anyway, with both of us working at TPAC it just makes sense to be closer to downtown - currently the commute is about 20 minutes either way. and frankly, i don't like filing up my car with petrol so often and polluting the poor earth so much. there are other bonus points for east nashville. it appears to me that it is more crunchy hipster cool...more like melbourne's smith street with it's health food stores, little coffee shops and boutique restaurants. i like the feel of the neighbourhood. i like the fact that i could have breakfast at marche every morning if i wanted to. it could finally be the cafe i walk into and the barrista knows me. and asks 'the usual?' and it is just like the movies where i have a certain spot by the window i sit and drink my morning latte and ravage my chocolate croissant. or almond croissant since chocolate is still supposedly the enemy.
well tonight i decided to start hunting for some places. it's early to be looking but i just wanted an idea of what was available. unfortunately the people are right. 'the people' are the people that tell me stuff i don't want to hear. the people told marabeth and i that finding a place in east nashville was a rarity. the location has become a hot commodity and so apartments are few and far between.
i searched and found some dismal options. so step two is befriending east nashvillians and working the insider contacts. while searching i learned a few very important things:
1. 'charming bungalow' often means 'this place is one rotting floorboard away from being condemned but as it is still standing...albeit with a lean to the left...so you should rent it'
2. if the sole picture of the property is a picture of the sink, then the property is probably not that attractive. unless your fears are abated by seeing a sink. i was really baffled by this actually because so many of the listings had pictures of the kitchen sink or bathroom sink. like someone would see that and go 'aha! i must rent this place because it actually has running water! out of a tap! into a sink! wowee. what more does a tenant really need?'
3. if you are trying to market your apartment successfully perhaps do not use a picture that looks like it was taken at the scene of a crime.
4. same thing with sepia toned, out of focus shots. artsy when taken of your loved one. annoying when taken of the place you are trying to sell me on.
5. how about you take the industrial size bottle of carpet cleaner OUT of the frame when you take the shot of the living room?
6. people have scary looking bedrooms. what is with all the velvet drapery? and then the shot of the vast living area with the one sad chair. why leave that chair there? why not take it out?
7. i have also come to the conclusion that wallpaper was never a good idea.
8. and in case you were looking...need a place for you AND your horse?
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tomorrow is going to be a busy day.
first i'll start the morning off with a yoga class followed by a pilates class. (i'm making up for the fact that this week the most exercise i did was 'exercising' restraint in not flinging my body against the rack of organic chocolate at the health food store.
a hot stone massage which i won because of marabeth's powers of visualisation. (i have to insert this story for jenjackrabbit's reading pleasure - so maz and i went to this health empowerment class with double P's and i was dragging my feet because it was a thursday night and i could think of a hundred better things to do, like sleep or floss my teeth. anyway she used her best plea voice and told me how i'd get a 'glimpse' into her world and that she would even drive and that they had door prizes. so she convinced me and we get there. it was uhm...let's call it 'interesting'. double P's has been watching a few too many infomercials perhaps and was very enthusiastic. if not a little over the top. there was lots of 'turn to your neighbor and high five' them and a few too many outbursts of 'am i right? or am i right?'. and if we failed to respond we'd get prompted to repeat 'Yeah, Pete you are RIGHT!'. he could have been selling the ginsu knife set. it was that awkward in parts. the premise of the class is great. intelligent and holistic. but the delivery. well it needs work. anyway...not the point. at the end of the hour they pulled a name out of the basket. mare leaned over to me and chanted my name three times and tah-dah the universe obliged. i won the door prize - a half hour hot stone massage. marabeth's mouth dropped open in surprise and she was instantly swept with all-consuming door prize envy. she basically faceplanted the cliche of 'careful what you wish for'. it was priceless and tragic.
back to my saturday. next i am going to watch a basketball game at vanderbilt.
fido's for supper/coffee with friends followed by 'the bell and the butterfly' at the belcourt.
at some point i'm also going to bundle up. sit in the tree house and journal. read. reflect.
hope you have a wonderful weekend. oh and if you find us place in east nashville in your spare time i'd really appreciate it.
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