Didn’t make any posts this weekend – not even Daily Stuff. This has been, overall, a busy, eventful, unexpected, and altogether excellent weekend.
Last week, I pretty much decided that with my upcoming paycheck on the 6th, along with my income tax return, with what I had in checking/savings, it was finally time (Again – the near $1200 of car repairs delayed me by a bit more than a month on my plans) to move on the whole Apartment/Getting-my-own-place-again goal. Having already done a lot of the initial work of investigating, evaluating, eliminating apartment complexes here in Midland in January, this time it was a briefer process, starting with a short list of candidates. Four complexes that were any real serious consideration, and another I called just to check on it as an option, and because it’s literally throwing distance from our office. They were the most expensive, so that was pretty much an easy elimination.
Of the other 4, I went and looked at all of them – 1 of the 4 I’d seen a 1BR Townhome before, which I liked a lot. Really liked. I just know Baby, my cat, would love the stairs there, and I liked the layout, but it was a little bit beyond what I would be comfortable with based on my projective budgeting. Rent in Midland is stupidly costly right now – prices are still high from rapid rising over a few years of oilfield prosperity. The oilfield prosperity is starting to show some real, true (worrisome to oilfield/oil company employees) signs of decline, but any drop in the inflated rent prices will take several more months, if not a year, before they start to happen. In Huntsville, I had a 2BR, 1.5Bath 1100 square foot townhome for less than I’m (going to be) paying for a 710 square foot 1BR/1BA flat here in Midland.
So, anyway, after checking out all of the other 3 options, with some drama and surprises involved there, I decided on going for what’s supposedly the nicest/best rated of the complexes, Windscape. Current schedule is to move in on the 13th. Friday the 13th . . . I can’t help but feel that with everything that happened last week and weekend, it’s something that’s meant to be, and any luck I experience on that day will be Good. It’s just going to be a tight week for me financially until my payday+ this Friday.
Friday night was looking to be pretty uneventful – I tried to get hold of a couple of people to see about doing something interesting: seeing a movie with a friend, or going out for whatever workable (she’d mentioned wanting to go to a karaoke bar) with another, female, friend – but it seemed that stuff just wasn’t going to be happening that night. So, without someone to make going out (and thus spending money) a worthwhile excuse, stay home and . . . apparently watch Seabiscuit with my dad. During which I find out about some bad medical news about a friend of mine. Not horrible stuff, but still unfortunate and unpleasant, kind of a bummer, which had (and still has) me worried for her.
Then at 10:15 that night, I get a text from Ms. Fire, commanding me to head down to the hotel lounge she’s in and ask her to dance. I hop up, change shirts, brush my teeth, and head off to the lounge. She seemed surprised I “actually came.” To my surprise (though only a little bit) it was Tejano Night at this club. I haven’t danced in like 9 years, and I haven’t danced to something other than techno/trance in a good dozen. I wasn’t very good, but it didn’t seem to matter – the intent and effort, and quite possibly the fact she was a bit inebriated, seemed to matter more.
I’ll not go into further details on the rest of that night . . . but it was wonderful, and surprising.
Saturday, despite lack of sleep, I got out to see that movie (The Street Fighter Chun-Li one) with my friend Ivy. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great either, but it was entertaining (even though I think Kristen Kreuk is just wrong for the role). It had some very nice cinematography of Bangkok in it too.
Sunday, I had a date to try to see Les Miserables at MCT. I type “try” because when I attempted to buy tickets Monday of last week, they were nearly entirely sold out – they only had 3 seats left, none of them anywhere near each other. The nice old lady at the box office suggested I show up an hour before the show to try to get no-show seat tickets. After discussing this concept with J, my supposed date, she said we should go ahead and try for it, and plans were made for her to meet me at the theater, see Les Mis, and then who knows?
I dress up as I thought reasonably appropriate for going to the Theater (to discover there later that several folks just went in whatever – but I still felt good about my clothing choice, I think dressing decently for the Theater is still respectful), and show up there a couple of minutes before 1:00. I’m 4th on the list for no-show seats, with the box office manager informing me that she has no doubt I’ll get tickets. I wait, seeing tons of people stream in, mingling, talking to friends . . . and then run into a good friend of my Mammaw. People take their normal, had their tickets in advance, seats, being ushered and hurried into the theater by staff, and at 2:00, the box office manager starts calling out names for the no-show seat tickets. J still hasn’t shown up (I’d been looking for her, for the entire hour). I let the box office manager know my date didn’t show, someone else should get the other ticket, and she snatches back the pair she handed me, hunts around frantically, and then gives me a single ticket. It was a decent seat.
Les Mis was excellent. One of the best Community Theater productions I’ve ever seen (and most of my comparisons are from MCT shows, so that’s good comparisons, as MCT has been one of the best Community Theaters in the nation for a long time). Not only was David Odom, who was a friend of mine in High School, on the debate team with me, in the play (as I knew beforehand and expected), but Robert Reed, another High School friend was in the cast as well. I graduated with both of those guys. There were other people who I knew from when I was involved in the theater back in the 90s. I’m considering volunteering for a few shows, maybe auditioning for a part or two. If not, I’ll at least get a membership, and make MCT a regular part of my entertainment options.
I’ve been trying to get in touch with J the last two 2 days, with no luck thus far. I don’t know what the deal is, what happened – if there’s a good reason she wasn’t there, a bad reason, if I was just stood up, or what. If I was stood up, oh well, her loss. My weekend overall was so good, it doesn’t really upset me.
