Toronto Life: May 2006 Archives

Today I went back downtown with Adam and Eric to look at a place to live for September. I some how managed to misplace the card that was given to me so I could call ahead, so I decided that I would just show up and hope to be able to talk to someone. It almost worked; we got a phone call about a place we could rent but can't actually see it for a week. It sounds absolutely amazing though. Adam got excited at the chance to move and redecorate a whole apartment.

So we moved on to dive back into the so called university life, otherwise known as picking up my Calendar. I never thought I'd say this, but moving from line to line that I had to stand in to get answers to my questions was strangely satisfying. I don't think I can think of anything I hated more than my year off. It was so nice to be on what seemed like the right track again. Even if the right track was walking out in the blistering heat through swarms of angry commuters pissed off at the world because TTC's maintenance workers decided they didn't want to do their overpaid work today.

To escape the anger, or the heat, or the anger and the heat, we decided that we would first go to Pizza Hut and the go to Zelda's. After overstaying our welcomes at both fine dining establishments we decided it was time to walk through PATH to get us home. Somewhere along the way my mind separated from my body to do things more entertaining than walking and I failed to properly engage in any conversation. It only made a brief return on the train home when we sat in a car that didn't have working air conditioning and we nearly died. Note to self: carry portable fan. Always.

Economist's World in 2006 ranked the best cities for business travel in the world. The top three being: Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. We rock.

I bring you the first in a multi-part series of what will be my quest to find a place to live in downtown. Now that I've decided on a school (sorry Ryerson, it's not you), my parents are one step closer in their goal of pushing me out the front door. All they need to do now is: (1) sell this house, and (2) get a smaller house without room for me. Oh wait, they already have (2) done. Dag, yo.

So Adam and I went downtown with two thoughts before we'd start looking. First and foremost, living in the village is clichéd. Second, Rob's place at Bay and Wellesley is an amazing location right in the middle of everything. So that's where we went first, to the buildings that Rob lived at. Only to find a waiting list 100 people strong for rentals and one hell of rude bitch who worked as the real estate agent that didn't want to do any "leg work" for us. You know, because letting us know if there units in the building that are available requires so much effort. God, it must be tough working her job.

So we moved on. Since she wasn't going to take the time to tell us anything more than to use MLS, we decided that we would just look at the buildings we figured would work and go from there when we got internet access. For a moment I was tempted to log onto MLS right in front of her, but I find using the internet on my Blackberry in front of people who don't have Blackberries but really want Blackberries to be rude. Rudeness being one of the things that the real estate probably wouldn't be able to handle, you know with all the leg work and all.

We walked up Bay to Charles, where we went to look at the gorgeous million dollar suites being built at One St. Thomas. You know, because that's exactly what I'm in the market for as a student. I couldn't even get in to see the sales office without an appointment. Taking that as a sign, we moved on back down Bay towards Dundas. Along the way we remembered that Adam knew a girl who lived in the most amazing building on St. Joseph. Boy was it amazing. We got in to see if we could see any of the units but the office guy was busy. So after chatting with the concierge for a bit, I walked out with a card to make an appointment in my pocket and a huge smile on my face. After seeing that, everything else seemed to be of lesser quality.

Even the buildings that I was in love with all last year on Mutual St didn't seem as nice anymore. There are even some of the townhouses left (the townhouses being amazing), and it didn't seem as appealing. It's not the kind of thing I would ever turn down, but it just didn't make the grade anymore. So here's to hoping everything goes well on Monday.