Wasn’t What I Expected

Watch this abstract oil painting come to life in about 1 minute for the “Fred” storybook

Please ignore that website URL at the end, by the way- it’s old and gone. Today felt like that painting. It was a mess of chaotic and erratic emotion, balanced with calming, yet sporadic light and movement- it was quite the day. I was unfortunately NOT lucky, as I’d wished for in yesterday’s post.

We went to look at the house during our appointment time, only to find that several other people were there too! Turns out- without telling us- it was not a private viewing but an open house showing with many interested would-be applicants. The listing agent said that several had already applied before this particular showing! And there are two more showings before they’ll choose who gets to lease the house.

It’s a nice house, and we do want to lease it, but the experience was infuriating. Desperate renters competing for few houses on the rental market, all crammed into the private home at the same time. We had to squeeze past other keen house hunters to navigate our way through the narrow hallways and bedrooms. Why not just throw us peasants into a gladiator pit and let us fight for it, for the entertainment of everyone else?

And this too shall pass, but not today. Today we’re still in a bad situation. I’ll remain hopeful it will all work out. We got a lot of yard sale and packing work done. We plan to apply for that house we looked at today. Who knows, maybe they’ll choose us. We found another house listing and submitted the interest form- that might lead somewhere, but it seems unlikely that it isn’t already spoken for. This is a ridiculously competitive market in a very large radius.

It was a strange day. I’d tell you more about it but I’m tired. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe this is a day best not re-lived. At the end of it, my empty potting table, now light, was knocked over by the wind and landed directly on my new yellow rose bush that I’m keeping. A lovely branch broke off. I wanted to cry. I didn’t. It’s just a flower. Tomorrow’s a new day.