Daily Archives: 4/18/2005

I got an apartment! yay! today is the best day ever! my passport came, and I got an apartment!

here is a time line:
* 2 1/2 weeks ago: friends saw apartment sign, gave me number
* 2 weeks ago: called and called and called but no one would call me back. sad. Gave up on apartment. grew vaguely despondent
* 1 1/2 weeks ago: talked to someone! got an appointment to see the apartment! drove over during sunny friday afternoon rush hour traffic, was very late, was very impressed with the apartment. Nice location in a cute town that is very reminiscent of pittsburgh with the main street/shopping area model, near train station, library, and post office, not exactly ON the main drag, but very close, laundry and storage in the building, big bedroom, decent living room, small kitchen, was thrilled, put in an application straight away (feeling very weird about handing a stranger $30 in cash and my bank account number) and drove to pittsburgh for the weekend.
* 1 week ago: went away on field work for 4 days. Called on tuesday, got the impression that I was bugging the heck out of the woman I spoke to. Yikes! resolved to not call back, even though was driving me crazy.
* today: got a call — “why haven’t you contacted us?” heck! called back, explained a credit dispute (watch out for the state of washington, if you don’t pay speeding tickets ASAP they send them for collection), faxed over pay stub information, waited waited waited.
* today: GOT A CALL! she said “let’s not drag this out any more. I have enough information. It’s fine. stop by tomorrow! sign a lease!”

so now my informal schedule goes thusly:

wednesday night –> next monday: go to netherlands
the weekend after that: to pgh, pack, move to northern nj.
week after that: unpack. put my feet up. Be happy with the state of events.

YAY.

it’s a glorious glorious day outside, in the tradition of other fine days like “yesterday,” “day before yesterday,” etc. Another wonderful monday of working indoors.

Of course, it’s going to be like, 70+ degrees today. And I’m wearing tights b/c I am TOO LAZY to shave my legs and while I agree that I shouldn’t have to if I don’t want to, I think I’m pushing it already in the biz caaash atmosphere to not wear nylons (despite this new fashion, I am old school!) and to not wear nylons with hair up to an inch long on my legs may be a little TOO MUCH.

Tomorrow it will be 80ish, so I’ll go ahead and shave.

Here’s my exciting news, in a nutshell. May return and detail later:
1. Saw a v. nice apt., put in an application for it, am waiting with bated breath.
2. Went out to the ra-cha-cha area for field work, got some rest and a cold.
3. Had a very super birthday involving low key japanese food, birthday songs on my voice mail, virtually running out of cell phone minutes (I have 4 left! through the end of tomorrow!) and having my taxes totally completed.
4. Also had a v. super second bday with a pedicure and lunch,
5. and then a v. nice third birthday which I shared with my beau and HIS parents, b/c we’re all April Babies. Or Babes. your call. We all sang happy birthday to each other and blew out candles across the cake, and I didn’t blow as hard as everyone else and got a faceful of smoke! boy howdy!
6. Most exciting: I’m going to the netherlands on wednesday evening. This is made possible by:
a. my passport arriving on friday and
b. my brother overnighting it to the office for arrivial today. PHEW.
So I will actually be able to attend my friends wedding and will stay through monday. I am super excited, and also a little nervous about what to pack. Can I pack knitting needles for international flights? I know it’s OK in the US, but I need to do some research. Will I have enough books with me? ever since I ran out of books 2 times on one flight from Pittsburgh to NYC I have been crazy about books and have packed in the area of 8. I have saved a couple of non-fiction books, though, which usually take me longer.
7. Anyway. Also exciting: completing my first month at work. They gave me a laptop! I have to keep reminding the dorky engineer part of me that while yes, this MAY mean that I have “made it,” it also means that they’re facilitating me doing a lot more work outside of the office.
8. One other thing — I think that everyone in NJ runs late on mondays, so the traffic/trip up here is pretty decent. That’s alway a plus.

Happy monday!