Well, we did it. We successfully moved. It wasn't even as bad as I expected. My mom, sister and brother-in-law were all here to help, and despite scheduling problems with the dunces at U-Haul, we managed it in an afternoon and treated ourselves to a Dinosaur BBQ feast for dinner.
That was Saturday: moving. Sunday was mostly spent in cleaning the old apartment. Monday morning Greg promptly left for a conference in California, for the entire week, so I've been in charge of the unpacking along with two monstrous children, one of whom is, as we expected, not coping terribly well with the move. (One guess who that is.) How much unpacking do you suppose I've done?
James has been great with the whole process, of course, and Evan has been work. Of course. I've heard about monsters in the bedroom at night. We've battled over the new booster seat. He ate 321534 popsicles at my frisbee game last night because that was the only way to keep him from screaming and running across the field to me. I earned the sympathy of the cable guy, who heard Evan screaming and throwing tantrums about nothing for approximately 80% of the 2 hours he was here installing our internet and phone.
Speaking of the internet and phone, for all the work that guy did over the span of two hours, I've had issues with both services. Also, our new basement smells gross. That's not really related to anything I was saying, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway as long as I'm complaining.
Anyway, to look on the bright side, Greg and I are going to a wedding with many of our college friends (and without the kids) this weekend, so there's that to save me from the endless unpacking and baby-minding.
09 August 2007
we survived.
01 August 2007
we are moving in three days
If you were to take a guess, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being as ready as it's possible to be, and one being entirely unprepared, how would you guess I'm feeling now that the move is three days away?
Hint: The answer falls somewhere in between two and four.
19 July 2007
i have not been posting lately because
We have found an apartment (another townhouse, actually, almost identical to the place we're in now, except that the new place has a DISHWASHER!) and we are moving over the first weekend in August. So I'm beginning to pack, pack, pack, putting away all of the things we can live without for two more weeks. It's strange: the walls are nearly bare now, and surfaces cleared of decoration. Yet the rest of the house is messier than ever, and that's saying something.
The other major thing that will keep me from posting for the next week or so is the upcoming release of the last Harry Potter book. Yup, Harry Potter. We are, like all good fans, having our copy delivered on Saturday, and I will read it as soon as I finish re-reading the first six books in preparation. I should probably go see the new movie, too, if I really want to call myself a fan.
So there it is: moving, and Harry Potter, two things important enough to keep me away from the computer for the near future.
19 June 2007
the moving situation
Notes from Melissa and Samay about my last post made me realize that I never actually explained our moving situation on the blog (or to my friends, for that matter. Sorry!). So here it is:
Greg is finishing the sixth year of his PhD work. We have lived in student housing for those six years. There is a six year time limit for student housing. Greg expects that he has another six months or so until he completes his PhD. We applied for an extension to remain in student housing for those six months. We were denied because they don't really care about our inconveniences, not when there's a waiting list a mile long for student housing. Therefore we have to look for a new apartment for our last six months here.
Then, Greg will be a doctor (not in the medical sense, of course, but I fully intend to refer to him as such) and he will score a sweet job in some idyllic place and we will move far away and live happily ever after. That's the plan, anyway.
So yeah, it sucks, getting kicked out of our wonderful apartment that we've loved pretty much without reservation for six years. To move into somewhere else where it won't even make sense to unpack everything because soon enough we'll be out again. And have I mentioned how ridiculously difficult it is to find a six-month lease? We have found ONE place that will give us a six-month lease, for $100 more per month. Sweeeet. Greg thinks subletting is a good idea; I'm skeptical.
Nevertheless, we will figure this out, because we have two months and one week until we have to be out of here. I'm just hoping we figure this out sooner rather than later.
18 June 2007
in which i use Too Many Capital Letters
So have I mentioned how much I hate apartment hunting? Because I do. I really, really hate it. I don't think I can possibly stress enough how tired I am of this. Would you like to hear all about it? I thought you might.
You may have noticed my lack of blogging lately. I'm spending a lot of time on Craigslist these days, and on pretty much any other local rental website I can find. I also scour the rental ads in the papers, and pick up the free real estate booklets from teh grocery store. I am getting to be a pro at scanning the ads; however, there's not much out there that meets our criteria. Here are our criteria:
- 2-3 bedrooms
- storage space
- within our budget (i.e., pretty frickin' cheap)
- in a semi-decent neighborhood
- near a semi-decent school
- willing to give a short-term lease
Does that sound impossible to you? It didn't sound impossible to me when we started looking, but apparently I'm pretty naive. The one thing we really can't compromise at all is the price we can afford to pay, so we're being forced to revise all of the rest of our standards. Like, it goes without saying that we won't be living in the Beautiful Amazing Pricey Suburb, which means that James will not be going to kindergarten in one of the best school districts in the country, but instead will be going to whichever underfunded city school still has room. We won't even be living in one of the Cool Urban-by-Choice Artsy Neighborhoods. No, we'll probably end up in the Pretty Decent Neighborhood, But Don't Go Too Far North (Or East, Or West) Or It Gets Sketchy Neighborhood.
I'm pretty sure that last sentence didn't make sense, but I think you get my drift. We will be settling.
We've looked at a few places so far, and they have universally been either Too Expensive, or Too Small. Sometimes both. Correction: there was one place that's neither Too Expensive nor Too Small, but Very Far Away, which kind of equates to Too Expensive in time and transportation costs. Given all of that, we will probably end up with Too Small. That should be fun. You know, with the two growing, energetic, rambunctious boys and all.
I just keep telling myself that this will only be for six months. No matter where we end up living, no matter which school James ends up in, no matter whether I have to drive Greg to school every day, no matter what kind of freaky neighbors we end up with, no matter how small the apartment, it's only for six months. Six months. We can live with anything for just six months, right?
And then we start the apartment hunting all over again.
