when do you roll the dice?

Sometimes life feels like one big game at the Casino. None of us have a crystal ball and so when it comes times to hedging our bets and deciding on something about our future, it feels like we may as well just roll the dice and say black or red. I've been feeling this way a bit with my apartment search. Basically to find something in the budget range that I'd like for my own business goals I'm realizing I have to compromise way more than I first thought. I already have come a long way in my mind about detaching from a lot of my "stuff" b/c I knew compromise #1 would be space when moving into a small spot. But I was hoping that it wouldn't also have to be neighborhood, charm, possibly parking, etc etc. So I broke my own rule, and started to peek around at places that fall outside my set budget but still have everything else on my very focused "list." And what happened? Yup, you guessed it, I fell in love with a place that's $250 over the max that I wanted to spend. And only street parking (which i might be up for dealing w/ but it is in Venice and any of my local readers would probably say to me -- are you nuts?!). But it was a duplex, washer dryer, a YARD that's perfect for my soon to be dog, about a mile from the beach and on just a beautiful street. And the apartment itself had such charm (couldn't help but include a couple pics here). I got my application in, got accepted and then just sat and thought, huh, what do I do now? My first thought was -- everything is negotiable and without parking, surely she'll come down by $100 maybe. NOPE, she will not (which I can't say I blame her b/c it's pretty fab for the area so she will rent it at that price). And then I talked to a couple friends and just took another look at my budget and the reality is, the future of my business and projected income is just too tough to gauge right now. And I'm not sure I'm in a position to go through a move and all that expense to find myself in a place that's not much less than the one I'm in. Plus adding in the dog, it's probably a wash in what I'd save.

However, this is the first place in 6 months that I walked into and thought I could see myself here. Even though I'd still have to part w/ most of my stuff but I actually started to get excited about the idea of just getting different stuff and really decorating it like the fabulous beach bungalow that it feels like. And you know my dear friends Gina & Sarah were all over helping on that front :) But with all that being said, today I chose to bet conservatively, to continue to believe in what my business will become but don't stack the odds against myself with an apartment that's not saving me a significant amount of money. Painful choice to let something so great out of your grasp, here's hoping I bet on the right color -- the color of my business.