old post

I wrote this on the airplane when flying back from DC after coming for my "job interview" and finding an apartment. So, early march some time. And then I left it to sit on the desk top until today, when I have decided it is annoying and I want it to go away. Therefore, here it shall be posted and the .doc on my computer dismissed. 
It's interesting to see the things I got completely wrong, and what is important and I didn't notice...

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Since I’m in the air, perhaps I should jot this down quick. (also, I love biscofts. They taste like brown sugar and cinnamon. Yum yum.)

Let’s talk about my misadventures over the past two days. Applying for a job was easy, just returning to where I interned at, though being told I now had to dress ‘more professionally’ has very much confused me. I thought I have dressed more professionally. I’ll have to look it up online.

Yesterday, I rented a place to live. I was about to go out and look at other places when this one popped up. The other places were under $1000 but seventeen minutes from the metro, this was $1155, plus gas and electric, but two blocks from the metro. On top of that, the first month was free (or, a security deposit of $99). The real seller was that it was two blocks down and that was very easy to walk to (dreary, wet days do not encourage walking to look at apartments). So off I set, and I pass the ‘Colonial Village’ all but immediately. I turn at the next block and walk up and down the street trying to find the place. I call the renting office but get the emergency maintenance office, am very confused and head back home. I double check the number, and then call for directions, and start out again. While I’m out being lost (a second time) I call and confess my inability to find anything. Finally, the problem is solved – I turned a street too early. I was on N Rhodes, not N Troy. And, it turns out, the emergency maintenance office is always on call and answers the phone when no one is around. (also, maintenance is a horribly difficult word to spell.)

It’s a lovely place, and it has a court yard, so I was sold. (wood floors, lots of space, most windows facing west, I believe. I’ll have to look at a map sometime. Being a genius, I don’t even recall my number.)

I couldn’t sign the lease though, because I brought neither social security card nor passport. I’m not even sure where the former is (my room is a mess), so I’ll be signing the lease and receiving my keys on the 11th. (It’s mine though, they have my security deposit.)

The security deposit was another thing. They wanted a money order, not check or cash, so they send me off to the post office. It’s right down the street, super easy to find. But I’m four dollars short (and some odd cents) of $99. I bought a ticket for the metro the other day. Fortunately, I do have the money, so I trek back up the street (you know, three whole blocks) where I am locked out and wait around to be let into Bethany and John’s apartment. (If someone asks, just lie and say you are a resident. I don’t know why I didn’t; if he didn’t know by looking, he wouldn’t know the difference. Stupid git. The nice woman let me right in.) So then I found the extra twenty I had stashed, took a breather and recollected myself. (The hill is slight but I was feeling immensely stupid at that point; also, this was supposed to take twenty minutes, tops, so I hadn’t slowed before and I really wanted to now).

It was a good break, in that it let me think it over and decide I really did want the place, instead of just a willingness to pick any place. It’s close to the metro, that free month will probably cover gas and electric for the first year, my friends are close, and there’s a courtyard. Honestly, the courtyard was the selling point. It’s like it’s own private little garden – no dogs allowed, which means no random poop either. There’s benches and what not, which’ll be nice in the summer.

That was the adventure of the apartment. More exciting things happened that evening, the main one being a lecture from the Honorable Dr. Joan Luchachean (sp?). She’s the head of ocean stuff in the government, including (but not limited to) NOAA. (See, professionally, I’ll have to remember this stuff a little better.) Bethany, John, Karen, Bryan and I all met up there (or close to) and hung around afterwards then went out for some amazing thai in the china town mall/cinema.

Today, being Wednesday, I said goodbye to everyone in the morning, but had slept really badly. Honestly, once I woke up to pee, I hardly fell back to sleep. I was still very tightly wound from all my earlier stresses and, I believe, it was well after 5 when I finally calmed myself down and drifted back to sleep. Instead of visiting my apartment again, to take pictures, or AU, to say hi to people, I hung around Bethany and John’s, half asleep, and wrote. With two hours to reach the airport, I left. I should have gone fifteen minutes sooner.

There was some mechanical issue on Foggy Bottom, which meant my ten minute metro ride (having already waited ten minutes for the train to arrive in 4) was in trouble. I took the long loop around (skipping the blue line) instead of waiting. There’s never any way to know if that was the right decision or not, but I wasn’t the only one making it. It was five already, so the trains were crowded, and we just all pushed in. I was fortunate and caught both those trains with either no on a 2 min wait. I reached my gate with five minutes to spare, but we boarded seriously late, so I got some writing time in.

Now, I am sitting in an air plane, a little one direct from DC to GR, which I may use more often because, despite the price, is so very very convenient. If I buy my ticket earlier (AMS bought this ticket to bring me in for the job interview)

Plans landing, chao!

Ps: on the plane, I had a full two seats all to myself (that would be all the seats in my aisle. It was very nice.)