Boston - The Real Life (Based on actual events....) -or- The Greatest LJ entry to Date
Note: This is long....if you actually do read this please comment and let me know you love me enough to suffer through this!
Thus the journey begins.....
Our story starts after work at 5PM Monday, my mother met me at my work place and we started off too Springfield Mass. Where our hotel room was located and which was the closest open space that was also close (Within 20 minutes) to my sisters home in North Hampton. Driving through traffic wasn’t too much fun, but once we got across the bridge it was smooth sailing for the next hour or so when we reached good old Westchester County (Which, thanks to my sisters keen eye a few years ago, we discovered is on a direct path from here to Massachusetts and back again no matter which way you take) and stopped inside the good olde Cobblestone. See I had messaged Kelli, one of by closest friends as you all know, the day before and told her to meet myself and my mother at Cobblestone for some dinner and talk to her for some time - to see how Texas, Justin’s and the basic time at Purchase was going. Dinner was good and even though we could only stay for about half an hour we got caught up and some fun, which was really why I wanted to meet Kelli there, just to see my friend again.
Anyway we got moving, about two hours or so till we even reached Springfield, so we got on the road again and were off. The only stop we made on the way there was at one of the quick off-ramp gas/rest stops that litter Connecticut to get some Coffee, drinks etc. But by far the most amusing part of the entire trip up was what we did to keep ourselves busy - see I brought along my GBA (Game Boy Advanced) system and a few games to keep myself busy, along with my iPod; while my mother brought along a book on CD - one of those trashy romance/mystery novels by Sandra Brown, The Switch I believe it was called.
To which I mocked this obvious piece of trashy literature for the first 20 minutes of the first of the 5-CD set....by halfway into the first CD I started to listed while I played my GBA.....by 45 minutes in I was pausing my GBS at times when some clues were given...by a minute after that I had turned off my GBA entirely and was listening intently to the murder of a twin. By the time we reached Springfield (After several wrong turned on the Mass Pike that resulted in having to backtrack all the way across one side of Springfield to get to the other) we had started the CD and were talking about who exactly was Brother Gabriel.....not exactly one of my proudest moments, but what can I say. It was fun.
Anyway, we got to the Hotel, a very nice, clean, quiet Comfort Inn, and crashed for a few minutes as I took notice that the antenna on my "generic" Verizon Cell Phone had broken off....and that if I tried really hard I could just get it to stick on so that my signal strength would go above 40% and I would not keep constantly loosing connection with people I was talking too. Which was why so many people I tried to call would hear me fine for about two minutes, then lose connection totally and I had to re-call them and try to give some plausible reason why I was having so much trouble. Color me reactionary but saying "I’m a dumb schmuck who broke his antenna and wasn’t smart enough at the time to use one of the other two cell phones around me in the interim" just didn’t sit right with me. But thankfully I still had enough signal strength to call my voice-mail and get the message my sister had left us, telling us she was ready to meet us and some odd little dining establishment across the street from out hotel called Bickfords. A place my sister called, which was both hysterical and very amusing, "a ghetto Denny’s" We ate there anyway. We lived, we tell our tale - my sister has a flare for dramatic prose, what can I say ^_^ Still I didn’t trust the food there too much, so I opted for a nice chicken Caesar salad, which actually was quite good might I say.
It was about 11 or so at night and I had noticed that I had missed a call from Marnie, we had been playing voice mail tag for most of the day, as my antenna must have switched the call over to my voice mail seeing as it could not find a stable connection for me. Seeing how it was so late I decided to call her, and the could of people whose addresses I still needed or who just had not gotten in touch with me, tomorrow morning.
My sister called early the next morning saying how her and her boyfriend Kevin had gotten no sleep last night and how Kevin, as hard as he works during the week, usually sleeps in late on Saturday - so they opted to have us drive as they slept in the back of the car for the hour drive to Boston rather than risk life and limb having them drive themselves. So they met us at the hotel, placed a handful of pillows in the back seat and we started the hour and a half drive to Boston. Which was probably the most boring, uninteresting drive I’ve ever been part of; not wanting to wake up my sister or Kevin my mother and I could not listen to the radio, talk or even amuse ourselves with the novel - but they slept soundly, so I guess it’s all good. Yeah, remind me next time to "accidentally" start screaming at something odd just off the road and, when they bolt up to see what it is, deny everything.
