New Apartment. Check!

As I said in my last post, SCL has been an angel throughout the whole apartment search. Unlike our previous city, renting in DC seems to have a slightly longer process for getting an apartment, mostly because everything here is a high rise with a managment company (not some nonchalant middle-aged bachelor buying up property to rent to grad students, so he can sit on his ass all day and still make money.) Applying for a new apartment several months in advance isn't unheard of. When I visited a friend on Friday, I went to his leasing office to ask about any openings, figuring it couldn't hurt to see a few apartments and believing that in this economy, people are desperate to rent. Ha! Not true for this building. The woman in the leasing office practically laughed in my face when I said we were hoping to move in by mid-July. And she said the same was true of the surrounding properties, which I never thought to question because it sent me into a panic.

Suddenly, I was in a tizzy, asking myself "Shit, where are we going to live? What if all the places we look at are shitholes? What if they're tiny and there's no room for our stuff and they cost $5,000 a month?" Not rational, hence my calling it a panic. I panic occasionally, in little 5 to 10 minute spurts usually. SCL is usually silent during them, which at the time I find infuriating but then afterward I realize was the best thing he could have done for himself and for me. Usually they end with me in tears, him comforting me, and me asking him for the millionth time, "Are you sure you love me even though I freak out?" And he always says yes, and that while I do freak out, that is not the bulk of who I am or how I act. Thank God for that.

Last night when we were planning our apartment hunt, my aunt handed us a huge book of property listings. I immediately began flipping through it and wanted to add new areas to our search. This was a little overwhelming to SCL, who had carefully chosen four properties all within our pricerange and within walking distance (more or less...) to the Metro. I decided at that point to calm down and only add one other area--Crystal City. I just had a good feeling about it, and those feelings are usually dead on. (I had one about my current job before my initial interview.)

The first apartment we saw was in another part of NoVa (Northern Virginia for all of you non-DCers), and it was fine. But the guy who showed us around was a tool and we found that the Metro was quite a distance from where we'd be. Not ideal, but it was definitely a possibility. But then---we found our match. Perfection. New kitchen, new bathroom, two walk-in closets. Did you get that? TWO WALK IN CLOSETS! A pantry, another closet, a huge living room, two entrances, a beautiful fitness center--the list goes on and on. We knew we didn't need to look any further. The gut was right once again.

And now we have an apartment. I am so happy.