It’s Saturday and here I am, awake at 5:30am [again]. I use the term “awake” loosely, because I’m still thrashed and I will go back to bed shortly.
But I have much pinging around in my head and the choice is toss and turn in bed, thinking too much… or get up, blog, walk the dog, then go back to bed. Seems clear cut to me. I suppose. This means a pseudo insomnia blog, because technically I’ve had 7 hours of sleep so it doesn’t truly qualify as insomnia. It’s more a case of “what the hell is my damned body up to???”
Status check on the “Great 2010 House Rental Search” – found one. Todd told his dad that I turned into a pit bull over it and I tend to agree. I got my aggression on. Ok. To clarify, I was just VERY assertive. I got over to the viewing of the house yesterday morning and there were two other couples… a young, sort of “hip” couple and an older couple with a baby. I had already driven by the property to look at the exterior on Thursday night, so I was primed. I knew that unless the interior was truly horrible (given the particular location, unlikely), it was exactly what we wanted.
The property manager got there and all three groups (well them and me) went in. Todd didn’t actually show up with the kids until a bit later, but I’ll get to that.
I walked through the front door and I just knew. It was perfect for us. Walking through it, with the existing renter there with her three very small children, was slightly uncomfortable because I already knew this was it. But we smiled and did our thing, a very gently curious looking through the space. We all apologized to “M” the current renter, because here we were, tromping through her home!
After looking, we gathered together where the property manager explained that she’d take applications until 5pm, and then they’d run them and choose whoever was the best candidate. Scary, but I was not backing down. I had my application completed from the night before and I was pulling out my checkbook. The nice couple with the baby returned their application unfilled and left. The young couple left with an application, but it didn’t look like they were going to do it. The agent turned to me and said, “Well, it looks like it’s yours if you want it!” And I said “Yes!”
Todd arrived about this time with the kids and they looked through, but I was already writing out the check. She looked over our application and said she didn’t see anything that would prevent it from going through – YES! And then we had a short chat with M who told us the neighbors were great… there is a park a short walk away… and the rapport between M and the PM was very good.
Todd told me later that he knew as soon as he drove up that it was the one, but walking in confirmed it and talking to M sealed the deal.
Now here is the funny part of the story… On Wednesday night, after looking at a couple homes that made me cringe and driving around neighborhoods, desperately looking for something that was right for us, I made a whiny comment to Todd about how I just wanted to live in L*, the neighborhood/sub where we found this place.
We got home and I pulled up Craigslist for about the millionth time in 1 1/2 weeks. It was about 8pm. At 6:18pm the property in L* was posted.
I asked… and there it was…
When I talked to the PM to schedule viewing the property, I asked about our sweet old dog, Danny. On Craigslist the property said dogs were fine, but on the management site it said no pets. I told Todd we’d have to put Danny in a dress and call him “Aunt Flo”. Yeah. I was sick waiting to find out about whether or not they would take him. When I talked to the PM she immediately told me pets were negotiable and asked what breed he was. I told her golden/collie mix and she said, “Oh we LOVE those!!”
Can you believe it?
The right price…. 3 bed/2 bath… 2 car garage… fully fenced back yard… living room AND family room, so the kids can each have their own rooms and we can have our office/studio…. dining area with linoleum (our current has carpet, so we NEVER eat at the table)… cul de sac off a dead end street… park… trees…. ROSES…. storage space… and it’s in the neighborhood where (hard work and degrees done willing) we want to buy eventually.
And we’ll still be in Bren’s school zone.
Do I sense guardian angel poop on my shoulder? Yes, I do.
Yes… I know we don’t have the approval yet. I’m trying not to think about that part, but in truth there is no reason at all that our application won’t sail through. For a moment I thought about not writing about it because of a slightly superstitious feeling about the whole thing, but that passed because it simply felt so right. We walked in and we knew this was going to be home. And it was built in 1986, so it’s showing the wear from being a rental… that and the blue carpet totally thrill me. Why? No more beige carpet with children! And with a slightly worn house, I know that we can live in it comfortably without that endless paranoia that the children will do something that mars it.
(funny how it’s the kids that are a concern and not the dog, huh?)
****
If I stop to do a status check, I’m almost overwhelmed at where we are. I have a career position that challenges me, that is harder work than I’ve ever had to do. I work for the organization I want to work for, doing something that makes sense for me. My husband is thriving in his degree program and was on the “President’s List” for the spring semester with a 4.0 GPA. My kids are sweet, funny, loving, and keep me on my toes. Our dog is a loving fuzzball who desperately needs a furminator (I’m working on that), but he’s family. We have our wonderful family close by (most of you) and we have great friends.
And now we’ve found a place to live that will let us get back to being a family, rather than being in the middle of cigarette smoke/noisy parties/fast driving and no contained yard.
I wonder if they’ll let me transplant some of my clematis? hmmmm….
****
So I’m just sending out a thank you to the powers that be or to fate or to whatever you choose to call it. Now if we could just figure out a way to massively cut the cost of my ISM degree so I can stay in it, that’d be swell.
Time to take sweet dog for a walk. And then I’m crawling back into bed for whatever extra sleep I can grab. Today is the big day with the Mie Mie kids. OH!! Todd’s dad took us and Uncle M and Aunt C to see Karate Kid last night. Whoa. I can’t attest to the quality of the kung fu (and yes, the title seems dumb from that respect), but it was a wonderful movie. Jaden Smith was great, but Jackie Chan was truly amazing. He has always been the ham and in this one he was poignant and showed depths I never could have believed. The mom was perfect – I found myself laughing simply because it was exactly how I would have responded.
And for those who say Jaden Smith can’t act – were you even watching?? Have you ever been around children that age??? He nailed it. He has a bright future ahead. I hope his mom and dad are keeping a strict watch on how things go for him because he has so much future I’d hate to see it derailed by that “child star” crap. Somehow, though, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith don’t strike me as the types of parents to let that happen.
I’d love to thank the people who wrote it and worked on it. I can’t gauge how much of what was represented about China was accurate (hopefully quite a bit), but it was gorgeous and I completely understood the discomfort of that little boy, plunked down in a place he didn’t understand – far away from everything comfortable and familiar. When I was 12, I moved to a foreign country and I was lost at first too. I wanted to be home, in my country, with my friends and family. At least language wasn’t a barrier, but the culture? boy… was that strangely different.
And yep, I moved from Canada to the US.
All I have to say is this… the culture grew on me, as did the people. Now I’m a citizen here and I have my family here AND there.
Thanks for reading today. I hope Saturday brings you good things.
moonfire
Ramblings of a Wild for Words Woman 