Anyway we got to my first appointment in Brighton at about 10:30 AM and met the owner/renter, this woman who probably was only a few years older than me if that, who proceeded to show us around the place. I was glad my sister was along, she (Having been through this type of search a few years ago) knew a lot of questions that I hadn’t considered asking, which helped me a great deal later as we looked at a few more apartments. The house was being totally renovated so all of it was in a state of disrepair and such and there were a bunch of construction workers building and repairing as we took a walk around the place. At $690 a month with all utilities included and having the ability (The only one out of the four I saw) to bring my furniture and supplies directly onto the floor where I’d be living were both big pluses to this place. The drawbacks were that the person whom I met who I would be living with was also the landlord, being as such they made it clear they would be very strict about rent payments, use of utilities, people staying over, hours of activity - they’d basically know they had the power to kick anyone out of the house whenever they’d like too and use it. I was just hoping that was because she needed the money for renovations (Of which her family was coving most of the bill, must be a very well off family) and that she was just trying to screen the place for the best possible applicants. Still both me and my sister got an odd feeling from her, so that combined with not being able to see the place completed made it #3 on my list. We left and decided to see if we could find my campus while heading towards by Noon appointment on the other side of the city in Orient Heights.
Getting there was half the fun though, between my lack of knowledge of the are and my somewhat snappy attitude given everything that was riding on my time there, the sweet couples lack of sleep and a few other things it took us pretty much till Noon on the nose to reach the area, and that’s with at least two wrong turns and one completely un-helpful set of directions by one of girls who lived there. But we got there and the first of the girls I met was Morgan, this very nice looking young woman who, I found out later, was the one leaving the apartment to go live in Paris and work with her company there (a damn good reason for leaving I must say.) As she walked us up the few flights of stairs I heard Jennifer, the girl whom I had been in an e-mail correspondence with, speaking to my mother, Kevin and Dawn downstairs as the four of them were on the way up. As I met Jennifer, another very attractive young woman who had lived her whole life in Massachusetts and had a very thick Boston accent, she showed me around the entire apartment, all the rooms, the room I would be taking, met her kitty-cat, was shown an absolutely beautiful view that their back porch showed us of the beach and the closer racetrack and spent some time discussing things about each other, getting to know each other to see if I’d be compatible with the three women who were going to be living there. That’s right three women and one other person, possibly me. She actually asked if I minded living with three women....I said no, no I do not. The place had several advantages: Very nice people, amazing view, clean, affordable ($550 a month plus about $100 for utilities that are not covered) close to the T and a great area to live in to boot. Only real problems are the fact that I’d have to drag all my stuff up a few flights of stairs and it’s about a 30 minute commute with the T to my campus in the heart of Boston. Minor things....but enough to make me consider. Still this is #1 on my list.
While driving to this apartment though we passed buy all the buildings that will make up my future campus on Boylston street, while we could not stop to see them I got a good view of them and proceeded to make not where all the T stops I could find were at as well as what shops and service were available. I could only note a few, but hopefully the next time I’m up there I’ll be able to do a little better.
In-between this and the next apartment, since it was an open house that was continuing for the next several hours, and since we were near the famous Quincy Market - we stopped to shop around and have a bite to eat since it had been several hours since most of us had eaten or at least had a munchie or two. We ate at a nice outdoor café when I noticed the title of one of the places was an Irish Pub, which reminded me I had to call Marnie back, which I did and of course got her voice mail again, and while I was on the phone I knew I had to call my cousin Danny since he was leaving for North Carolina at 3 AM that day. I had to call him to at least say goodbye and wish him the best. I did, he’s not the type of guy who loves talking on the phone, he’s very much to the point and quick, hence the fact that entire "goodbye" conversation lasted about a minute and a half. Anyway, I felt better at least knowing that I had said goodbye to my cousin and that he knew how to reach me and that I wanted him to do so.
