hello world.

I haven’t been here for awhile.

Most of the past month has been spent driving all around the Bay Area (between the Carquines and Bay Bridges) trying to find a place to live. It’s harder than one would think, and definitely harder than I was expecting. Turns out, being an unemployed college graduate isn’t any better than being an unemployed college student, and since Dan and I are one of each they really don’t want us. Not to mention I have “immature credit”, meaning I didn’t get a credit card when I was 10 years old (I’ve had one for 2 or 3 years now, but apparently that’s not trustworthy enough.) Of course, these should be moot points since we pay rent with Dan’s trust fund (which he’s been doing all through college) but no one would give us the benefit of the doubt. One guy jerked us around for three weeks before finally saying “naah, I guess I don’t want you” (and actually, he didn’t tell us! We had to call him to find out. If I only knew his name I’d make a negative Craigslist ad for him, but I don’t know the name of his company.)

After searching from the scariest neighborhoods of east Oakland (we didn’t want to get out of the car) to the most adorable neighborhoods in San Pablo (yeah, they want nothing to do with us) we found a few places in El Cerrito that were both convenient (there’s 2 BART stations) and safe (there isn’t a 10 ft fence around the exterior.) Of course, if it’s in our price range a property obviously isn’t perfect. One had stove burners, but no oven underneath. Another had a kitchen the size of a postage stamp (.5 person can cook at a time!) And the one we ended up with has no parking, and is located over a real estate agency (the same one that’s renting it out, conveniently for the broker.) Our landlord is a Chinese immigrant, has been working in the Bay Area for 30 years, and really wanted to give us a chance. He didn’t make us get a co-signer, he applauded us for being in school (instead of the typical “why the hell aren’t you out there making money?!” reaction), and he understands our financial situation (instead of “spoiled brats using trust fund money!” he said, “I have trust funds for all my grandkids.”)

But, yeah. No parking. And the entrance is a bit weird – through a hallway next to the real estate office, then into open air past two other apartments, than up some stairs to above the real estate agency. The apartment itself is smaller than our current one, but has the same amount of rooms (bedroom/bathroom/living room/kitchen with eating area). We’ll be getting a brand new stove (with oven!) and wood flooring in the kitchen, which is always nice. It’ll be a challenge moving furniture through the obstacle course, but we’ll make it work somehow. I do have to figure out what to get rid of or store somewhere, because we were crowded in our last apartment…

And, the car. Since we will be walking distance from BART (and also El Cerrito Plaza, which is awesome) we won’t need two cars – which is good because, obviously, there’s no where to put them. I don’t want to be completely carless, though, so we’re going to have to park SOMEWHERE. The parking lot behind the building is actually the Payless Shoes lot, which is where the landlord parks when he’s at the office (fun story: the apartments used to have their own lot, but it was imminent domain-ed away and turned into a PG&E station) and we can maybe park there, for awhile at least. There’s also a neighborhood across the street with no signs saying we CAN’T park, so I guess we could leave our car somewhere there? I can’t find anyone renting spaces in the area, unless you count BART – I think that’s meant for airports though; I don’t know if they’d let you do it for a year.

Anyway, right now Dan and I are at my parents’ house to feed all the home animals and school animals while they’re driving to Maine with Kassi (those crazy people!) We’ve moved most of our stuff into storage – my parents aren’t getting back until the first week of August, and we have to be out of our current apartment by July 3o, and we really needed help carrying some of that furniture. So now there’s no rush. Our apartment still needs cleaned and there are bills to be payed, medication to be picked up, plants to be watered, and rented DVDs that are already overdue, so we will obviously be back soon (within the week, actually) but our base will be here. Because we don’t have to sleep on an air mattress here. And it’s air conditioned. And there aren’t the Yell-y Twins* in the pool (in fact, no one’s in the pool! It’s all ours!)

* Dan named them that. They’re not actually twins, but they yell equally impressively. At each other. From their balconies across the complex. It’s great.

Some other things I haven’t mentioned: my car broke but I fixed it. The Check Engine light was on, and I had to get that fixed before I could register the car. Turns out the header was cracked and nearly in two pieces, which is a common problem with Civics, and the part is super expensive because it’s connected to two other parts (that aren’t necessarily broken, but they all have to be replaced together.) Luckily I found an awesome garage that explained everything to me, didn’t talk down to me (or refuse to talk to me at all unless my dad was there, like one garage I was forced to patronize) and made me feel completely comfortable in their work (the mechanic who fixed my car was really cute too, so that’s a plus.) It was super expensive and took ALL my graduation money (I had already spent some on computer stuff and books, but the remaining money is all gone) plus a hefty chunk on my credit card which nearly brings it to the limit. Oh boy. I feel so grown up, nearly maxing out my credit card like that. But, the car is fixed and I just need to get it smogged (the next time I’m in Vallejo, since it’s there…) so I can register it.

I had something else but now I forgot. Oh, I decided to do a complete life change (I think) as far as careers go, but that’s another post altogether. Did I mention the apartment is directly next to Payless Shoes, and another door down is Peet’s Coffee? And Barnes and Noble, Game Stop, PetCo and many more awesome places are across the street? But really, the coffee proximity is probably what will do me in. I’ll never sleep again.