Finally, a lease!

First off, I feel bad about not having a picture to post. I'm about to tell you how incredible the house is that I'll be renting for the next year and there's no picture to show you (yet).

The last two weeks have actually been pretty tough on me. The typical day has been: wake up, walk dog, eat breakfast, drive into Boston, drive/walk around looking at apartments, forget to eat lunch, remember to eat lunch, look at more, feel disappointed that the apartments are all low quality or don't accept dogs, drive back to NH, walk dog, eat, play with my nephews and niece, fall asleep dead tired. Then repeat the next day.

I've been feeling pretty tired and definitely not eating enough (but today starts to fix that). As for the apartments, last week I found one that I had liked, but then had bad dreams about it (a clear sign that the universe didn't want me to rent it) so I let that one go. Then, feeling I had pretty much exhausted all options, I put a deposit down on an apartment really close to the hospital and next to a good running park, but which was 40 years old and poorly maintained. This was basically settling for something that would work, but wouldn't make me happy.

But then I flew back to Seattle for a wedding (congratulations Laine!) and had a chance to rest a bit and I realized that I didn't want that "settle" apartment; so when I got back to Boston I started looking again (after telling a few agents that I was not happy with what I was being shown; that I was not a 20-year old college student who would allow his dog to destroy a house; and that I was willing to sit down with a landlord to convince them that they should rent to me even with a dog).

The first house I saw was the one I eventually rented (signed the lease last night). I am renting the entire first floor of an old Victorian house, built in 1871. The woodwork is fabulous! I'm so excited about it. The kitchen is all updated, it has laundry inside (most everywhere else forces you to use a common laundry; I am so happy about no having to do that!) I have parking included (with even the option to use a second for visitors). The place is huge (really, too big for me, but so what... I'll turn the dining room into my yoga studio!) It's on a quiet residential street, but only one block to Beacon (one of the main streets) where I can get transit, and only 2 blocks from the D-line train that takes me to the hospital (should be about 20-25 minutes from leaving my door to getting to the hospital). AND it's only a 5-10 minute walk to the Whole Foods! (sweet!) It's got lots of windows, tons of light. It just couldn't be better. See, the universe was right all along - it knew that if I would have taken either of the other two apartments I was considering that I would have missed this one, so it gave me bad dreams about the first, and timed Laine's wedding at the right time to give me a chance to step back and realize I didn't want the second. I know, people think I'm a bit nutty saying that I just prefer to go with the flow and let the universe tell me what to do, but somehow, it always seems to provide the right option at the right time to make things work perfectly :)

Last night, I sat down with the two women who own the place (they just bought it a month ago, so I think I'm their first new lease). They are super nice. They were a bit concerned about Hailey, but when I introduced her, they were pleased. I also met the women who lives upstairs with her family and she was very nice (she's a bit afraid of dogs, so they wanted to be sure she was okay with me moving in.)

I'm set to take possession on the 15th... and then people better start coming to visit me!!!

And I just got the preliminary rotations for the first few months of my internship. If I'm correctly guessing the abbreviations, it looks like after my 2 weeks of orientation, I'll do my 5-week food service rotation, followed by 5-weeks at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (so excited about that one!)

Oh, and just a little bit about my trip back to Seattle... it short (flew in Friday, left Sunday) but it was so good to see everyone. I spent a lot of time with my aunt which is always wonderful (they fed me so well!) and the wedding was great. I got to see three of my very best friends which gave us a chance to say goodbye again, without the nuttiness of graduation. It's always sad to say goodbye to such great people; but when it's that difficult, that's when you know you've truly made lifelong friends.