After lunch we walked around Quincy Market, we separated so we could all see more and hit the shops we wanted too, and I found myself over by the horse carriage resting area and started talking to one of the guys who had a beautiful white horse there, Julie about 19 years old she was, and started to talk to her, to pet her.....they’re a very calm and quite peaceful animal; I promised to come down for a carriage ride with her once I moved to Boston in the Fall, I bet she’ll be a nice ride around the area, she seems like a peaceful companion. As I was walking around I walked into the "odd toy shop" as my sister called it to see how it was. The "weird" part of this store was the life size Harry Potter, Jango Fett and K-Nex Warrior made entirely out of Legos. I’m not kidding, all life size and all their swords, blasters and weapons included made entirely out of Legos. Finally, upstairs next to the Jango Fett, was another model; one of Hagrid from the Harry Potter book series, not life size (I don’t think there were enough Legos in all of Boston to handle that order) but about 1/10 normal size and sitting very cutely where they were selling all the rest of the Harry Potter Legos. I met up with the three of them (Kevin, my sister and my mother) at the Coach store where my sister was trying to get my mother to buy her a $150 Coach bag, she didn’t succeed but damn I was impressed with her skills and determination, even using her "kiddy" voice and cute skills to try and wear down my mothers defenses. No luck, but I think she made a few dents she might be able to exploit later. That’s my sister for you, crafty to the very end. After that we walked back to the garage where we had parked the car and took a closer look at the Commons, the parks and places there were. I have to say, the heart of Boston is one of the prettiest, active, sunniest places I’ve been too since some trips I’ve taken to gardens and secluded sections with some friends. So far though, Boston takes the point on that scale.
Next up was a drive all the way to Brookline (On the other side of Boston again where we once were) for an open house that was ending at about 4PM, it was about 3 PM when we got there. Only one hitch getting there, I had misplaced both the persons phone number and the house number. All I knew was the street and area, so I called my father and, painfully, walked him through starting my computer, logging onto the internet, getting into my Purchase e-mail and finishing either the house number or the phone number, he found the house number and the quest to find me a damn place to live in Boston continued....
We got to the open house, the one where I knew about 15 people where going to be up for the two rooms that were available, and of course the place was beautiful and the three girls there who were showing the two rooms for rent (Three more women, yeah I know, I land either of those places and many of my friends rather disturbing and vivid fantasies come into play) were very polite, funny and extremely talkative. Some points for my side, we talked three-on-one for a good few minutes, I impressed them with my theatre knowledge, my talents, and my life thus far and I had all three of them laughing a great deal about several of my CIS stories, life stories and just anecdotes I knew off hand. I figure hell, if I can make them laugh, the more they might remember me and the better chance I have of out lasting the other 14 applicants. The cute thing about the three of them was that all three ladies were British, so as I was telling them about myself, cracking some jokes (Having them in stitches for a while for some odd reason....) I took notice to that and though "How odd.....I’d be the ‘foreigner’ in this apartmen.....interesting." But the interview went well and I think I made a good impression on them, I’ll have to wait for the end of the week to find out if they ant me though. Good sides were the rent ($550 a month + utilities), location (Again about a 30 minute commute to Emerson) people, room size (One room was at least 2 ½ times the size of my current room and the other, while smaller, comes with your own office space and closet space in the nearby hallway) and just the vibe I got from the place. Downside is one, the rather hefty hike up the stairs to where I would have to bring all my stuff, but the halls and stairways were larger than were in #2, so that makes things a bit easier. This place was #2 on my list.
Finally, after the 20 minute interview, I walked out to the car and noticed the three of them looking at a local newspaper that my sister had swiped off on of the neighbor’s stoops. There were listings for apartments there so I called up some of the ones that looked promising and scheduled an appointment for about a half an hour from then to meet with a woman named Sue who was renting out a room in her apartment. This one is quick to tell about, Sue in an elderly women who was sweet, kind, knowledgeable and reminded me very much so of my Grandparents with her stories and just her persona. Still I knew I could not love there, there was no cable, no internet aside from some slow dial-up and the idea of living with a woman who would be my landlord and "Grandma" was just too uncomfortable to me. I hope she finds a nice tenant, but it’s not going to be me. This place didn’t even make it on my list, just cause I now I’d never be able to live there.
Then, after all the calls were made and all the appointments done, we started the drive back to Springfield once again in utter silence so the two love birds could sleep soundly in the back seat. Marnie and I finally got in touch with each other, so we talked for about 15-20 minutes as she was on her break from work and my phone decided to act up pretty badly as we drove through one dead zone after another and my antenna kept falling off...still I managed to carry on a somewhat normal conversation. By about halfway to Springfield though my mother was starting to get very tired of driving and despite my constant offer to take over, she said she was just fine. (Ever since the accident she doesn’t let anyone drive her, she must drive....gets really annoying. But it’s understandable.) So despite the sleeping duo she turned on the radio and managed to find a familiar radio station and kept herself awake as well as occupied as we silently got back to the hotel, said our goodbyes and went on our way.
