Back from Boston

Another week goes by, another bunch of random adventures to recount.

In Boston news, Nikki's got a new studio, which is great. I'm glad she was able to make a decision before we all left, because that would've been absolutely horrible to deal with housing from all the way over in California. I noticed that my last post was about a week ago, so let me try and think of what else you missed out in Boston.

After the initial bunch of places (Canada, Crackhouse by the Sea, etc...) we found a few more on Monday. My Monday consisted of waking up at 4 a.m. to drive Armen to the airport for his trip back to Cali. Nikki in the meantime could have been sleeping, but instead got up to stalk and research haha. That was probably good, because it gave us a jump start on the day and all the places to see. We looked into Newton, Brookline, Watertown, Brighton, and Ashton that day, focusing on a few postings on Craigslist that Nikki responded to and some apartments I found online. A quick synopsis:

"New Mommy's House": Our first stop was a house in Newton, a safe family town just west of Boston. The house was beautiful; it reminded me of a place in GP. The lady who posted the Craigslist ad was very nice. She was a mother of three kids, ages 3, 5, and 7, and her husband was a big shot businessman who did business in New York. The place Nikki would've rented was pretty cool. It consisted of the entire third floor of the house WITH furniture. There were two bedrooms, a little sitting room, and a huge bathroom. All utilities included and she got furniture!

Well, what's the catch? No separate entrance. And I must say, Nikki calls me a J, but this lady SCARED me. First, she must have had like 4 cups of coffee right before we got there; she was WIRED. Also, everything in the house was super organized and color coded. She gets her kids up at 5 a.m. and is outta the door by 8 a.m. Yea, I don't think she would mesh with Nikki too well. Plus, she'd probably always be in her business. The downstairs and kitchen were also shared with the family, so it would literally be like having a new mommy. Nikki was kinda keen on the idea, but everyone else thought this lady might be a little controlling and that Nikki wouldn't be as independent. In the end, she sadly let the place go.

"Armenia by the Church": The place Nikki ended up getting was in a smaller town called Watertown. It's just west of Cambridge and north of Newton across the Charles River. The complex was fairly nice looking (minus the ugly blue railings on the porches). It was right next to a big park and across from a Catholic church (good for me lol). The first place we saw was a one bedroom that was big, but also really out of date. Apparently the lady living there had been there a while, and they were going to renovate it for the next person. However, Nikki and I still made an appointment Tuesday to see the only other place available in September, which was a remodeled studio. The price was right and heat, water and parking were included, which were pluses. Nikki liked it a lot. It has a great view of the city and church from the porch. The rooms are all partitioned, which is cool since you get privacy. Most of the time studios are one huge space. Nikki put in her application and offer letter (after a few million calls to Armen in the morning to fax it) and now she's all set. We even found out that there was a walkway along the Charles a block or two away. We walked over there and checked it out.

So what's with the nickname for the last place? Behind Glendale and Fresno, Watertown has the third largest Armenian population in the US with about 8% of the city's population. Armen was pretty stoked to hear that, especially when Nikki signed on there. Of course, Nikki is picking on Armen, saying that maybe she'll meet another cute Armenian guy in his twenties when she moves there (to which Armen replies, "I'll kill you."). We'll see about that. How's Michael doing over there Nikki?

We also checked out a house from Craiglist on Tuesday night that Nikki found. Turns out that the three people there are all from Nantucket and are looking for a fourth roomie. It's funny because with Nikki, they'd have three girls and a guy named Matt, just like our house on Calle Malva! Kinda strange. They were very nice, but after getting the place in Watertown, Nikki really didn't see anything that absolutely made her want to take this place. As Kristen would say, she didn't absolutely love it. Hell, I already blew our two earlier apartment appointments (not like me, but they weren't in my calendar, okay?) so that must've been a sign that Watertown was the place. I did find it hilarious that Matt basically lived in a closet haha, definitely the best bedroom arrangement I've ever seen.

Besides that, Nikki and I spent the rest of Monday and Tuesday souvenir shopping and eating food that made Armen jealous. That includes Regina Pizza and Legal Seafood. My lobster was AWESOME, although I think Nikki was a little freaked out by the eyes haha. And YES Armen, I did let Nikki buy that annoying duck whistle from the Duck Boat guys (QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!). Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure out a way to make it 'disappear'.

Which reminds me, I had SUCH a fun time Sunday watching Armen and Nikki try to navigate to this pizza place the first time. I acted like I was sleeping and listened in. First, we drive like 15 miles to one of these random places when there are some that were much closer. Then they realize we probably should call and see how late they're open on Sunday. Oops. Well, we get to the exit, and wouldn't you know it? The GPS led us in circles. That only happened like 243872937498273984732 times during the trip. Turns out that the GPS said there was a 'Regina Pizzeria' and 'Pizzeria Regina' in two different locations off this exit! What the hell? So we gave up on that and then came trying to make a decision on a place to eat. Well, we drove around randomly looking around (Armen even spotted so geese, yelling, "Look at the f***ing geese!". I have no idea why). Finally, we ended up at Cheesecake Factory, but I must say it was quite an experience watching them try and navigate to this pizza place.

Other than that, we drove to the airport at 5 a.m. on Wednesday. Nikki had to run to her flight. I took the car back. Armen and I talked to the guys on Sunday night and got the price cut by $50. They took off 2 days and allowed us to drop is off at the airport (we picked it up somewhere else) after our first car died while driving. Then we added me Monday morning as a secondary. Well, I turn the car in, and the lady goes, "That will be $456.00, correct?" WHAT?! I was PISSED...I'm glad Nikki had me drop her off first, because this took forever. Turns out the computer double charged us for both cars plus did a bunch of other random stuff. Whatever, it got fixed, I went home, and I had no issues getting back to the D...

I'm going to break for now here and throw the rest of my update in another post. Man, I gotta make sure that I post more often, otherwise this is what happens! Sorry :(