Still looking at apartments. I've now switched my search to looking for condo rentals, because they tend to be newer & nicer. If I get that, will probably need to live with my brother but I figured since I'll be working like crazy and since he's always in his room with his computer, we can handle one year of living together.
On top of this, I found out yesterday that someone used my ATM card to go on a $2000 shopping spree!?!? I'm disputing the charges of course and the bank has a fraud department that will be investigating the charges. What's scary though, is if these punks hadn't tried to put in a fake deposit (like depositing an envelope with no money in it so your balance will go up temporarily - the bank called me when they opened the envelope and found that it was empty) I probably would have never noticed the charges. I'm so bad with keeping track of my bills and account balance. As bad as this experience has been (I'm just mostly pissed off the the people who did this, it takes so much work to make $2000 and they just spent it as if it were free money!) I'm glad it happened because I needed this kick in the butt. From now on, I'm keeping my receipts and comparing them with my statements at the end of the month. And I don't think I'll be using my ATM card for debiting anymore....
The condo hunt has been slightly less frustrating than the apt hunt. It's hard tracking down places but at least when you find them, they all pretty much look like what you expected. I spent 3 hours walking around St. Clair & Yonge on Thursday and pretty much just cold-calling condos to see if the doormen knew of any rentals. Those of you who know me will know that I HATE cold-calling, so I was so relieved to find that the doormen of the buildings were all super nice to me. Also, when I went to view a condo yesterday, this guy in the elevator noticed I was getting off at the same floor and introduced himself. In the three years I've lived in my current place, no one has ever been that friendly. And to top it off, the tenants of the unit I was scoping out were also in law. Once the husband heard what firm I was in, he was super nice, gave me his business card, and told me to contact him if I ever had any questions.
I guess sometimes the city can seem really overwhelming, like it's just filled with a bunch of strangers. But when you're really in a tough spot, I've found that my friends have always come thru for me and was pleasantly surprised to find that strangers can too. As frustrating as this experience has been, at least from now on, if I ever find a nice & decently-priced apartment, I'm taking it right away. And it did give me the chance to know more of Toronto by wandering around several Toronto neighbourhoods. Now, all I need to do is sign a lease, sleep for 24 hours straight, and I'll be back to my usual cheery self....
