Oh-plus-one for five

I swear to LEGO, I'm starting to understand why people buy property.

So, I contacted a couple of different major apartment complexes last week asking if I could do tours or such of the units.  All of them are only open business ours (9-6 M-F); that, from the start, is a problem - hello, you want renters who can pay the bills but won't be open when people with day jobs can stop by? - but whatever.  I took Friday afternoon off and figured I'd wander around the village a bit checking places out.

I had 5 places I wanted to visit.  I had ads from them on various sites and, in a couple of cases, had spoken to *someone* over the phone about the property.  One place I wanted to stop by was the apartment that I still think would be awesome but the property manage hasn't responded to any emails or voicemail in two weeks; I stopped by just to see if there was an office or something, but nada.

The other four had listed open hours, and I even had an actual tour time at one.  Stopped by there first; I was really hoping for it to work out, because it sounded awesome.  First issue: floor plan is different than what was online.  Second: no kitchen ("they're all bachelors; doesn't it say that?" no, it doesn't; it actually mentions kitchens).  Third: parking was completely different than mentioned. I just thanked them for their time, turned around, and walked out.

The next three weren't any better:

• Building was being (loudly) worked on, but I got hold of the central office back east somewhere.  Mentioned was was on the ad.  "Er, no, I don't think we have any units for that price." Me:"It says here available 9/5 for both." "Yes, that's right, but they're <$200 more than listed> there, maybe there's a move-in special."  On-site manager called me later, nope, advert is wrong "and I'm trying to find out who placed it; we don't handle the marketing."
• Nice building on a quiet side street.  Call the number for a viewing.  "We don't have any studios available right now; I've actually got a wait list until November or so; you'd be number 7 on the list."  Me:"The ad says available now.  Specifically.  Even lists a couple of apartments."  "Sorry.  Nothing's available."
• Next place, similar.  "No, that price isn't right.  I'm not sure who handles the ad, but it's incorrect.""

At this point, after having wandered around Westwood in heat and humidity and being really frustrated, I just flopped into the passenger seat of my car, chugged water, and tried to make something useful happen.  One guy was advertising a room in his place, and it looked reasonable.  I'd written off the roommate thing after the last several incidents on that side, but he was 28 and gay and reportedly looking for something more stable.  I texted him, hung out for a while (dinner and starbucks) until he was available, then saw the place.  It's actually pretty nice, and if it works out, it'd be close to ideal.  He's going to decide this week (I was one of several people asking about it), but I think he and I hit it off okay.

So, one maybe and a bunch of nos (and still nothing from the one I really want to hear about).

I found a couple more potential roommate situations I emailed about today.  One is one that I messaged last month, but I assumed that was because he was looking for someone quickly.  I guess he hasn't found anyone yet, but we'll see if he gets back to me on it.  Another is a huge (absolutely massive; 21' by 16', almost an apartment by itself) master room in a 3b3ba place even closer to campus, but that involves an international student, so I'm going to play it carefully in case it ends up being a scam.  It's from FB, and I don't think it's a scam, but I'm still going slowly.

Also got an offer from a coworker to help me move (he's got a big pickup).  Since I don't have all that much stuff that won't fit in my car (and will hopefully be moving in stages rather than all at once,), that would save me having to rent a van.  I'll probably pay him for gas and crap, but he owes me favors anyway (he arguably has this job because of me).

I know that I'll likely get into a building somewhere and be put for three years or more, and that's good.  Because if I had to do this again in a year, I'd strangle someone.  I hope the roommate thing I saw on Friday works out (other than being a 30-minute walk to campus - yes, there's a bus, but I was hoping to walk - it's pretty much perfect), but I told him that I have to keep looking just in case, which he said he completely understood.

What's age... it's just a number, right? Yeah...

(Title from "Beautiful Thing")

Unfortunately, it seems a lot of student don't agree.  I've had several responses from potential flatmates stating various (polite) versions of, "Sorry, you're too old."

Now, I do understand where some of this is coming from.  I'm twice the age of some undergrads; there's not only a potential "creepy old guy" aspect, but it's simply the case that my approach to life is going to be different.  If they're looking for party types or whatnot, then chances are, I'm not it.

But while I understand that, I don't agree with it.  I'm *not* like most 40-year-olds.  I'm not going to be anyone's dad or act like a parent in the house.  I've got my LEGOs and my computer and will probably be busy enough with my own crap that I won't have time to try and babysit anyone else.  I also don't look my age and certainly don't act parental anyway.

