New Kid on the Hallway

Housing acquired

So, I survived my journey over the weekend to Future City, to find housing. It was one of the more frustrating housing searches I've made, which probably says more about my past good luck finding apartments I've liked than about Future City housing. On one level, everything I saw had what I was looking for - air conditioning, dishwasher, disposal, full sized washer/dryer in the unit, a balcony. On another level, nothing had everything - for each bonus there was a potential deal breaker. For instance, one place had by far the nicest grounds (they were GORGEOUS - lots of mature trees, vines, very green, and HUMMINGBIRDS!) and complex layout (everything felt really private and cosy). But the carpets, kitchens, and bathrooms looked kinda worn out and rundown, and it was the most expensive place I saw. Another place had by far the prettiest interior - nice layout, and built only a few years ago, so nice shiny new kitchens/bathrooms - but was in a less interesting neighborhood (not unsafe or anything, but kind of boring) and the opposite end of town from the Whole Foods and Trader Joe's (what? how else will I feed myself than with overpriced pre-prepared foods?). A third place had an almost equally pretty interior/layout and decent kitchen/bathroom, but the only units available overlooked parking lots, which I HATE (it feels like being in a hotel).

So I ended up going with what was kind of the Goldilocks place - not that it was JUST RIGHT, but it was sort of in the middle of all the others: nice (though "apartment complex-y") grounds, good neighborhood, kitchen/bathroom somewhat out of date but acceptable, maybe a bit smaller, but a nice layout, and the least expensive. AND it doesn't overlook a parking lot:

(Overlooking a road totally doesn't bother me - just parking lots.)

I realize it's a crappy iPhone pic that flattens the mountains and the desert-y stuff looks (at least to my east coast-trained eyes) sort of scrubby and sandy, but the view is actually quite pretty. (And there are pale little prairie-dog like things running in and out among the sand!)  

Of course, I've been suffering buyer's (renter's) remorse since then, and wondering if I really shouldn't have, after all, gone with the expensive place with the gorgeous grounds... the trees and vines and plants were just so PRETTY. (Although admittedly not especially environmentally appropriate.) But I think paying the rent they were asking for the aged interior would have grated over time. 

Keep reminding me of that, okay?

So, I have now spent about 56 hours total in Future City... there are things about it that are lovely (I'm surprised at how much I like the open desert, with its open skies and all its spiky and sage-colored flora). But there are things about this part of the world I just don't get - I've spent the largest part of my life in the east and the midwest, and it's very different out here. My default for what somewhere should look like is deep dark woods - green trees, moss, pine needles, dark earth, no clear vistas, hills but no mountains. All this sand and rock looks kinda like the moon.

Next is all the boring awful logistics of moving - figuring out dates, booking a truck, hooking up utilities, packing (UGH) and so on. NLLDH (who will be returning to Long Distance Husband status) and I need to figure out what I'm taking and what he's keeping, and I've become OBSESSED with getting a new sofa and/or rug for the new place (the rug is a much more realistic possibility). Because looking at sofa and rug colors is MUCH more fun than planning all the rest of it.

Arggghhh

My laptop fan is whirring right mad right now, trying to keep up with the twenty-zillion browser tabs I have open for apartment complexes in Future City (each loaded with pictures and videos and so on). They're all running together by this point, stainless steel appliances and pools and fitness centers and move-in specials melting together into a great big pool of stressful things.

I have flights into and out of Future City booked for next weekend. I talked to my classmate who currently lives there. I've called a few places, all of which basically told me to come by whenever I'm in town. 

This whole process is just such a huge time suck. Perhaps the worst part is the apartment rating websites. I don't even know why I keep reading them, because about 90% of the people who post on these sites hate EVERYTHING EVER about their apartments. The sites are like the Rate My Professors of apartments, but I can't look away. The things I've decided I can't take seriously: all the people saying that people in the management office are evil/mean/rude/greedy. Those complaints sound way too much like saying a prof is mean/unfair/too hard, and you're getting only one side of the story; I'm sure some office people are rude and mean and so on, but I'm sure people who pay their rent late or want special treatment or bust up their apartments feel being held accountable for that stuff is rude and unfair, too. I just can't tell which one is happening.

