115 Degrees of Separation

Last Sunday (the 16th), I left for Arizona. A friend of mine had some Southwest frequent flyer miles to burn and gave me a free ticket to go scope out an apartment and do some interviewing. Anyway, first I had to drive three hours to Buffalo, where I left my car at a friend's house instead of pissing away major cash on long-term parking. Then, I had to wait in the "C" line for Southwest. That meant I was in the last group of people to get on the plane. So, I crammed myself between a mom (with two very polite, good with flying kids) and a guy who kept offering me bagels. Five hours and a shitty snack pack later, we touched down in Phoenix. I took a shuttle to the car rental place, where I met a crazy woman who needed a cigarette, but instead had to deal with me. They didn't have the car I reserved, so I ended up with a nice little pimped out Mazda-6. Three freeways and a few frantically smoked, post-flight ciggies later and I was at Coop's apartment.

The week was divided into three: shmoozing, hanging with Coop and apartment hunting. Monday morning, I did some miscellaneous errands: got an iron and board for Coop ('cuz I needed it and he's a bachelor), bought groceries (the kid had water, butter and various frozen crap), and went to meet with a car/renter's insurance broker. Tuesday was a big day. Got all gussied up in my polyester pants and sweated my way through a few different meetings and interviews.

SIDENOTE: I submitted my resume for a development writing position at the ASU Foundation in late May. The week before I left, I called and called and called and no one responded. I was pretty frustrated.

I decided to walk right into ASU and ask to speak with the woman who hadn't returned any of my phone calls. I make it there safe and, of course, she's in a meeting. I begged the receptionist to call someone--anyone--and she did. She told me the position had already been filled. Shit, man. I was about to leave and thought to ask her one more time if I could see a person face-to-face. As she picked up the phone, a guy walks by and she says, "Steve?! This is Chelsea." To make a long story short, he felt it was rude to simply send me away, so he invited me back to his office for a chat. Essentially, he mini-interviewed me for three different jobs. YAY!

The day continued with a meeting at HomeBase Youth Services. I had a phone interview with them a few weeks ago. After seeing the office and touring the grounds, combined with my little-to-no experience in government grants, I think I'll pass on the whole deal. Next, I went to the United Way to meet with a contact through my aunt Dana. Although I don't necessarily agree the UW, the guy was awesome! He gave me a whole bunch of new contacts to call for possible job opportunities. At the end of the day, I still had no job but I had a lot of positive hope.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty boring. Got caught up on some freelance work. Attempted to brave the AZ in August sun. Made a crapload of phone calls. All of a sudden, it was Friday and time to find an apartment. Coop had the day off and was a trooper, coming along for the ride. I had done some searching on apartments.com but, upon inspection, I had chosen properties in some slightly shady neighborhoods that didn't peak my interest. It was a 115 degrees outside and, by the end of the day, our brains were leaking out of our ears and I still hadn't found an apartment.

Here's the deal: in Arizona, there are only two ways to get a lease approved - (1) you can show a hire letter or (2) you can verify a certain amount of income/savings. By Saturday morning, I was so discouraged, I actually began to consider going back to Ohio for a year. Well, Saturday ended with me signing at a place called Aventura, a sister property of where Coop lives. Saw Clerks 2--fucking hilarious--did some laundry and went to bed. Woke up at 5-freakin-30 in the morning. Got lost and drove around in circles. Returned the rental car. Got in the "A" line for Southwest. Was the first person on the plane. Got the stretch your legs, bulkhead seat. The plane was 15 minutes early. Drive back to Buffalo was without much drama ... all this and I'm typically a VERY unlucky traveller. Phew!