In a slight change of plans…

After reflection, I realized that M and I having apartments across the street from one another was a little silly, given the likelihood of us spending all of our free time together anyway.  So after we had placed deposits on two apartments on the same street, I mentioned to her that it might make more sense if we got a place together.  Which, apparently she had thought about a good amount but didn’t mention in the interest of being a nice girlfriend acting with the understanding that guys are required, by law, to fear any situation which will potentially diminish their future chances of hosting a party with a guest list limited to the cheerleaders from a major sports franchise.

With the assistance of our very patient realtor, we made an appointment to look at a three bedroom apartment this afternoon.  This was a little nerve-wracking, because they had been very helpful, had access to our bank accounts and this was their ONLY vacancy for a place this big within ten miles of where we wanted to live.   While we had the option with going with another company, they kind of had a monopoly on the neighborhood we wanted, so I was pretty nervous when I was walking through the door on the top (3rd) floor of an old apartment building.

Not sure what caught my eye first, the 12 foot ceiling and fireplace in the living room, or the brand new everything in the kitchen, from granite counters to new cabinets*.   Or the big dining room, the seven closets, the arched doorways, the back entrance, the new windows, the included utilities (well, no internet or electricity) or the 1600+ feet of shiny hardwood floors.  This place kicked our original apartments collective asses, and in terms of cost per square foot, it is probably one of the cheapest places I’ve found in 3 months of looking.  All this, walking distance from the train downtown, a grocery store, a movie theater, four bars, restaurants of brazilian, italian, hungarian, japanese and mexican persuasions, a diner, a homestyle cooking place and an art gallery.  Not to mention the farmers market set up every saturday, year round, 50 yards from our front door.    The location is actually a bit of a geographic oddity.  It is technically in Cleveland, and we pay Cleveland taxes.  But through a zoning blip, we get city services and the community center of the suburb next door, which is one of the richest in the area.  Ice skating for free in August?  We can do that, at half the tax cost of everyone else on the ice.

So yes, an amazing, insanely cheap apartment in a great location dropped into our laps.  While the whole living together thing is quite a step**, so is living across the street from each other, the only major difference between the two will be a lack of complete separate retreats.  However, the reasoning behind a three bedroom apartment was the flexibility it gives us room-wise.  I have an alcove with what will become the man room and the adjacent man bathroom.  Think black leather couch, black leather chair, a pile of cheesy action movies and my nintendo games.  I will rescue the princess this year.

*pictures will not be forthcoming, because we forgot a camera and don’t move in until July 1.  Just imagine awesomeness.

**this will probably lead to some interesting blog postings.  Hijinks await, mostly of the I-screwed-something-up variety.

Through the looking glass…

And I’m back, after a reader request.  The last few weeks have been crazy, and in a few more weeks, my life will be very little like it was this spring.  There is no time to explain, let me sum up.

I finished school, and got healthy again.  I managed to pull off straight A’s, keeping the grad school streak alive.  I had to pull out of presenting a project for an urban conference as asked though, due to time issues.  I was also asked to be in an environmental documentary as part of Earth Aid, but that fell through, in part because of a lack of enthusiasm on my part to play someone’s monkey.

Three weeks ago, a fraternity at a local college I’ve been helping advise with for three years officially became a fraternity, built from scratch into a group of 40 great guys.  Big ceremony, I looked dashing in my tuxedo, they gave me a nice watch and I got to stay in a very nice hotel.   It took unending meetings, trips to St. Louis, Columbus, and Indianapolis, countless phone calls and some very late nights, but it was all pulled off successfully.  And chicks flip for guys in tuxes.

I started working again a week ago, as an outside consultant/contract worker for my old company.  I’m in the office a lot now, literally, as I’ve been upgraded from my previous cubicle dwelling.  Also, I no longer have to show up at any particular time or work any set number of hours.  Its weird though, going from being the youngest/newest person in the company a year ago to being almost a veteran.  Some things are still the same – my work hasn’t changed much, they still give us lots of free food and I am still completely clueless as to how to work the phone system.

This past Saturday I put down a security deposit on an apartment, which will be mine if the background check shows that I didn’t kill Jimmy Hoffa.  The new bachelor pad is in a great area, 200 yards from a train to downtown Cleveland, a grocery store, a movie theater, a half dozen restaurants, art galleries, a weekly market and a beer store.  Its also somewhat between work and school.  Added bonuses to the location include the girlfriend moving a block away later this summer, and me being too lazy to cook.  The actual apartment is the top floor of the highest building on the roundabout plaza with all of the aforementioned establishments.  Its got six closets, windows along all three sides, high ceilings, a view of downtown and, I’m hoping on a clear day, Lake Erie.

Living Room  

Not sure if the picture uploads are working…if they aren’t I doubt I’ll care enough to go back and fix it.

Also this week, I have the two nieces keeping me company.  Frequent choruses of “Again!” follow every exhausting game we play, but at least I’m getting in some workouts.  I’m having a great deal of fun spoiling them for their mother.  My favorite was letting the older niece eat ranch dressing with a fork.  Who needs the vegetables when you can just eat the dip?

Nothing was ever so sweet…

as getting sick in the middle of a two week stretch of finals, final papers and presentations.  I am in the middle of three finals, 4 final papers, 2 group projects, three presentations and a research project.  Overloading grad school, as mentioned previously, is stupid.  Things are somewhat confounded by the fact that I feel like I’m being dangled upside down under thirty feet of cold, mildly electrified water, ears messed up, unable to breathe, while annoying group members prod me with sticks.  I’m getting desperate here – I’ve taken every pill in the house I can find, jammed sprays up various holes in my body, eaten nothing but fruit, eaten nothing but Arby’s…and I hate taking medicine.  I had to leave a class last night 8 times in two hours because I couldn’t stop coughing.  I didn’t sleep last night because of pressure in my ears.  I have 4 (FOUR!) papers due today.

When this is all over, at 9:50 pm next Thursday, I am going to drink rum out of a hollowed out pineapple until I fall over.   At which point, if someone could be so kind as to bring me a straw….