After my sister and Kevin left for home, my mother and I tried a nice Chinese buffet and had some pretty good food for the price and then decided to shop around at the local mall so my mother could go to the Christmas Tree Store (One of her favorite stores) and I could do my usual amount of window shopping. I eventually picked up a new GBA game, Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age for a few bucks at the insistence of my mother basically telling me that I’m in Boston, I might as well buy something and enjoy it. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel room; she crashed for the remainder of the night as I played a few rounds of games, watched the History channel for a couple hours. There were some really good special on survival; the full story of the plane that crashed on top of the mountain and what the survivors had to do to live until a rescue could come, also on the Amazon and the lost expedition that’s fate was never truly discovered. I watched it for a while until it came time for me to get some sleep.
A quick stop at the local Verizon store to get by antenna replaced and we were back on the road for home. One stop at a rest stop for a drink, and having Dinner at the Cobblestone again (What can I say, it’s convenient) and we were finally home. Oh, we also got through two more CD’s of The Switch and we should finish the book on our morning drive to work this week. Umm.....well.....it’s pretty good. She’s, I mean Sandra Brown actually has some good mystery in this dime-a-dozen novel and hearing a book instead of reading it is a very different experience for me. It’s not quite as asinine or redundant as I thought it would be…..maybe there’s something to it after all.
I should be hearing back from all three apartments sometime this week, two of them by today if they get all the answers they wanted and decide to contact me right away, which they said they would. So, with some luck, I’ll know whether or not I’ll have an apartment in Boston or if I have to drive back up there to go looking around again for some more empty spaces and possible apartments in my price range.
Another good thing about the never ending drive though was that I got to see a lot, nearly every section, of Boston through tunnels, highways, side streets and across one side of a map to the other. Also major thanks goes out to Kevin, that man can read a map as well as Jared could - thanks to the quick find map we picked up on the way to Orient Heights and his skills and just plain knowledge of the area we actually managed to find out where we were going and not get lost halfway across the forty or fifty streets that seem to circle and lead to Boston like some type of modern Romanesque capital....then again, it’s exactly what Boston seems to be.
Cool, I’m gonna be a Boston Centurion….that’s where they got the term Bostonian from!
Thus the journey begins.....
Our story starts after work at 5PM Monday, my mother met me at my work place and we started off too Springfield Mass. Where our hotel room was located and which was the closest open space that was also close (Within 20 minutes) to my sisters home in North Hampton. Driving through traffic wasn’t too much fun, but once we got across the bridge it was smooth sailing for the next hour or so when we reached good old Westchester County (Which, thanks to my sisters keen eye a few years ago, we discovered is on a direct path from here to Massachusetts and back again no matter which way you take) and stopped inside the good olde Cobblestone. See I had messaged Kelli, one of by closest friends as you all know, the day before and told her to meet myself and my mother at Cobblestone for some dinner and talk to her for some time - to see how Texas, Justin’s and the basic time at Purchase was going. Dinner was good and even though we could only stay for about half an hour we got caught up and some fun, which was really why I wanted to meet Kelli there, just to see my friend again.
Anyway we got moving, about two hours or so till we even reached Springfield, so we got on the road again and were off. The only stop we made on the way there was at one of the quick off-ramp gas/rest stops that litter Connecticut to get some Coffee, drinks etc. But by far the most amusing part of the entire trip up was what we did to keep ourselves busy - see I brought along my GBA (Game Boy Advanced) system and a few games to keep myself busy, along with my iPod; while my mother brought along a book on CD - one of those trashy romance/mystery novels by Sandra Brown, The Switch I believe it was called.
To which I mocked this obvious piece of trashy literature for the first 20 minutes of the first of the 5-CD set....by halfway into the first CD I started to listed while I played my GBA.....by 45 minutes in I was pausing my GBS at times when some clues were given...by a minute after that I had turned off my GBA entirely and was listening intently to the murder of a twin. By the time we reached Springfield (After several wrong turned on the Mass Pike that resulted in having to backtrack all the way across one side of Springfield to get to the other) we had started the CD and were talking about who exactly was Brother Gabriel.....not exactly one of my proudest moments, but what can I say. It was fun.
