Serendipity is a bitch, man.

So tonight after class I'm hanging out at L&V spending a few dollars of my hard-earned birthday cash on $2 beer night. I get bored, as none of the crew have shown up, and decide to walk the 4 or so blocks to D's. For you city slickers out there, blocks here in town are often small enough to throw a baseball from one corner of to another. Anyway, I'm enjoying a glass or two of their cheapest draft (I still have gas to pay for, you know) when three well dressed men come in and sit down next to me.

The apparent ring leader asks for whatever local brews they have, the nearest being of the Great Lakes Brewery out of Cleveland, and they proceed to bullshit about guy stuff. One of them says something particularly funny, and I join the conversation. Here's a breakdown of the miracle that ensused:

1) I mention I'm a photography student.
2) They're big time real estate investors looking to buy a newly built yuppie apartment complex here in town.
3) They need photos of it.
4) I volunteer my services for next to nothing compared to any other local pro photographer.
5) They're thrilled to nurture the "grass roots", and I'm meeting them there bright and early tomorrow morning.
6) I'm arriving before them to "secret shop" the management. IE: apply for a unit, even though I most definitely can't afford them, and see how management reacts.
7) I get paid for the secret shop, even if they don't buy my photos.
8) If they buy my photos, I'm buying a crapload of necessary equipment.

The bittersweet irony is that if Sophie and I hadn't split, I wouldn't have been at D's, and this wouldn't have happened.