So there Tom and I were last night, shivering inside our car in a dark parking lot behind an apartment building with the heater running. We'd received a call from a landlord that morning saying he'd be showing an apartment at 6:00 which Tom had called about, and we were welcome to come by, if we wished. He didn't say call him back if we were coming, but well, we should have. But we were new to this finding a rental game (game?!) and didn't know better.

The guy never showed.

Anyway, there in the darkness we saw backs and fronts of endless apartment buildings and this one beside us had even been squeezed in sideways. I mean, its balconies did not face the street and more apartment buildings across the way like all the others. No, they faced the driveway beside it and a huge brick wall. (How romantic. sigh.)

I told Tom, "This place is dreadful. Simply dreadful. We've waited out in the freezing cold long enough. Let's get out of here."

So as we drove away from Dreadful Apartment Land, I thought, "And here I'd told Tom yesterday that I believed today would be the day we'd find a place to rent--that I could absolutely sense it. Huh. So much for that."

But a tiny glimmer of hope sprang up in my weary rental-seeker head and heart and I thought I heard, "Hey. I keep reminding you to follow Grace. Don't lose your joy. Keep believing." I whispered, "I know. I've been trying to anticipate finding something sweet, not dreading something only tolerable, but it's been hard..."

We drove around a bit more, ahhhed at the Christmas lights and drove past a few more (awful) places with leaning For Rent signs stuck in snow, took down some phone numbers, then drove home (while I felt like Susan in Miracle on 34th Street. You know, at the end where she's murmuring dejectedly in the car, "I believe... I believe....").

But alas! Inside our Cozy Room, we got a call from a different landlord. He described the house to us (a 'triple') and told us where it was located. Aha! It's in the neighborhood where, for the past year, I've felt a certain tugging of my heart whenever we drive through there. It's in the oldest part of town and frankly, a run-down, kinda-sad part, as well. But there's just something about that area. It's always been quiet back there, though it's on the edge of town and rather near railroad tracks (though you cannot see them). It's like a separate little world back there, a world which feels like it's not changed or advanced in 60 years.

And of course, I love that.

This morning we drove past the house and found it's on one of the cheerier streets, not all delapidated as some are in that forgotten corner. And the house, itself, appeared fine from the outside--we'd even have a driveway all to ourselves, and more, we'd be saving nearly $500 per month because heat and water are included and we'll no longer be paying any obscene NY property taxes (insert wild applause here).

We'd made an appointment to see inside tomorrow, but--with rentals being snatched up wildly lately--Tom even called the landlord today and told him we'd driven past the place and were very, very interested. Just so he'd realize our seriousness.

And we are serious, even though it has just one bedroom. That will only serve to complete the back-to-newlyweds feeling we seem to be going for in the latest phase/season of our lives.

And to think we did, after all, find it on Tuesday. While following Grace, I like to think.


***

"Only believe..."

"Seeing things that are not, as though they were..."