A Successful Gamble

I'm not often the gambling sort, but on occasion I'll take a risk financially.  One such occasion was with this whole lease breaking deal with my apartment.  I had three options for terminating the lease:

1) Break the lease effective immediately, pay $500 fee, and be responsible for up to 2 months of rent or until the apartment was re-leased.  

2) Break the lease with notice, pay no fee, and pay two months rent flat.

3) Find someone to take over my lease with the apartment "as-is", with my deposit sticking with the apartment.

I decided to go with the first option even though it had the potential to cost me an extra $500.  In the end, it was the right choice because my apartment was leased to someone new on Saturday!  That's right, I moved out last Saturday and turned in my keys that same day, and someone else moved in a week later.  Isn't that craziness?  This means I only have to pay for the remaining utilities since my last bill plus the 3 days of pro-rated April rent.  

This is such a relief!  I'm THISCLOSE to being fully done with that apartment, financially and all. The property manager is supposed to get me the final numbers by Friday and then I can get that paid and be done with it.  A small part of me was afraid I'd be paying on an empty apartment until the end of May, but luckily that isn't the case.  :-)

IN OTHER NEWS---

Easter was nice.  Since I have no kids and I'm not religious, I hadn't celebrated Easter in years until last year when BF's family was in town and I met them for the first time.  J left on Saturday evening since this was her half weekend, so it was just the two of us.  We had a nice dinner of turkey breast and all the accompanying sides, and we actually ate at the dining room table like civilized people.  ;-) The rest of the day was spent with a mix of relaxation and productivity.  I finally got the last of my things organized and put away, I did some laundry, we did some garage cleanup, house chores, etc. Luckily we also spent some quality time outside on the deck enjoying the gorgeous weather!

This week at work will hopefully not be too crazy.  My supervisor is out all week for her daughter's spring break, so things will be a little quieter on that front at least!  I'm having lunch with a friend from my old job today, which I entirely forgot about until I checked my calendar just now.  Friday I have a hair appointment for a blowout.  I'm getting it mostly for Saturday, when I will be getting up bright and early to fly to Kansas City for my friend, M's wedding.  

I'm really looking forward to the trip, even though it is not even a two day long visit.  I will land mid-morning, assuming everything is on time, and take a shuttle to the downtown hotel where I'll be spending the night.  I'll either get early check in or leave my bags with the concierge and then head off to the 1 pm wedding.  Formal wedding events should wrap by five, but then I believe there's a more informal plan to go out for drinks and the like later on in the evening.  

Sunday morning my friend, T is coming into town from Columbia, aka my old college town, which is a couple of hours away.  We will be spending the day hanging out in KC and hopefully I'll think of some fun places to visit that I haven't had the chance to go to in a long time!  I'm also really looking forward to a day hanging out with T because we always have such a good time together.

I am staying the second night at a hotel close to the airport because it's cheaper and more convenient for my early Monday flight.  T is nice enough to have agreed to drop me off there before heading out of town.  I'm trying desperately to avoid adding the cost of a rental car to this already expensive mini-trip.  I fly out of KC at 8:15 that morning and return home to DC shortly before noon.  Lovely BF has agreed to take me to Dulles on Saturday morning for my 8:34 am flight and pick me up on that Monday since it's his telework day.  Much better than driving and dealing with airport parking!

I got a new dress for the event, nothing pricy, but it's cute.  It's a black and white patterned dress, and I have some super cute bright pink heels to wear with it.  Will have to do my nails in a nice, bright pink to match! Hopefully my hair will hold up, too.  ;-) I'm excited to see my friend, M, get married, and I'm super excited to see my girlfriends who will be driving from Omaha to attend.  This will be the first time the four of us have been together in YEARS.  We can get parts of the group together at different times, but it's been a struggle to get everyone together.  I haven't seen my friend, C in AGES!  Crossing my fingers for on time flights, reliable hotel transportation, and good weather.  :-)

I haven't been to KC in years.  I think the last time was in the fall of 2007 when Ex-H and I had just imploded, and we had a trip to KC for a Chiefs game already booked.  We still went together (!!!) and it was weird and awkward and not awkward enough, and so many other things.  We stayed with his dad, went to Columbia for a football game, went to a Chiefs game with my parents, and acted like everything was normal-ish.  What a mess!  So glad this visit will be under better circumstances.

Here's hoping it's a quick, easy work week.  :-)