d) all of the above

Crammed with packing, lifting and turning, working twelve hour days, negotiating, satisfying subpoenas, and sidling up to clients all buddy-buddy like, the last couple weeks have been nuts.

But we're now in a new location, just down the street about a mile.

Just two weeks before our move to a new apartment - a move about which we have been quite excited - a good friend told us of a place in their building, twice the space, roughly the same rent, new kitchen, and so on.  So, we took a look.  The landlord had not yet moved out, and it was dirty in the manner of someone who left suddenly and immediately cut off the cleaning service - we're not talking Mrs. Havisham-my-fifty-year-old-wedding-cake-is-still-on-the-dining-room-table dirty, but we are talking month-old-dusty-dry-dog-food-in-the-bowl-and-the-fridge-smells-funny dirty.  Still, the apartment had a lot of old construction potential.

We looked.  We haggled.  We checked the utilities.  We spoke with the owner.  We arranged the approval of the co-op.  We checked our credit (phenomenal, by the way).  And we almost said "yes" and signed the paper work.

The pieces, though, just didn't quite fit together.  After two voice mails and a text message from the owner within two hours, a projected increase in rent, utilities that seemed much too high, and a general feeling of ill-ease, we pulled our bets and stuck with our original lease.

Now that we're here and all the heavy lifting is done; now that my back is feeling slightly less stiff, the laundry's done and the dishes are out of the sink, we realize that the old rule is still true.

When the options are several, the first instinct is the best one.  Don't second guess.  At the end of the day, A), B), or C), is generally better than D) all of the above.  It just takes a bit more guts to choose only one.