The house

A couple of entries I wrote and typed up later.
June 19, 2008

I've decided to start blogging again. A new leaf in one's life is definitely worth remembering, but mostly, I can hear myself narrating in my head during these recent days and wanted to get it down on paper before it too becomes faded recollections like many drunken nights in Waterloo (a lot of which I wish I can read about again).

There was some crazy packing leading up to my flight to Seattle. Mom and dad both took days off work to get me organized. Dad even bought me a GPS, which I thought was pretty unnecessary. Through Craigslist, I was able to contact a few people about housing, but had not signed anything due to a combination of miscommunication, $$ and general mistrust. I did have a few places to look at when I landed, even got in touch with a lady who rented out her house on a weekly/daily basis, perfect for my house hunting stint. Unfortunately, I had not heard from her since our initial email exchange and wondered maybe my late flight in was too much hassle for her, still I hoped for the best.

I said bye to the folks and went through customs 5 hours early to get the work visa. The two to four hour process turned out to be only fifteen minutes. I passed the time dozing off and thought about getting on an earlier flight to my transfer in Newark NJ, then thought about the two massive pieces of luggage I'd already checked in, and decided against it.

It just so happened that Newark was experiencing bad weather. The flight was delayed by over an hour and a half. I started talking to this eccentric math prof who was moving to Staten Island for work. Apparently, profs do look on ratemyprofessor.com and some, like this guy, takes it personally, especially when his face is made reference to some cartoon character.

The plane to Newark was retarded. In engineering terms, it was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, a plane with two propeller driven engines under each wing. The seats shook when the propellers started up. Despite the delay, the flight was making great time until word from Newark informed us of dangerous landing conditions. The plane had no choice but to circle around until the storm blew over. Our final decent took us through a bumpy storm cloud nonetheless, there was nothing but dark grey out the drenched windows. By this time I was thinking "you should have gotten on that early flight." I could hear whimpering from the lady next me to me in between her hasty prayers. Suddenly a flash of light jolted the plane. It made a thumping sound like a heavy object had been dropped on it. I swore really loud. The stewardess came on the intercom in the sweetest and calmest voice she could muster. She told us we were hit by lightening, but all was well and the storm had passed, thank goodness! We landed safely though it gave me a taste of how helpless we are 35000ft in the air.

I'd missed my connecting flight and got to Seattle way too late, a shuttle bus took me to the nearest Travelodge for the night. Enterprise told me the next day that I needed a reservation to get a car. Proof there are way more hungry gas chugglers in the States, and I was one of them. I had to return to the airport for a rental car, which set me back over four big ones. There is something to look forward to at 25, the you-are-not-a-psycho-driver discount.

Thank goodness for the GPS, I was lost already. I turn it on and type in an address:" 4163km to destination, current position: Mississauga, ON" WTF?! Why wasn't it updating? I had no choice but to follow traffic onto a highway and headed for the nearest town in the greater Seattle area. A UPS guy pointed me to the nearest Best Buy, where the Geek Squad eventually got it working free of charge. I was beyond grateful.

I'd seen a place in the morning, an awesome house with a nice work-at-home guy. I drove around Kirkland, a town east of Seattle, and ate lunch on a park. I felt like such a bum, but at least it was a rich neighbourhood.

I also decided to visit the temporary house I never heard back from. It was worth a shot to go there, since I'd otherwise be coughing up big cheddar for another night in a hotel. I knocked on the door fully expecting the kind of lady that doesn't respond to emails, but instead, a pleasant woman greeted me. Turns out, she never received any emails from after the first one. My engmail, which I thought would be most reliable, seems more like spam to most filters. She told me the room had already been rented out, and it was too bad since I seemed nice. That was fine with me, I was pretty much expecting it. As I walked toward the car, the lady, K, stopped me and gave me some options about maybe staying after Saturday, when a room will open up. I explained my situation and she offered me the computer while she cooked in the kitchen. I was beyond grateful.

K walked in a few minutes later with a rubber spatula in her hand.

K: "You are very adventurous aren't you?"
Me: "Do I seem adventurous to you?"
K: "Well yeah, coming all the way here...
I'm going to make a silly suggestion... don't even know how to say this...."
Me: "Oh no, well you have a rubber spatula in your hand, I have no idea what you're about to suggest."
K: "Well... (after about 5 minutes), this is so silly but, would you consider camping in my backyard? I've all the equipment and of course free of charge. If you're still around Saturday then live in the house."

After the initial thoughts of "you must be f*ing joking..." I was beyond grateful. K just kept turning down money and said something about paying it forward. K's husband T had returned from work and got a kick out of the whole thing. K&T were high-school sweethearts, who knew couples like this actually existed?

After setting up the air mattress and tent, I had to go look at a house occupied by three fun girls. From their ad, they seemed like total party animals with descriptions of each person along the lines of "...she likes gardening and Malibu rum." The house was gorgeous, one of the girls was in fact gardening when I walked up. We talked until the other two came home from work. They were looking for two new roommates, because the claws on the old ones were getting way too long and sharp.

The girls' new vision for the house is one without locked doors and cattiness. They already shared everything: clothes, shoes, food and cute boys ;) Did I mention the house was beautiful? It had a huge porch and hot tub in the back yard, with a path that led to a vine covered forest. By the end of the night, I had quadrupled my wardrobe. I meet roommate number four on Monday, because hey, I'm thinking for 4 now haha.

I'll be staying with K until the end of the month. As I write this, I'm sitting in a tent with a flashlight strapped to my head, and the sound of walnuts hitting the ground with every gust of wind. And I couldn't be more grateful.