Graduation is 30 days from today. 32 days from today I will be driving myself home, belongings in tow, preparing myself for the so-called real world. 34 days from today and 1000 miles away, I’ll unload my stuff temporarily, drive down to Washington D.C., and start hunting–apartment hunting.

That is, of course, if I don’t find someplace to live sooner than that. I’m currently spending hours of each day ferreting through Craigslist, somehow hoping that the perfect apartment for me will plop itself down on my computer screen and refuse to leave until I’ve been beaten mercilessly into signing a lease.

I’ve resigned that I may well live in an overgrown closet. Fine, as long as the location is decent and the rent isn’t too scandalous. I’ve accepted that I will spend hours of my life driving around the streets of D.C. looking for a place to park so that I can get home. I’ve accepted that basement living isn’t so bad. So really, there should be no shortage of places out there.

That’s not the problem. The real problem is trying to evaluate these places from so far away. I have a friend who’s offered to look at some places for me, but searching this way is still something like playing darts by candlelight. Even if you get lucky and randomly hit the bullseye, you can’t tell until you get much closer.

The other problem is that things are still very much up in the air. Current options include both sharing a place with my girlfriend and renting a bigger house to form our very own Carleton ghetto. However, since we’re all looking at jobs in different parts of the metro area, finding a suitable place is no easy task. Without some feet on the ground, figuring out how to divide up a house will be a real challenge.

I’m running around without a clue. Maybe I’ll find someplace soon, maybe not. Maybe I’ll be living like a king in the ‘burbs, maybe I’ll be in the center of everything, I haven’t the faintest idea. Yet I’m supposed to start my job in less than two months. This is craziness.

All I know is that I’d better not end up sleeping in my car.

Posted on May 11th, 2006 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized