I should have said something when I saw him hit the button for the 18th floor.
Instead I stood there silently next to my daughter as we moved up, up, up. The doors opened. We stepped out to a neatly groomed, well lit hallway. He chatted with us as he led us down the hall, leaned in past my too low cut shirt (thrown hastily on as I realized we had warm weather today) and slipped his key into the door.
He swung the door open and ushered us forward. We stopped, momentarily blinded by the sun, and then bit back tiny little gasps.
There, in front of us, sprawled out in all of its patriotic glory was Washington DC with the Washington Monument standing there like the centerpoint in a compass. As we stood there, blink blink blink in the sun and beauty, I quickly imagined a small group party on the 4th of July and realized at that moment we had the potential to be the very cool friends in our circle. THE place to be on Independence Day.
All for a the small monthly price of $3100 a month, excluding amentities. For an apartment measuring less than 1100 square feet.
We are already thinking hard about how we can streamline. Wondering if we can make our carbon footprint a little smaller without having to expend much energy. Looking at the book shelves that bring us comfort (and take up valuable square footage) and wondering if we move them to the low voltage e-readers we now carry whether that is the "greener" solution.
We are picturing a network upgrade to a nicely secured Wireless-N solution with this little beauty hanging on the walls in each room. I have a nephew dearly in need of a new PC desktop unit and I have a spare to offer him if we take it off the wall I have it hanging on as a glorified picture frame.
A couple of terabytes of storage space stored in the den or work area of our new place will allow us, we think, to make efficient use of limited space. Leaving enough foot space to enjoy RB 2 and stash the drums will be a challenge. But we think we can do it.
And so we are wondering how to afford the luxuries, how to streamline our world but still have everything we love a touch away, and how, maybe, to actually recycle. Live Green. Live Lean. Live Full.
One thing is for sure, we are packing. And we will be packing every weekend for the next several weekends. Even if we don't know where we are going.
I hope it has a view.
NL
