I found my life on Craigslist. Before Craigslist, if you wanted to find an apartment, you had to look in the newspaper. If you were looking for a roommate, you had to look at bulletin boards. If you wanted to find a job, there were print classifieds. If you needed used furniture, a used car, scalper tickets to a hot event, household services, or a musician's gig, you were pretty much on your own with whatever yellow pages (what were those again?) or other leads you could scrape together. And discussion forums where you could rave to your heart's content were limited to soapboxes and coffee shops.
My adventure with Craigslist began with shopping for a job. As a freelance writer, I used the job boards in my city of choice as a primary source for finding jobs. Within a short time, I'd landed work with an internet/new media ad agency writing scripts for online infomercials. Commercial writing is relatively well-paid, and it led eventually to full time employment requiring a move to a new city, with not much time to find a place to live.
Again, Craigslist to the rescue. Though it turned out there was only one furnished apartment listing in the location and category I needed, it was a winner. I sealed the deal in a New York minute, and was ready to assume my new life in a new city.
Next was shopping for a house. I planned to go with an agent, but first perused the local CL real estate listings to get a sense of what kind of market I was looking at. The market looked good, and I bought my dream house - but I needed furniture! As a single gal on a budget, starting fresh with only half my stuff following a divorce, it wasn't coming from Macy's Furniture Gallery. It was going to have to come from - where else - Craigslist.
It became a nightly ritual, scrolling through page after page of ugly furniture to find the wide variety of items I needed. Searching for a dozen different types of things took too long, so I subjected myself to the mind-numbing practice of reading every ad, for everything. There is a LOT of ugly furniture out there, and Craigslist has it all. But mixed in with the hideous and the mundane were the occasional quality pieces with genuine style, and only lightly used. I found the perfect dining set, end tables, even a 19th century washstand/cupboard - all for cheap. And a sewing table far better than the antique one I'd previously used, which my ex-husband had kept. But the item I love best of all, my sit-down vanity table with matching tri-fold mirror, is the greatest find of all not just because it's beautiful and well-made, it also came with a story.
The seller of the vanity - Susan - was a little cautious about who it would go to. It had been her mother's, and Mom cared that it go to a lady who would care for it, who'd use it well and often. Being close to a "10" on the vanity scale myself, I was the perfect buyer. The morning construction activity at my vanity table clocks in at about 1 minute longer each year as I age so that by now I'm sitting there for a good twenty minutes before I'm ready to face the world.
We fell into a merry discussion about aging beauty queens, life after divorce, and being owned by terriers and, to make a long story short, we became fast friends. Susan has continued to follow my lively adventures as a new divorcee in the dating scene.
Which leads me to the next part of life that Craigslist is taking care of for me - men. (This is the part where my kids can elect to stop reading.) Having delivered me of a job, a place to live, my furnishings and a new girlfriend, I figured it was only natural that I should fill the void in my love life by trolling through the personals there and seeing what I could dredge up.
Casting my line into the flotsam of males in my age group in various stages of divorce, confirmed bachelorhood and everything in between, I was pleasantly surprised by the results that turned up. Maybe it's because I write advertising for a living, but I guess I wrote a really good ad and besides that, I'm not a bot, a pimp or a Russian prostitute. (I probably shouldn't flatter myself; most males' standards are, after all, fairly low when they sniff out +a real woman wanting a date.)
Julie Stewart is a lifelong writer with a checkered past that includes law practice, legislative affairs, public relations and advertising. In short, every vilified profession except used car dealer. "Writer" at least has that certain air of intrigue, without making people feel like you're going to lie to them.
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http://EzineArticles.com/?I-Found-My-Life-on-CraigsList---Part-1&id=4637725] I Found My Life on CraigsList - Part 1
