Notes on Adulthood

I think I’m going to start a series of posts about my newfound independence as a “real” adult. Life’s lessons and all that stuff. Here we go.

I’m at the dining room table at my supervisor’s house with most of the lights off and a now empty mug that used to hold hot chocolate. It’s pretty chilly here, but I just did my laundry and am enjoying still-warm socks. Every now and then, Ham, the tabby cat, starts meowing and the only way I can quiet him is put him on my lap. It’s a win-win situation; he gets some attention and I get some purring warmth. Amazingly, I’ve grown out of my childhood allergies and apparently, I’m a natural cat person. I feel like I’m fulfilling some sort of stereotype here.

This peaceful evening is a nice contrast to the last apartment I viewed this afternoon.

First of all, I thought that apartment hunting would be fun but it’s exactly the opposite. It’s stressful, time-consuming and hard to do all by oneself. The first two I saw were absolute dives- dirty studio apartments in Western Washington’s student ghetto. These were the types of places that if I had to come “home” to them after work each day, I’d probably just stand in the doorway and cry because they were so awful.

And then today, I met up with a landlord to view a one-bedroom apartment closer to work and unbeknownst to us, the previous tenant hadn’t moved out and had been squatting illegally for the past ten days! He had nothing, except for a blanket and pillow on the floor, a chair, and a space heater. The landlord got into a huge argument and the guy kept making excuses in broken English. Meanwhile, I’m still standing in the living room, awkwardly witnessing this eviction. Oh yeah, and the landlords young son had tagged along.

I still got the tour of the apartment and it’s better than what I’ve seen, but still, my gut reaction says no. I’ve learned to trust my intuition.

Which leads me to the good news!

I was in a coffee shop in Bellingham yesterday, using their free wi-fi to continue my craigslist search, when I overhead the barista mention that he was trying to rent out a room in his house. Because I believe in providence and I went over and started chatting with him, explaining my situation. He wrote down the address and told me to stop by later that evening.

The house was perfect, though that could have been influenced by what I saw earlier in the day. There are four bedrooms and the three guys in the house are all upperclassmen at Western. Amazingly, they’re studying graphic design, geography, and food science (ie 3 things I love). It’s a quiet residential neighborhood, a few blocks from downtown Bellingham and the place just feels like a “home.” Definitely good vibes. I think that moving out here by myself, it would be smart to move into a house with other people than to have a lonely apartment on my own. There are a couple other people ahead of me that are interested in the room, but I’m prepared to outbid them. Especially since it’s relatively cheap too. I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

Well, Charles just returned home so I’m going to stop for now. Have a happy Mother’s Day!