And that's not to mention how flatly illegal age discrimination in housing is, but frankly I'm not going there.

Anyway, it's been pretty frustrating.  I'm now focusing more on getting my own place in the village; I've found a management company that runs multiple properties in the area, including several studios that I can afford and are two blocks or less from campus (with parking).  I wrote the realtor this morning, so we'll see if I get a response back (if not, I'll probably call tomorrow afternoon).

But the whole ageism thing aggravates something I ran into at orientation on Monday (oh, yes, I'm officially a Bruin now).  While the group I was running around with were all engineers and were pretty nice, I felt definite walls from a couple of them that didn't seem to get thrown up against anyone else (there were 7 guys, 3 of us aerospace, one mechanical, and three electrical).

At PCC, I was the oldest guy in most of my classes (including the professors in a couple).  It wasn't really an issue.  Other than some friendly teasing with students and banter with the profs (usually about "the old days"), no one cared.  I actually made several friends who I hung out with at various points.

Even if it's just limited to socializing, I'm going to be annoyed if I get put into a box by my fellow students.  Oh, sure, I expect that I'll make "friends" in the sense of having people who want to work with me on projects and such (assuming I'm actually competent and doing well), but that's different from catching a movie or just goofing off on a weekend.  I frankly don't expect to want to socialize in most of the ways the students will, since I'm not a party guy anyway, but I was hoping to at least not be totally cut off from the social scene.

That hope is somewhat diminished at the moment.

Anyway, orientation was fairly fun, though less informative for me than probably for most people.  The school threw a couple of curve balls at me regarding my course credits: one good, in that I totally wasn't expecting to get credit for my Diff Eq class and they gave it to me.  The other two are classes I'm petitioning to count; one almost certainly will and may have just been left out because it's mostly redundant.  The other is more of a long shot, but it's worth trying.

However, the two schedules I'd gone in with were based around either taking the DE class I thought I'd need or taking an upper div class that had one of the others as a pre-req, so I had to improvise.  I'm still taking two engineering classes, but I'll also be taking one of my GE requirements (ancient civs).  I'm looking forward to it, but the schedule ended up being 8 am to 6 pm Tuesday and Thursday, with a long gap in the middle of the day.  So, no sleeping in for me.

But it does mean I'm officially able to do the two-days-at-the-office thing, so that's good.  I also had some conversations with both student and academic advisors, and they both assured me that the engineering school was *very* accommodating when it came to needing to make class schedules around work schedules.  They even said I'd almost certainly be granted entry into closed or wait-listed classes if needed (as long as it was reasonable).  So, that's pretty cool.

My mom also decided that the best way for her and my step-dad to give me money was for us to open a joint checking account; since I needed a new one anyway to extract money from my IRAs, we opened it Tuesday.  She's scheduled transfers to it 4 times a year at the start of the months when tuition will be due.  That's one less thing to worry about.

If I can just get housing sorted out, I'll be all set for the fall.

I am here and it is now

So, 11 days off ended today.  Boy howdy that was needed.  I mean, I didn't actually "do" much or go anywhere all that exciting, but there's something about taking more than a long weekend that just flips a switch in my head and says, "Yes, you actually can relax this time."

The first day off was Thursday the 28th, my birthday.  I slept in a bit but not too late - out of the house by 11 so I could head down to Westwood.  I called one person I was looking to rent a room from, met her, and then wandered around campus and the village a bit looking at other things.

There was one point, walking down the main drag past the engineering buildings and into the medical school area, where I actually stopped and thought, "This is my place now.  How cool is that?!"

I then headed down to the Abbey for a late lunch/early dinner.  I got to bump into a couple of guys that I've known for years but hadn't seen since last year.  There was a part of Aussie lesbians sitting next to me, one who had the same birthday (I didn't mention mine), who were having a grand ole time and periodically pulling me into it (with no regrets).

When I left, it was about 5, and I was suddenly struck by the need to visit the ocean.  Knowing exactly how absurd it was to drive down to PCH during rush hour (it's one of the most congested roads), I did it anyway.  I made it all the way to Ginger Will Rogers State Beach and then pulled into the lot.  I always have a bathing suit, flops, and a towel in the car for when I go visit C&D in Fontana, so I took off my shoes, put on the sandals, and wandered out to the shore.  I actually got my feet (and, eventually, knees - waves were a bit erratic) wet in the Pacific for the first time in over two years.  Eventually, I just hung out a while, watching the sun set and listening to the waves.