Anyway, we got to the Hotel, a very nice, clean, quiet Comfort Inn, and crashed for a few minutes as I took notice that the antenna on my "generic" Verizon Cell Phone had broken off....and that if I tried really hard I could just get it to stick on so that my signal strength would go above 40% and I would not keep constantly loosing connection with people I was talking too. Which was why so many people I tried to call would hear me fine for about two minutes, then lose connection totally and I had to re-call them and try to give some plausible reason why I was having so much trouble. Color me reactionary but saying "I’m a dumb schmuck who broke his antenna and wasn’t smart enough at the time to use one of the other two cell phones around me in the interim" just didn’t sit right with me. But thankfully I still had enough signal strength to call my voice-mail and get the message my sister had left us, telling us she was ready to meet us and some odd little dining establishment across the street from out hotel called Bickfords. A place my sister called, which was both hysterical and very amusing, "a ghetto Denny’s" We ate there anyway. We lived, we tell our tale - my sister has a flare for dramatic prose, what can I say ^_^ Still I didn’t trust the food there too much, so I opted for a nice chicken Caesar salad, which actually was quite good might I say.
It was about 11 or so at night and I had noticed that I had missed a call from Marnie, we had been playing voice mail tag for most of the day, as my antenna must have switched the call over to my voice mail seeing as it could not find a stable connection for me. Seeing how it was so late I decided to call her, and the could of people whose addresses I still needed or who just had not gotten in touch with me, tomorrow morning.
My sister called early the next morning saying how her and her boyfriend Kevin had gotten no sleep last night and how Kevin, as hard as he works during the week, usually sleeps in late on Saturday - so they opted to have us drive as they slept in the back of the car for the hour drive to Boston rather than risk life and limb having them drive themselves. So they met us at the hotel, placed a handful of pillows in the back seat and we started the hour and a half drive to Boston. Which was probably the most boring, uninteresting drive I’ve ever been part of; not wanting to wake up my sister or Kevin my mother and I could not listen to the radio, talk or even amuse ourselves with the novel - but they slept soundly, so I guess it’s all good. Yeah, remind me next time to "accidentally" start screaming at something odd just off the road and, when they bolt up to see what it is, deny everything.
Anyway we got to my first appointment in Brighton at about 10:30 AM and met the owner/renter, this woman who probably was only a few years older than me if that, who proceeded to show us around the place. I was glad my sister was along, she (Having been through this type of search a few years ago) knew a lot of questions that I hadn’t considered asking, which helped me a great deal later as we looked at a few more apartments. The house was being totally renovated so all of it was in a state of disrepair and such and there were a bunch of construction workers building and repairing as we took a walk around the place. At $690 a month with all utilities included and having the ability (The only one out of the four I saw) to bring my furniture and supplies directly onto the floor where I’d be living were both big pluses to this place. The drawbacks were that the person whom I met who I would be living with was also the landlord, being as such they made it clear they would be very strict about rent payments, use of utilities, people staying over, hours of activity - they’d basically know they had the power to kick anyone out of the house whenever they’d like too and use it. I was just hoping that was because she needed the money for renovations (Of which her family was coving most of the bill, must be a very well off family) and that she was just trying to screen the place for the best possible applicants. Still both me and my sister got an odd feeling from her, so that combined with not being able to see the place completed made it #3 on my list. We left and decided to see if we could find my campus while heading towards by Noon appointment on the other side of the city in Orient Heights.
Getting there was half the fun though, between my lack of knowledge of the are and my somewhat snappy attitude given everything that was riding on my time there, the sweet couples lack of sleep and a few other things it took us pretty much till Noon on the nose to reach the area, and that’s with at least two wrong turns and one completely un-helpful set of directions by one of girls who lived there. But we got there and the first of the girls I met was Morgan, this very nice looking young woman who, I found out later, was the one leaving the apartment to go live in Paris and work with her company there (a damn good reason for leaving I must say.) As she walked us up the few flights of stairs I heard Jennifer, the girl whom I had been in an e-mail correspondence with, speaking to my mother, Kevin and Dawn downstairs as the four of them were on the way up. As I met Jennifer, another very attractive young woman who had lived her whole life in Massachusetts and had a very thick Boston accent, she showed me around the entire apartment, all the rooms, the room I would be taking, met her kitty-cat, was shown an absolutely beautiful view that their back porch showed us of the beach and the closer racetrack and spent some time discussing things about each other, getting to know each other to see if I’d be compatible with the three women who were going to be living there. That’s right three women and one other person, possibly me. She actually asked if I minded living with three women....I said no, no I do not. The place had several advantages: Very nice people, amazing view, clean, affordable ($550 a month plus about $100 for utilities that are not covered) close to the T and a great area to live in to boot. Only real problems are the fact that I’d have to drag all my stuff up a few flights of stairs and it’s about a 30 minute commute with the T to my campus in the heart of Boston. Minor things....but enough to make me consider. Still this is #1 on my list.
