Not dead, just internetless

Well, the move happened, and with very few hassles (yay for professional movers!). My poor kitty was traumatized, but she seems to have recovered after only one puking-in-the-corner incident. (Honey, I've felt like I was gonna throw up all week, so I'm right there with ya.)

My parents stayed for the weekend to help me get settled, and so I'm almost unpacked, except for my bedroom. We went to see fireworks for 4th of July at the Pointy Things (aka the Air Force Memorial), which, if you're not familiar with the area, is up on a hill in Arlington with an excellent view of the Washington Monument (where they set off the fireworks), as well as pretty much the whole city... which meant that we could see pretty much every fireworks display in the DC metro area, lol. I have never seen anything like it - about half an hour before the big fireworks started, we saw all these little ones popping up on the horizon. There must have been a hundred of them all over the place, and they continued on after the big show was over.

Anyway, we've been to DC a bunch of times, so our only sightseeing was the Pentagon 9/11 memorial, and other than that, we just drove around my neighborhood trying to figure out where things are. I have this week off, so I should have time to familiarize myself with the area, although I'm somewhat petrified to attempt to drive outside my immediate neighborhood. (GPS. Schizophrenic episodes. Not pretty.)

As I mentioned, I am currently internetless - the Comcast guy doesn't come until Saturday!! - so I've been using the business center in my building. I'm also without cable in these dark ages, so I'll probably have a whole list of books and movies I've read/watched this week. New job starts on Monday, so we'll see what kind of excitement that brings.

Almost there...

Eeeeeeeee!!! It's almost moving day! My parents came this weekend to help me pack. Box count as of 10am Saturday: 3 boxes and 1 suitcase packed.

Box count as of 10am Sunday: 21 boxes, 3 suitcases, and 2 plastic storage containers packed.

My parents are frighteningly efficient.

I am now trying to decide whether I want Verizon FIOS for my internet (TV isn't available yet). I've never had a problem with Comcast, but I've heard that FIOS is so much better, and it's not really much more expensive than Comcast. Anyone have any experience with it?

You could just shoot me. That'd be simpler...

Moving is HARD. This is quite possibly the most stressful thing I have ever done.

Spent the second weekend in a row apartment-hunting in DC with my parents. We did actually manage to find something, but not before completely exceeding our quota of U-turns (DC apparently causes our GPS to have schizophrenic episodes) and giving me a headache that lasted 36 hours.

But! I did find a place, in Arlington - it's on S. Glebe Rd. right near the Army Navy Country Club, if anyone's familiar with landmarks - and it's very nice. Don't even ask what my rent is, but the apartment was recently renovated and so the kitchen's got pretty granite countertops and cherry cabinets. My mother is jealous that I'll now have a nicer kitchen than she does. :)

My last day of work here is July 2nd, and I'm moving out July 3rd. I have not started packing yet, although I did just get rid of an entire suitcase full of clothes I don't want. (And we're talking the huge, 3-weeks-in-Europe suitcase.) Just looking at it all makes me feel exhausted.

We have a minor snafu with the kitty, in that I never actually told the leasing office that I have one, and they have to come in for the walk-through inspection before I leave. So I'll need to find a place to stash Chelsea for a day - hopefully Christi will be around.

Chelsea seems to be getting slightly freaked out by all the stuff going on - when I left last weekend with the huge suitcase, I thought she was going to run after me. But she seems to enjoy jumping in the empty boxes and pulling the labels off them.

*collapses*

Wake me up when it's moving day.

And don't call me Shirley

Holy cow, this lady is deep-fried crazy!

I'm so proud

Pennsylvania gets a mention in this article about the appalling behavior of state legislatures. Awww.

Insane weekend

The good news: I was offered a new job in DC.
The bad news: I start in a month, which means I have to find an apartment and move in less time than that, all the while still working at my old job, and figuring out what the hell I'm going to do about the 7 months left on my current apartment lease.

This, it seems, will entail trips to DC pretty much every weekend from now until I move. Got up at 5:30 yesterday morning so I could drive down and meet my parents for our first weekend of apartment hunting. My mother would love for me to get a condo, so I can build up some equity rather than throwing away money on rent, but so far, we've only found one place I could afford (in Alexandria), and I wasn't crazy about it. I don't want to buy the first place I see, just because it's a great price. As my mother says, if you buy something on sale, and then you don't like it, you didn't really get a bargain.

So I'm also looking at renting an apartment - which is also absurdly expensive. Once we ruled out all the places that either were out of my price range, or in bad neighborhoods, or so much of a dump my mother wouldn't let me live there, there aren't that many choices, but still, I think it's going to be a hard decision. Having visited and ruled out Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Hyattsville, and Temple Hills (all in Maryland), I've got it narrowed down to probably Arlington or Alexandria, leaning toward Alexandria, because that seems to be more affordable.

I'm looking for a one-bedroom, although we did look at a few studio/efficiency apartments this weekend. The studio would definitely be cheaper, but I worry about a.) not having a private bedroom area when I have guests, especially guests who sleep over, b.) less space for the kitty, and c.) not enough room for all my furniture. I'm in a one-bedroom now, and it's fully furnished, so all that stuff will have to go somewhere. (I suppose it could go in my parents' basement, but the main problem seems to be the bedroom furniture, and I don't know where I'd store all my clothes if I can't fit my dresser in the apartment...)

There's a fair amount of sticker shock going from where I live now, which is one of the most expensive apartments in my (admittedly small) city, to finding out that, on the same salary, I qualify for low-income housing in the DC metro area. Talk about your cost of living differences.

Anyway, since we didn't find anything that was absolutely perfect, we will probably be going back and looking at more places next weekend. It's a damn good thing I like spreadsheets, because trying to keep track of all this is making my head spin.

It's entirely possible that this may become "Laura's apartment hunting journal" for the next few weeks, for which I apologize in advance.

WHEE!!!

I got a job!!!

*waits for panic to set in*