Playing With Fire
Feb. 1, 2006
Separating from my husband forced me to ask myself two questions. 1) Can I save a failing marriage? and 2) Where to live? Unable to immediately answer question number one, I decided to focus on question number two. Before I began my housing search, I created list of amenities that I would look for in a home. Nothing fancy, just nice enough to keep me from feeling like a victim. Despite a housing shortage in Hawaii, I was certain to find a place. After all, it’s not like I’m a starving student, or working for minimum wage. Confident that an apartment would be easy to find, I opened the classifieds. I was a fool. As my search progressed, I slowly began crossing items off my list. Eventually, I was down to four criteria: 1) It must be furnished, 2) It must be month to month, 3) It must have a kitchen, and, 4) It must have internet access. Weeks of looking finally confirmed that there is no apartment on Oahu that meets all four. I placed an "oh, what am I going to do" phone call to my friend Derek, who suggested that I look into vacation rentals. So online I went, searching out the perfect, really cheap, vacation rental. Hahahahaha. Meeting all of my outlandish criteria would cost over three thousand dollars per month. For a 300 square foot room. And most of those had no availability. Still, with nothing to lose, I started sending emails asking about monthly rates or specials for Hawaii residents. A day later, I received a message on my phone, "Hello Kristin, this is Anne Marie. I'm responding to your email. I think we know each other." I unknowingly sent an email to friends (whom I clearly hadn't seen in a while). Their recent remodel included an apartment! The lovely studio had it all: right on the water, beautifully furnished, a break on the month-to-month rent, and wireless access. There was only one catch: no kitchen. What to do, what to do? I wanted the apartment, but how could I live indefinitely without a kitchen? Cooking, and eating, is what I do! As I tossed the problem around in my head, I wondered how man cooked food before the dawn of kitchens. The answer, of course, was over an open fire. I knew at once what I had to do. Confident that, if early man could survive on open flame I could too, I raced out to buy a gas grill. Cooking with nothing but a grill had begun. If only question number one was as easy…