I don't think I can describe what the smell of sea salt or the sound of ocean waves does to me.  All I ask is a tall ship...

Friday, I just stayed home.  I spent a portion of the day cleaning stuff in the apartment, mostly going through old clothes to toss or donate (some of which I'd started going through in the process of moving it... yes, seven years ago).  Saturday I totally goofed off, and Sunday I drove out to Palm Springs.

I was expecting it to be busy; it was.  I was expecting some of the people I ran into last year to be there again; they were.  I was also expecting it to be boisterous; it actually wasn't.  Everyone was pretty chill and low-key for three days; it got a little busier Tuesday afternoon and then Wednesday before I left.  I guess the more active crowd was coming in after the holiday rather than before it.

But I got a tan (no burns), more blonde, and pretty relaxed.  I used my tablet a fair bit for housing-hunting and such, but I didn't actually use the laptop at all during my stay there.  I've also got fingernails for the first time in my life, a fact I first noticed before my vacation and which now means I need to determine how short I want to trim them.  Historically, this hasn't even been a question due to biting my nails.  I'm actually pretty curious as to what has led to the cessation of that habit; there's all sorts of speculation.

In PS, the weather wasn't at all bad - 108 as the high, about 78 at night, with very low humidity.  That's almost perfect for pool weather (a little too intense at mid-day, but otherwise pretty decent).  When I got back, the heat wave hit, and it actually reached 114 in Pasadena on Friday and was still 106 on Saturday.  Both days, the AC couldn't quite keep up with the heat (I live on the top floor and have a south-facing wall).  Mostly, I just stayed inside.

Oh, one thing I did was drop the car off at the shop again as requested last week (they couldn't tell where the leak was coming from last time, and my impression was that they were just really busy and didn't have time to deal with it on short notice).  This time, they decided the oil pan had somehow gotten pushed in, likely by a valet or someone (not me; I know better) driving it onto one of those parking dividers.  So, that's being fixed now, along with where the filter attaches, so hopefully that's the main issue.  More expensive that I would have liked, but them's the breaks.  Or at least the oil pan.

Still haven't found "the place" yet, still sending out feelers, and still remarkably not at all stressed about that.  I do have my new student orientation next Monday (all day), and I'm really looking forward to it - it'll mean not only registering for classes (I've got two potential schedules that will work with my work schedule and still have seats open) but also getting my student ID.  The combination means being, in however more official a way, an actual Bruin and UCLA student.

I signed up for a few dating apps, since I'm going to want to start back into that once I move.  I figured I'll just see how things go for now.  But I get to list myself as an engineering student under "occupation", which is totally awesome.

(Grindr has a crappy interface.  Jack'd is a little better.)

(And what's with all the guys my age - or, really, late 30s to late 50s - deciding that they have to grow facial hair?  Plenty of guys have older pics without, then newer pics with beards or even mustaches.  I *hate* facial hair - I'm not saying someone needs to be hairless all over, but for whatever reason, facial hair is just an immediate turn-off for me.  It's not even a daddy thing; my dad looked great without it and crappy with it, so he's subject to the same effect.  Oh well.)

Anyway, this is a photo I took to update FB (since my profile shot was from just after moving in to the apartment).

A friend mentioned he liked the other pic, but said this was decent.

Me: Well, the other is almost 7 years old, so it was about time for something new.
Him: ... dammit, don't you ever age??

Since I cleaned things up a bit, I also started back up on the rowing machine.  First time nearly killed me - also happened to be Friday, when it was hottest - but I've been okay since then.  I need to work back up to a decent routine on it, now that I'm not putting in 20 hours a week on top of work.  I'll never be a 9 in anyone's book (I have no interest in putting that much effort into exercising), but if I can get to an 8 or 8.5, I'll be happy with myself.

Oh, and I'm cooking again.  Made blackened shrimp last night, with rice and veggies.  Probably do a stir fry tonight.  Kikkoman makes an awesome brown sauce that works really well, and I still have dried hot peppers I can toss in for spice.

Anyway, I should get back to getting back.  Far less was waiting for me at work when I returned this time, but I think that was mostly due to better planning before I left.  But "less" isn't the same as "nothing".  Sure, I could put some of it off until later in the week (and will, in some cases specifically because people need to learn not to expect things instantly from me), but there's no time like the present.

I am here, and it is now; everything else is negotiable.