There are also a LOT of people who complain about there not being enough parking who aren't willing to pay the extra for a reserved space. I know, money is tight and all that, but still, I don't quite get the unbridled ire about the company's trying to make money off their parking spaces. It's a company. Their purpose is to make money.

Also, the noise issue: I just think every apartment building built between, say, 1970 and 1995 sucks in terms of sound insulation. You are going to hear your neighbors. That's what happens when you live crammed with a whole bunch of other people into one building.

On the other hand, when people talk about roaches, I get wigged out. Maybe it's because I've never really lived anywhere with chronic roach problems. (Former City gets flying cockroaches, but thankfully I only had one wander in once - nothing endemic. We got some ants there, but little teeny ones, which gross me out much less than the big black ones from New England. And we had teeny ants here, too, but again, not too horrifying.) But when a number of people talk about roaches, I am way more likely to back away.

But again, these sites are so problematic, because some people are just never happy, and they're the ones who write apartment ratings. And yet I keep reading the damn sites anyway. Instead of doing other things that would be WAY more productive. 

Random bullets of July

• So, you know how in my last (long ago) post I mentioned a white cat with tabby patches? Who's blind?

Yeah, we adopted him.

Our big fear had been that Middle Cat would freak. the fuck. out. at the introduction of another cat. Turns out, she could not possibly care less. (Which makes pretty clear that our previous problems had nothing to do with Middle Cat not liking other felines, and everything to do with Youngest Cat [of sainted memory] being a bully.) Of course, a blind cat is particularly non-threatening, which probably helps. But anyway. I'm still not sure now was the best time to adopt another cat, but NLLDH fell in love with the beast before even meeting him, so there you go.

• Apart from introducing Blind Kitty to our home, I have been knitting obsessively. Which, in my case, involves almost as much looking at yarn online, searching patterns on Ravelry, and planning future projects as it does actual knitting (though I do a lot of the latter as well). I did knit half a sweater, and it was truly recognizably a sweater, but it turned out too small for a variety of reasons that mostly boil down to it being my first sweater. I mean, I'm very proud that the proportions were all correct and everything, but they were the proportions of someone a good three inches shorter and less broad than I am. But it was fun to make. And I've started again on a different pattern. Plus maybe two other projects...

• I turned 43. On the one hand, I like knowing more and more and wouldn't go back to my teens or twenties if you paid me. On the other, sometimes it feels like I've lived a really long time. The past can weigh you down quite a lot - not because it was necessarily bad, but because there's just more and more of it. (Or am I nuts?)

• I am in serious denial about moving from this city for my next gig, because I love this city, and because moving away from your spouse to a place where you know no one seems way crazier (and stupider) when you're not in academia any more. How much in denial? I don't have a place to live there yet, and I start work the 3rd week of August. (I know that's still enough time to find something, but given that I got hired a year ago it seems to be cutting things mighty fine.) Packing is right out.

• It doesn't help that NLLDH is job-searching himself, for academic positions, and hence is looking all over the country. Goddamn, a lot of universities are in crap parts of the country. Well, not crap. Just not where I want to live. Because having got used to the idea that I have a choice in the matter makes it REALLY hard to re-adopt the "I can live anywhere" mindset. Also, I am way way way way WAY tired of moving and not knowing people or having a real face-to-face community. Because I could have that, here, except that it's hard to invest the energy when I know I'm moving soon and don't know if I'll ever be back. Despite actually loving it here a lot.

• It is the last 2 bullets that have me up at 2 am (so that I figure I might as well blog about it). And the fact that it is 2 am means I shall stop here, for fear otherwise of filling this post with even more angst than I've spilled so far.