out.

More on that tomorrow.