12.4 The Search in These Foolish Things

Hi Everyone! It’s been nice to take a tiny break from writing an entry a day. I do like doing that, but I think I just start feeling obligated to write (by my own doing, of course) and then the entries are so boring because I don’t do exciting things every day. Heh.

But I DO do exciting things at least weekly! Exciting to me, anyway.

This week, my exciting thing has been to look at new places to live. As you know, I’m going to be moving out of my apartment by the end of February, so there’s no time like the present to get this show on the road.

For a good long while I’ve been thinking about buying a place, but now the time has come and I’m still waffling, so I guess I’ll be renting for the next year anyway. I’ve looked at several places now, and I’ve kind of gotten it down to one place and I’m hoping that the availability will work for my timing.

It all comes down to spectacular view, natural light and amenities. The place I’m interested in is only a block away from where I currently live, is situated on the top of a hotel (large chain hotel), and gets to enjoy all of the amenities of the hotel (room service, business center, pool, library, valet service, etc), AND has it’s own private infinity pool on the rooftop as well as gym, meeting room and some other cool things), AND there’s a really cool brand new restaurant/bar on the bottom floor as well.

Yes, it will probably end up being just as expensive as my current rent, but this place is so much more than my current place, and I really like the people managing it.

OH! So how did I wind up even looking at this place? Well, that’s an adventure unto itself!

I’d started the day looking at some older places I’d known about for a while. These are places that I thought were super cool right around the time many old office buildings were being refurbished as apartments (10ish years ago), so I knew about them and wanted to check them out.

After two very disappointing meetings and 4 different buildings (dark hallways, appliances not upgraded, dirty apartments!), I decided to take a break and take myself to lunch at the cool boutique hotel that I love so much. There’s a very nice restaurant to have lunch and I took myself to the bar to have a salad.

I sat down next to a guy who was eating the most delicious looking seared tuna salad, so I flat out asked him if he liked it and he said it was absolutely the best! So I ordered one along with a glass of prosecco. The bar neighbor and I chatted all through lunch. Turns out, he’s from Atlanta and travels to [my city] quite a bit for business. We work in fairly similar industries so we had lots and lots and lots of stuff to talk about.

And then, lunch was over, but the bartender asked us if we both wanted another glass of wine. And I looked at the dude and he looked at me and we were both like, “SURE!!”

So we chatted some more, and i told him I was spending the day looking at apartments and told him what I was seeing. And then he bought my lunch and my drinks! So I asked him if he wanted to go look at one more place with me…even though I didn’t have an appointment.

And he said, “SURE!!”

So off we went, the two of us, looking like a COUPLE (he looked VERY wealthy, BTW..dressed in a suit…no tie, but pocket square…LOVE, nice shoes, nicely quaffed), to this high rise apartment building across the street. How very strange, but how hilarious?!

We walked right inside, and I realized that I was slightly buzzed from two glasses of bubbly (haven’t been drinking at all lately), but it didn’t matter because we were soon off and looking at apartments! I fell in love with the view at this place…the absolute BEST views in town! And the Stranger was actually kind of helpful by asking a few questions. It was the best and most exciting tour I took all day!

And though I have a little while before I am able to know exactly what’s going to be available when my lease is up, I really hope to be able to move to this one. I’ll need to go back and ask more questions, I’m sure. I don’t know that one look after lunch with a total stranger is gonna do it for me, but I’ll be back to take a second look, for sure!

After the tour, I started to walk back to the hotel where the Stranger was staying, but then I realized that it would be weird to go back to the hotel with this guy, so I thanked him for this time and for lunch and for the advice and we both went our separate ways.

And that was that! No number exchange, no email exchange, no nothing! How funny/odd/weird, right?

Then I was done looking for the day. Went to pick up the dog at daycare and then went to dinner with my friend Cindy.

That was fun. We ate at one of our old standbys, shared some french fries and both ate a little sushi and drank some bubbly. She’s dating a guy I dated once or twice like 100 years ago and had/have no interest in. So we talked a little about that. I thought I might be a little jealous, but I’m not in the least. I think he’s an odd character, and if she can make it work with him (which it sounds like it’s not going to work), then more power to them both.

Anyway, nice dinner…home to nice warm bed.

Yesterday was rainy and dreary and the only thing I had really planned out was a work holiday party at one of the big wig’s house.

I wanted to get a bunch of stuff done, but I ended up taking a long nap in the middle of the afternoon (sans alcohol!), and woke in time to take the dog for a walk and then it was already time to get ready for the party.

Got ready and drove about 1/2 hour to the big wig’s place. This party was for the leadership council, and it was quite spectacular. Beautiful house in a gated community, brand spanking new, amazingly decorated, a lot of peeps from work showed up, but one person was glaringly missing: MY boss. Now I know he lives a long way away, but so do most of the other folks. I shouldn’t be surprised…I just think it’s really interesting that this guy goes so rogue all the time that he can’t even make it to a party where it will be glaring that he’s not there.

Anywho, that’s something else I need to write about soon. Had a discussion with Boss that made him pretty aware that I want to go for this new position that’s opening up. I think this is going to be it, folks. I’m not 100% qualified for this position, but I strongly believe that if I don’t get it, I will be a goner at this company. Boss and I had a little heart to heart, and it wasn’t bad, per se, but it was one of things where he was like, “you really need to be in a position where your passion shines through and I notice your passion when we are in these leadership meetings, and I want to know what exactly that is?”

And that’s when I decided to open up to him and allude that I want this other position. I didn’t come right out and say it, but we both know I need to get out from under this man who undermines EVERYTHING I do with my team.

So we’ll see. Tomorrow will be interesting. I really want to do this new gig. Wish me luck on both the job and the apartment fronts!!

xo,
GS