Finding Home Sweet Home

So, obviously… I have not been blogging.  I have good reason--BUSY BUSY BUSY!  For a while I was working from 5:30 till 2:30 and then immediately heading into the city to apartment hunt.  JEEZ talk about exhausting… Scheduling appointments and then figuring out the best route between them via the public transportation system and then actually navigating the public transportation system, and then going to the appointments and trying to show that you would be more than just a compatible roommate but an AWESOME roommate was not an easy task.  And then once that was all done, I had to figure out how to get back to the hotel.  The easiest (and fastest) way was to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit system--think a subway-type transportation).  And at almost $9 per one-way trip, it was also the most expensive way to travel the 8 or so miles from the city to the South Bay area, where my hotel and company are located.  Blahh.  I saw quite a few apartments ranging from insanely tiny to fairly large, some studios and some shared.  I also met quite a few interesting people.  Take Apartment #2, for example.

Located in the Mission (the center of SF’s Latino population…imagine streets populated with Latinos and taquerias on every corner), the location was a bit less than desirable for me.  But the apartment was gorgeous.  Everything was cool until the potential roommates asked me why I would choose their ad as a potential living arrangement because it was so different.  “Different?” I asked.  “I’m transgendered,” what I had thought was a he replied.  “I was born a female but I still like to occasionally dress as one.  Miniskirts and fishnets and leather combat boots and things like that.”

I could not make this stuff up.

I saw a room in the trendy North Beach area (aka Little Italy).  The area: perfect, with tons of little bars and cafes and delicious smells wafting out of Italian restaurants EVERYWHERE.  The room: so small that there was hardly room for me to walk around the bed.

All that for just $900 a month!!  What an amazing value!! No thanks.

So where am I living now?  I found a room in the heart of the gay capital of the gay capital, the Castro district.  All sorts of restaurants from American to Ethiopian, just a few minutes’ walk away from a ton of bars and cafes and a TON of public transportation, yet set back just enough to be quiet.  Plus…the street is a little 1 way street so it’s too much of a hassle for people to try to park their cars here.  That means PARKING ANYTIME!  After circling the block for half an hour in North Beach looking for a spot, I have a newfound appreciation for easy parking.  My roommate is Julie, a woman in her early 40s who is a musician and high school teacher.  She’s also a total MILF--we are talking Cindy Crawford stuff here.  Super nice and she’s always busy so I never see her.  It’s a pretty good arrangement so far.  The only downside… The neighbors upstairs.

Last night they threw a dinner party.  7 PM.  The walls in this building (it is extremely old…My room has a former fireplace in it) are extremely thin so I was treated to French-style music (with accordions and whatnot) for hours.  At 11 I got into bed and managed to fall asleep eventually.  Fast forward to 2 am.  Jolted awake by thundering music played on a piano.  I mean PLAYED… Whoever was playing it was amazing.  So although being treated to a private concert was not the worst way to be kept awake (preferable to the demon children next door), I would have rather been sleeping.  Luckily this is a month-to-month commitment so if it happens more than like once a month (hopefully less than that) I will be forced to say Sayonara to the other benefits of the apartment.  If I am going to miss out on sleep I want it to be because I chose to miss out on sleep, not because Mozart upstairs wanted to have a dinner party that lasts until the wee hours of the morning.

So that is it for this current post!  Next time I will enthrall you with tales from the office.  General idea: it’s awesome working at Global English.

PS More apt rejects

This was the entire apt.  $900 for a room the size of a closet complete with crappy fridge, bathroom shared with everyone in the building, and a view of the trash cans outside.  Parking was non existent. (Mission at Valencia) No thanks.

$1000 for an in-law apt.  Small windows, questionable choice in carpet color, but with a pretty decent kitchen.  Also in the most boring useless looking neighborhood ever (Excelsior).  I would have to travel like 20 min to get anywhere worth going.  No.

Decent price range: $800.  Decent sized room, closet.  1 block away from Golden Gate Park.  Negatives: Sharing the house with a middle aged married couple who was not really married (still confused about that one).  "Wife" is a new age healer and spiritual guide and "husband" does security at the airport from 2 pm until 1 am.  Weiiiird.  Also in a crappy wayyy out of the way section of town with notoriously bad weather (Outer Richmond).