Flat Hunting

Okay, I have a few announcements before I start this week's article. Firstly, Steve reported that "3 or 4 people" came in specifically asking for steak. So that means I have a readership! And it's growing. Yay!
Secondly, I got a mildly angry e-mail from a reader who had been reading when NMD was still a big corporation. She said that she really liked the heavy news articles, and that this was a great site for unbiased reporting before I bought it. Unfortunately, I'm no good at doing that. I tried. But no-one important would be interviewed, and I just couldn't do that. However, if there are more of you who really want a newsblog, I'll find someone who can. That can't be too hard, right? Leave your opinions in the poll I set up.

Anyway. Over the past few days, I've been flat hunting, thus the name of this entry. I know, I'm working for my parents for now, and they're already paying for my trade school which doesn't end for a year and a half yet and why bother looking already? Well, my parents said that I had to support myself by the time I was done with school if they were going to pay off the loans for me, and while I have time, they've been sending signals. Little things, like the empty suitcases that keep 'appearing' in my room, and the draft of a want-ad for a tenant I found on the table. I get it, mom! So I figure I move a couple miles away, and I can walk back here for work and to school for...school.
I started by looking at official mortgages. I know that I'm not likely to pay for it (at least until I can get an electrician's internship, that is), but a girl can dream, can't she? It turns out, though, that they are either incredibly expensive, or decades long. I mean, it figures...only so much space, period, and extra rooms are at a premium, but wow. The only reasonable 1 year and 6 month loans were for deep suburb houses, which were out of the question; I'm not going to bike 50 miles to work, and of course the monorail can't penetrate into the tight grouping of houses. So I'm not renting a house anytime soon.
After a quick trip to the newsstands, I printed out a quick list of rent listings nearby to check. Perhaps, though, it was a bad idea to do all this on Halloween. Most of the empty places wouldn't answer the phone number listed, and the ones with other tenants just gave me candy and a quizzical look. I guess I look younger than I thought! Flattering, but fruitless.
So, here I am with a list of phone numbers and empty candy wrappers. There's a good number, but it looks like it'll still be about a month until I can start renting. At least my parents haven't posted that want-ad yet.

--Trepa Mayfield