DC: Epidose 1

Okay so I meant to start this earlier than one in the morning so I could write lots but time slips away when you get sucked into the luxuries of cable television so we will see how long I can keep this up . . . .

So I have been here in DC for almsot two weeks and I like to think that I have a pretty healthy grasp on the geography of the city, public transportation, neighborhoods, and even a little highway driving. Although Beth will attest to the fact that I have been known to drive 17 miles out of my way and call her, desperate for yahoo maps inspired guidance. But for the most part, I feel pretty comfortable getting around the city. I think that is due, largely in part, to the seventh circle of personal hell that has been my apartment search. Let me see if I can sum it up for you:

Wednesday 7/6: My cousin Catherine Mary takes the day off from work to drive Sarah and I all over the city to check out places . . . and now that I think about it, I can't actually remember what we did this day. All I know is that we accomplished next to nothing.

Thursday 7/7: Sarah and I check out more places and meet Rob my "roommate" in the afternoon. Seems like a great guy. Nice. Dorky. Completely harmless. And as time would show, completely inept. Again, we don't really see anything worthwhile, I become incredibly crabby and frustrated and Sarah contemplates leaving early. All in all, not the ideal day.

Friday 7/8: Sarah says she has a feeling about today and it turns out she is right as we wind up finding too great places that I put in aps for. We are really pulling for the morning find in Van Ness because it's a good apartment but for WICKED CHEAP at $1000. We think we have good odds on getting this place because the woman who showed it to us said we were the first ones to see it and then we went straight to the leasing office. We feel good about it. The other place is nice, the property management company awesome, and although it is $1600, I am still excited about this opportunity too. Sarah and I celebrate by going out with Carrie and her friend Megan. We ate, drank, and were merry.

Saturday 7/9 & Sunday 7/10: Sarah and I abandon the apartment hunt since we feel confident that I am going to get the Van Ness place. We went shopping and spent money we shouldn't have, hung out with the cuz some, watched Dogma, checked out the Holocaust museum, and had a lovely late lunch snack at a roof top bar in Adams Morgan - the funky, swanky, hipster part of town.

Monday 7/11: It's a sad, sad day for Kelly as she escorts Sarah to the Chinatown bus that will take her back to NYC. Boo. Now Kelly has no friends in the friggin' city at all. Except for Casey and Carrie and Megan but really . . . no REAL friends. But then I guess I only have a few of those anyway so I really shouldn't be shocked that none of them currently reside in the samw city as me. In any case, Sarah gets on her merry way and I call the leasing office to see when I can move into my Van Ness apt. Yeah about that . . . he leased it to someone else already. I call Sarah to give her the bad news. Then I call Rob who tells me that he already called them and found out we wouldn't be getting the place. I am mildly annoyed that HE DIDN'T THINK TO CALL ME AND TELL ME. Boys. So I tell him that he should really get his half of the application in on the second place today so we can go look at it when he comes down tomorrow because it was always the plan for him to come down and search more with me on Tuesday. But wait, his car is being repaired (leaky sunroof) on Wednesday and he has to leave the car there on Tuesday so he won't be coming down until Thursday. I make a mental note about his apparent lack of urgency. He says he is worried about costs and that we (I) should check out Silver Spring, a neighborhood that is outside of DC in Maryland.

Tuesday 7/12: I call Rob to see if he has sent in his half of the ap for the apartment I like yet and he says, you know what, if we are going to spend that much money he wants to be closer to a Metro. I get EXTRAORDINARILY frustrated with that fact that he is shooting down, from Philadelphia, apartments that he hasn't seen at all and is really not participating in this process at all. I was preparing a Come-to-Jesus talk for when he came down on Thursday but I can't hold it any longer after this last admission of his and I very calmly let him know what is on my mind is a collected, well-spoken, perfectly reasonable fashion. He had NOTHING to say in reply so I tell him to call me after he has thought about things a bit. Somewhere in there I had lunch with Casey. And then I went to Silver Spring to check it out because that is what good people do when they are trying to find a place to live with someone else but just as I suspected, I hated it. I didn't move to DC so I could live in Oakbrook.

Wednesday 7/13: I pound the hot, hot pavement again and this time, still not having heard from Rob, I am checking otu studios because I am researching plan B and no, I am not talking about the morning after pill. I see 3 or 4 and while they are nice, they are SMALL!! But there is no way that I could afford a one-bedroom by myself in this city right now, especially not knowing how much I am going to be making. The last place I go, the guy mentions that there is a two bedroom available. On a whim, I ask to see it. I fall in love with it, the neighborhood, and the fact that it is a block from the metro. I think this is going to be the thing that saves me and Rob. I call him, psyched that I have found a great place for $1500, and although he seems excited about the place, he still doesn't know about the cost. What?!!?!!! Didn't we talk about this weeks ago? Weren't you going to take out an extra grand or two in loans since we determined it wouldn't really make a difference since you are already going to be $100,000 in debt when you graduate law school? I go out to dinner with the cuz, and in the meantime Rob leaves me a message saying that $1500 is out of his range. Even though this whole time he has had me searching under the premise that he could spend up to $1600. Holy shit does the venom pulse through my veins. But there is no use in staying mad long. I haven't called him back yet. Whoops. I think he knows where we stand. I go home and e-mail 6 people from Craigslist who are looking for roommates in DC and collapse into bed.

Thursday 7/14 (go Bastille Day): I wake up and I have three e-mails from people I e-mailed last night. I am most excited about Sarah Gurfein, a cool chick in Boston who is moving here at the end of August. We have lots in common, we communicate the same way, she's a big Red Sox fan so we can relate about baseball, she was hoping for someone who loves to travel and can speak another language, and we actually have vague friends in common through college. She currently works for a liberal publication in Boston and is moving to DC because she and her on again/off again boyfriend of too many years and her have decided to give their relationship a real try like adults do and he lives here. She seems great and she is certainly interested in the place I have found.

Friday 7/15: I submit an ap for the apartment in Cleveland Park which is now my favorite of all the places I have seem. They tell me that although the building manager told me $1500, it may go up once the place has been assessed. But they don't know how much yet. I want to submit the ap but think it's dumb they are going to charge me $60 to apply for an apartment that I don't know if I can afford. I put up a fight and they tell me that if the place is out of my range, they will refund my ap fee. Duh you schmucks. So I submit it and they tell me to call back on Monday to find out how much the place will be and that by Wednesday I should know whether or not my ap was approved. Sarah admits that she doesn't know if she can afford the place if the price goes up much. I tell her not to panic yet. The day ends and the weekend nailbiting begins . . .

That pretty much brings us up to date on the apartment hunt. I will call tomorrow with my fingers crossed. that the price hasn't gone up much. I think we could handle $50 but I am not sure she would be down if it went up more than that.

Other than that, I had a really good interview with a friend of my former boss, Lloyd, and he loved me. Dave's company is into funds managing which means mostly futures trading in this case and I would be a jack-of-all-trades person and basically assistant to Dave, the VP of Sales and Marketing (I think?). The job is not exactly what I had in mind but they would pay me a sick amount of money compared to what I was making at Weber and I could keep volunteering at PP, start taking Russian classes, and take the foreign service exam again this fall. My most interesting job prospects have has application processes that lasted at least a year and this wouldn't be a bad job to have in the meantime. It's looking pretty good to me . . .

Okay, I have to go to sleep now. It's 2 AM. I will make these blogs more frequent, I swear. I am sure you understand how crazy it has been . . . I can't wait to get a detail or two nailed down though. As always, I miss you ladies a lot but I hesitate as I type that because I know that I will miss you more as the days pass. Take care honies.