4:00 AM: Wake up, feed the cat, check email for messages about possible housing situations, check craigslist for any new listings.

5:00 AM: Wake up, check email, check craigslist.

6:00 AM: Wake up, check email, check craigslist.

9:00 AM: Wake up, check email, check craigslist, take a shower, check email, check craigslist.

10:00 AM: Leave dorm room, stop at Starbucks to grab some coffee and a bite to eat.

11:00 AM: Pick up Zipcar from garage on 122nd Street.

11:15 AM: Begin moving stuff out of the dorm room and into the car.

12:15 AM: Finish moving out of dorm room, submit check-out form. I’m now officially homeless.

12:35 PM: Arrive at address where I had an appointment to look at a room for rent. No answer when I ring the doorbell.

12:40 – 1:30 PM: Drive around for a bit, with my cat and my belongings in the Zipcar, for about an hour.

1:35 PM: Arrive at next appointment, find a nice parking space across the street from the building.

1:35 – 1:50 PM: Meet with prospective roommate, express interest in renting the room ASAP. Offer cash on the spot. She asks for an hour to think about it. Agree to call her back at 3:00.

1:55 – 2:59 PM: Grab a sandwich and soda from a nearby deli, sit in car with A/C on in order to keep the cat cool and to to not lose the parking spot.

3:00 PM: Call prospective roommate’s phone number. No answer. Leave a message.

3:01 – 3:10 PM: Wait for callback.

3:11 PM: Call friend in Chinatown to arrange to crash at his place for a few nights. Leave parking spot, begin driving downtown.

3:20 PM: Receive callback from prospective roommate. She’s decided to rent the room to somebody else.

3:30 PM: Call Zipcar, let them know I’ll be an hour late returning the car, fully aware that I’ll be incurring massive late fees and causing great inconvenience to the next person who has the car reserved.

3:35 PM: Receive call from Zipcar giving me the option to extend my reservation by one hour with no late fees. Accept offer.

3:45 PM: Arrive at friend’s loft in Chinatown, begin unloading stuff from car up three flights of stairs into his place. Nobody can find the key to the freight elevator.

4:20 PM: Finish unloading car. I have exactly 40 minutes to get the car from Chinatown to the garage on 122nd Street.

4:25 PM: Find previously-unkown shortcut tunnel under Battery Park to West Side Highway, hit the gas.

4:25 – 4:50 PM: Continue driving at a very high rate of speed up the West Side Highway, while glancing at my watch and receiving multiple text messages from Zipcar informing me of dire consequences if I’m late returning the car.

4:55 PM: Exit Henry Hudson Parkway at 125th Street. Look at watch and panic.

4:57 PM: Arrive at garage on 122nd Street, return car to attendant. Look at watch and grin.

5:10 – 6:30 PM: Embark on subway ride back down to Chinatown.

6:40 PM: Exit subway on East Broadway, stop in Pathmark to grab some cat food.

6:45 PM: Arrive back at friend’s loft, open a beer and watch the last two innings of a baseball game, while wondering where the fuck I’ll be living this time next week.