While driving to this apartment though we passed buy all the buildings that will make up my future campus on Boylston street, while we could not stop to see them I got a good view of them and proceeded to make not where all the T stops I could find were at as well as what shops and service were available. I could only note a few, but hopefully the next time I’m up there I’ll be able to do a little better.
In-between this and the next apartment, since it was an open house that was continuing for the next several hours, and since we were near the famous Quincy Market - we stopped to shop around and have a bite to eat since it had been several hours since most of us had eaten or at least had a munchie or two. We ate at a nice outdoor café when I noticed the title of one of the places was an Irish Pub, which reminded me I had to call Marnie back, which I did and of course got her voice mail again, and while I was on the phone I knew I had to call my cousin Danny since he was leaving for North Carolina at 3 AM that day. I had to call him to at least say goodbye and wish him the best. I did, he’s not the type of guy who loves talking on the phone, he’s very much to the point and quick, hence the fact that entire "goodbye" conversation lasted about a minute and a half. Anyway, I felt better at least knowing that I had said goodbye to my cousin and that he knew how to reach me and that I wanted him to do so.
After lunch we walked around Quincy Market, we separated so we could all see more and hit the shops we wanted too, and I found myself over by the horse carriage resting area and started talking to one of the guys who had a beautiful white horse there, Julie about 19 years old she was, and started to talk to her, to pet her.....they’re a very calm and quite peaceful animal; I promised to come down for a carriage ride with her once I moved to Boston in the Fall, I bet she’ll be a nice ride around the area, she seems like a peaceful companion. As I was walking around I walked into the "odd toy shop" as my sister called it to see how it was. The "weird" part of this store was the life size Harry Potter, Jango Fett and K-Nex Warrior made entirely out of Legos. I’m not kidding, all life size and all their swords, blasters and weapons included made entirely out of Legos. Finally, upstairs next to the Jango Fett, was another model; one of Hagrid from the Harry Potter book series, not life size (I don’t think there were enough Legos in all of Boston to handle that order) but about 1/10 normal size and sitting very cutely where they were selling all the rest of the Harry Potter Legos. I met up with the three of them (Kevin, my sister and my mother) at the Coach store where my sister was trying to get my mother to buy her a $150 Coach bag, she didn’t succeed but damn I was impressed with her skills and determination, even using her "kiddy" voice and cute skills to try and wear down my mothers defenses. No luck, but I think she made a few dents she might be able to exploit later. That’s my sister for you, crafty to the very end. After that we walked back to the garage where we had parked the car and took a closer look at the Commons, the parks and places there were. I have to say, the heart of Boston is one of the prettiest, active, sunniest places I’ve been too since some trips I’ve taken to gardens and secluded sections with some friends. So far though, Boston takes the point on that scale.
Next up was a drive all the way to Brookline (On the other side of Boston again where we once were) for an open house that was ending at about 4PM, it was about 3 PM when we got there. Only one hitch getting there, I had misplaced both the persons phone number and the house number. All I knew was the street and area, so I called my father and, painfully, walked him through starting my computer, logging onto the internet, getting into my Purchase e-mail and finishing either the house number or the phone number, he found the house number and the quest to find me a damn place to live in Boston continued....
We got to the open house, the one where I knew about 15 people where going to be up for the two rooms that were available, and of course the place was beautiful and the three girls there who were showing the two rooms for rent (Three more women, yeah I know, I land either of those places and many of my friends rather disturbing and vivid fantasies come into play) were very polite, funny and extremely talkative. Some points for my side, we talked three-on-one for a good few minutes, I impressed them with my theatre knowledge, my talents, and my life thus far and I had all three of them laughing a great deal about several of my CIS stories, life stories and just anecdotes I knew off hand. I figure hell, if I can make them laugh, the more they might remember me and the better chance I have of out lasting the other 14 applicants. The cute thing about the three of them was that all three ladies were British, so as I was telling them about myself, cracking some jokes (Having them in stitches for a while for some odd reason....) I took notice to that and though "How odd.....I’d be the ‘foreigner’ in this apartmen.....interesting." But the interview went well and I think I made a good impression on them, I’ll have to wait for the end of the week to find out if they ant me though. Good sides were the rent ($550 a month + utilities), location (Again about a 30 minute commute to Emerson) people, room size (One room was at least 2 ½ times the size of my current room and the other, while smaller, comes with your own office space and closet space in the nearby hallway) and just the vibe I got from the place. Downside is one, the rather hefty hike up the stairs to where I would have to bring all my stuff, but the halls and stairways were larger than were in #2, so that makes things a bit easier. This place was #2 on my list.
