Apartment Hunting for Hypocrites

Plan ahead. Take responsibility for your situation. Make sure you have all the facts. Lay out a plan. Be aware of expectations and limitations. Know the expectations. Don’t assume anything.

These are all tidbits I offer my students. Personal responsibility, I declare. Leave nothing to chance; imitate the Boy Scouts and be prepared. Sage wisdom from the wise professor. But do I follow my advice? Allow my blush of embarrassment and shame to answer that question.

After getting off work, I went to look at apartments—two specifically. Just before I left I printed their addresses out to plug into the GPS. Taking 50 and 395, instead of my usual 495 proved as miserable as the 495/66 combination (and I would still need to drive on 66). While sitting in traffic and waiting twenty minutes to go one mile, I thought, Gee, I should probably call them to let them know I’m coming.

I really wish I had planned ahead and not made assumptions. Though the office was open until six, they did not do any showings after four-thirty and they did not have any efficiency or one bedroom apartments available. So, still stuck in traffic and not getting anywhere with rapidity, I go to plug the other destination into the GPS only to discover I had not printed both addresses, but the same address twice.

So there I sat, waiting to turn needlessly onto 395 and feeling for all the world like a schmuck. And thinking, Hypocrite-teacher you have received your comeuppance.

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