Whenever I stop blogging—which seems to be happening a lot lately—I have a hard time starting back up again. I come back to the Add New Post page and feel like it’s judging me all, “Where have you been?” Well, I’ll tell you where I’ve been. To the desert and back. Metaphorically speaking.
My job ended three-ish weeks ago, and then I gave my landlord notice that I would be moving October 1st. Since then I have been occupying my time with trying to find a new place to live and job hunting. I tried not to agonize over either of these things too much, but it was hard. Where you live and how you provide for yourself are pretty fundamental things, and when they’re both up in the air at the same time it’s like a perfect storm of uncertainty.
And now let me tell you about the craziness that is the rental market in Vancouver, particularly the Kitsilano area. First of all, it moves quickly so if you are not prepared to check Craigslist at least twice a day you can forget about it. Second of all, it is ridiculously expensive. One bedrooms start at around $900/month and that is for something seriously sketchy. One place I went to had mold growing in the bathtub and burn marks on the floor from the bong the current tenant had left out in the middle of the living room and they still wanted $960 for it. For three awful weeks I lived with the fear that I would never find something I could afford that was nice enough and I’d end up moving back to Burnaby or freeloading off my friends for the rest of my life.
But! Praise God! I found something. And it really could not be more perfect or more of a blessing. It is in the exact area that I wanted, one block from Broadway and close to Ariana’s house and Chez Gadd. The landlady is very nice, friendly and understanding and she speaks perfect english! The floors are all tile. The ceilings are normal height. THERE IS EVEN A DISHWASHER! I was the first person to go and see it and the landlady loved me right away. And honestly it was just like God said, “Ok Sarah, you’ve learned to trust me a little deeper now here is where you are going to live.”
The only slight problem is that I can’t have it until October 15th. And I have to be out of my current place on September 30th. So I am gonna probably get a storage locker and do the whole move twice. But it will be worth it. I will be gone for the first two weekends in October anyway and lovely, generous friends have offered to let me stay at their places for the two weeks in between. It’s doable. And then, I will have a beautiful place that I love to call my own! Now I just need to find a job.