New Leases...

I'm happy to report two new leases in my life.

1) My rental condo. I absolutely had my panties in a bunch over the fact that the current tenant in my rental condo was moving out on January 15. There was no backup plan. Nobody moving in. Nobody to pay my mortgage for me. No corporate body to wheel their little rolly suitcase into my condo and set up shop for a few months.

This had me chewing my fingernails and crying helplessly at night in the dark. I like not paying my mortgage. I like being able to put said mortgage money towards the $4,928,375,483 in collective credit card debt that My Gazelle and I have. I like the idea that I might soon make a significant enough dent in said debt within the next year that a fairly sensible mortgage agent might actually lend us enough fundage so that we can have a real house. With a real yard. And a real driveway. And our own entrance. What a treat!

So, after being on Craig's List for...oh...5,986 years, someone finally emailed me to see the condo. Since I rent the condo out fully furnished for short-term corporate leases, its pretty much a lock that as soon as the person looks at the condo, they'll rent it out. It's fully furnished, fully renovated, and beautiful. Sometimes I wish that we could somehow magically transform My Gazelle's condo into my condo, and live in my condo...but have it geographically located where My Gazelle's condo is.

So...this is why I feel that way...



Needless to say, I was pretty confident that the guy would rent it as soon as he took a look. When our first appointment fell through (his fault), I got nervous. We rescheduled, but I wasn't putting much stock in our rescheduled appointment. Just as I was ready to curl up in a ball and start sucking my thumb, I received this email:

"Hello Jogger (ok...he didn't call me this, but I like it better),

I saw your place on craiglist last week coming available in mid-
January. I'm looking to do another short term lease and wanted to
check if you've found a renter yet. Let me know if the unit is still
available.

Your Awesome First Tenant"

WOOOOOOOO!!!

I cannot explain how happy I was to hear from Awesome First Tenant. I wrote his new 4-month lease yesterday, and he moves in exactly 4 days after the current tenant moves out. He's also asked me for the option to renew for another 3 months. This, my friends, is a HUGE relief. HUGE.


2) Monday also brought me a new lease. Corny as it might be, Monday was the day when I drafted a new lease on my jogging (running?) life. As I ran, in the dark, bundled up in the 30 degree weather, dragging a terrified 30lb dog behind me, I could not stop thinking about how much joy I was feeling. I was happy to be outside, happy to be sweating, happy to be relatively pain-free, happy to be exercising with my boy, despite the fact that he was acting more like a bowling ball shackled to my waist than a running buddy on this particular trip.

I came home from my jog feeling rejuvenated, happy, and ready to tackle my next jaunt. I truly could have gone farther than the 3 miles I did, if it weren't for the fact that Psykko was completely wiggin out at that point, and I didn't want to torture him any more. I felt all of this, despite the fact that it took me 36 minutes to travel 3 miles.

I figured this wasn't a bad pace, all things considered. Next time you run, strap a 30 pound dead weight to your waist. Then let it stop to sniff things occasionally, and allow it to pee on a few hydrants along the way. Let me know how it goes.

Happy jogging!