new trials and tribulations

well, since the trials and tribulations of breast cancer and reconstruction are currently on hold..i'm thinking about writing about the trials and tribulations of finding housing in san francisco.

everything is ridiculously expensive. originally i wanted to be picky about neighborhoods, price, roommates. but it's looking like beggars with dogs can't be choosers. although...when i relate some of these stories to you...you might tell me that i'm going to have to be choosy.

so.
first place i looked at was this cute 3 bedroom house with two women in their 30s. they would accept dogs. the house was half a block from the dog park. one of the women is a french pastry chef. dangerous. i'm waiting to hear back from them.

the other day i responded to an ad on craigslist. two "mature" women were looking for someone fun to share their house with. well. i called the number. talked to susan. turns out she's 53. her roommate is 61. and in the casual conversation we had she told me that they were looking for someone responsible. they had lived with a guy for 2 weeks and then kicked him out because when she was going through his papers in his room (???!!) she found papers indicating he had a case against him in small claims court for owing his landlord $6000. susan told me she would love for me to come look at the place. but i made some extremely fast excuse that it wouldn't really make sense to look at a place if the two dogs couldn't meet.

so then last night i went to look at another place from craigslist. veronica had a room in her house in bernal heights. her ad said the roommate must like small dogs. so. i walk up to house and who is peeking out at me from the front window but two yapping chihuahuas. she had locked them up in her room because they don't like new people. she, again, was in her 50s. and she was burning incense in the house...some rose-y, vanilla scent that was so bad i could feel a headache coming on. another woman was looking at the apartment the same time i was. she was 24. just moved to sf. had blue eye shadow and an eyebrow ring. had her degree in sound engineering. and when the older woman told us there could absolutely never be drugs or alcohol in the house...that she would have us sign a legal document agreeing that she could kick us out of the house if there was the littlest sign of either..the 24 year old pretty much bolted. i ended up leaving, too. and the whole drive home i couldn't get away from the rose-y, vanilla incense.

ug.
so now i'm back to square one. looking at craigslist every 30 seconds. hoping for the perfect situation. dreading having to meet more crazies in the process. shouldn't life after breast cancer be easier than this?