This morning I get a phone message from a guy in Indiana with a study abroad network (Australia and New Zealand) asking me if I had received his email a couple of weeks ago about the job I had applied for. Well, what do you know? It went into my spam folder on October 3rd. I guess there's a reason that it got shuffled out of my inbox, but of course, it makes me wonder about what would have happened if I would have received that email. I was really wanting to get involved with study abroad programs. He said I could give him a call if I need a career change in the future. Ahhhh....Life.... how I love the twists and turns you throw at me regularly.
Yesterday, Dad and I took my new iPass for a spin and went looking for apartments. Dad should get a superhero award for dealing with everything we had to go through. Yay for dads! (And moms!) So we went to the first apartment which was quite near Regan and everything was very normal. It was a bit old and the lady looked like a heart attack waiting to happen as she spewed out the information about the place, but it had a parking spot. So, we're thinking... Great! One option!
We headed to the second which was an old building with hardwood floors, a fireplace, an extra room, a creepy bathroom, but a generally awesome atmosphere. It was within walking distance of the Metra and seemed like an excellent place. But there was no parking and the guy explained how many times I'd have to be moving my car since I would not only need night parking, but day parking since I'd be on the train. Thankfully, Dad was on top of his game yesterday and we went to the Village Hall where we had information thrown at us at an alarming speed about how there are no spots available at night and how you have to have this permit and this permit and move your car from here to here and oh, yes, these things aren't free, and how you can't even have one of these spots until November and that's only for the day time..don't know what you'll do at night.
We walked out dejected. Both places had just been taken off the list because of parking. We headed to our third apartment outside of town and although it was nice enough, I would still have to have a parking spot at the commuter lot for the Metra. We went to another station in another town and they said there was a two year waitlist to get a spot. Two years! So, there went the third apartment and every apartment that would involve driving. By this point, I was beginning to wonder why I passed up on the Oak Brook job. If I took that one, I could live anywhere because I'd be driving. And seriously, Metra! You want more customers? Make MORE parking!!!!
We drove out to Lisle which we had driven through on Sunday and we met a guy at an apartment building directly across from the station. But it was a scary scary place. One apartment was torn to shreds and although the guy said he was improving things and turning out some of the residents, we knew this place was not going to fly with the final decider-- Mom. We needed lunch. We needed to regroup. We needed to examine our options and where else I could live. We needed to see if I could take the bus to the train. We needed Jason from our last apartment building to call us back. We needed a miracle.
As we sat in the van, ready to pull out and start shopping for tents, Jason gave me a call to say he could meet us in 30 minutes. The last chance was directly next to the Metra station and was within my price range. The building looked completely normal with tons and tons of parking. And about a 3 minute walk to the Metra platform. This was it. I told Dad that if the guy was decent (which all the other landlords were a bit quirky/scary) and if the apartment had walls and working plumbing, we were taking it. Well, thank goodness for small miracles! The guy was very friendly and completely approachable... The apartments themselves were clean and mine would have new appliances, new paint, new carpet, etc. I grabbed a credit check sheet and told him we'd take it. And as we drove home, we were all smiles. The trials and tribulations of the day were almost completely forgotten, but we made sure to bring Mom along with us on our emotional journey through our story telling and scaring her by telling her that I was going to stay in a converted motel with boarded up windows.
So, I have a home. I have a job. In three months, I will have insurance. And I will be enjoying public transportation again.
PS --- For those of you job hunting and doubting the powers of monster.com... Three of my five job leads/interviews, including the one I took, were found and applied for on monster. I'm a walking billboard.
3 comments:
Congrats on finding a decent place to live! I will be sure to come see it once this unbelievably busy semester is over.
Also, I think Mike got his job offer through either Monster or CareerBuilder too.
See you in a couple weeks!
You have an apartment! YAY! When I was looking for a place to live, it took a few weeks. I had to rent a room in a house/apartment because there is no way I could afford my own place in DC. So I went to all these open houses. And I had to compete with 15 or so people at each house. So at each open house, I had to seem nice and easygoing and responsible and fun. That was stressful! And thank goodness I eventually found a place to live!
oh yipee!
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