Finally, after the 20 minute interview, I walked out to the car and noticed the three of them looking at a local newspaper that my sister had swiped off on of the neighbor’s stoops. There were listings for apartments there so I called up some of the ones that looked promising and scheduled an appointment for about a half an hour from then to meet with a woman named Sue who was renting out a room in her apartment. This one is quick to tell about, Sue in an elderly women who was sweet, kind, knowledgeable and reminded me very much so of my Grandparents with her stories and just her persona. Still I knew I could not love there, there was no cable, no internet aside from some slow dial-up and the idea of living with a woman who would be my landlord and "Grandma" was just too uncomfortable to me. I hope she finds a nice tenant, but it’s not going to be me. This place didn’t even make it on my list, just cause I now I’d never be able to live there.
Then, after all the calls were made and all the appointments done, we started the drive back to Springfield once again in utter silence so the two love birds could sleep soundly in the back seat. Marnie and I finally got in touch with each other, so we talked for about 15-20 minutes as she was on her break from work and my phone decided to act up pretty badly as we drove through one dead zone after another and my antenna kept falling off...still I managed to carry on a somewhat normal conversation. By about halfway to Springfield though my mother was starting to get very tired of driving and despite my constant offer to take over, she said she was just fine. (Ever since the accident she doesn’t let anyone drive her, she must drive....gets really annoying. But it’s understandable.) So despite the sleeping duo she turned on the radio and managed to find a familiar radio station and kept herself awake as well as occupied as we silently got back to the hotel, said our goodbyes and went on our way.
After my sister and Kevin left for home, my mother and I tried a nice Chinese buffet and had some pretty good food for the price and then decided to shop around at the local mall so my mother could go to the Christmas Tree Store (One of her favorite stores) and I could do my usual amount of window shopping. I eventually picked up a new GBA game, Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age for a few bucks at the insistence of my mother basically telling me that I’m in Boston, I might as well buy something and enjoy it. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel room; she crashed for the remainder of the night as I played a few rounds of games, watched the History channel for a couple hours. There were some really good special on survival; the full story of the plane that crashed on top of the mountain and what the survivors had to do to live until a rescue could come, also on the Amazon and the lost expedition that’s fate was never truly discovered. I watched it for a while until it came time for me to get some sleep.
A quick stop at the local Verizon store to get by antenna replaced and we were back on the road for home. One stop at a rest stop for a drink, and having Dinner at the Cobblestone again (What can I say, it’s convenient) and we were finally home. Oh, we also got through two more CD’s of The Switch and we should finish the book on our morning drive to work this week. Umm.....well.....it’s pretty good. She’s, I mean Sandra Brown actually has some good mystery in this dime-a-dozen novel and hearing a book instead of reading it is a very different experience for me. It’s not quite as asinine or redundant as I thought it would be…..maybe there’s something to it after all.
I should be hearing back from all three apartments sometime this week, two of them by today if they get all the answers they wanted and decide to contact me right away, which they said they would. So, with some luck, I’ll know whether or not I’ll have an apartment in Boston or if I have to drive back up there to go looking around again for some more empty spaces and possible apartments in my price range.
Another good thing about the never ending drive though was that I got to see a lot, nearly every section, of Boston through tunnels, highways, side streets and across one side of a map to the other. Also major thanks goes out to Kevin, that man can read a map as well as Jared could - thanks to the quick find map we picked up on the way to Orient Heights and his skills and just plain knowledge of the area we actually managed to find out where we were going and not get lost halfway across the forty or fifty streets that seem to circle and lead to Boston like some type of modern Romanesque capital....then again, it’s exactly what Boston seems to be.
Cool, I’m gonna be a Boston Centurion….that’s where they got the term Bostonian from!