My First Apartment!!

Well I finally got to see my apartment in San Digeo! (Which is good, since I'm not living there but have been paying rent since the beginning of July...) It's unfurnished, so Dad and I took our free Saturday to move some furniture out there. I am lucky enough to have a queen size bed, a desk, a bookshelf, a couple of drawer side tables, and a couch. This saves a lot of money!

We didn't bring anyone with us to help move the furniture out of the Uhaul and this became a problem when we needed to move the really heavy couch (leather, with a pull out bed). And naturally, I am on the THIRD floor.

So before we had to do any heavy lifting, I suggested to Dad that we go each lunch. We ate down the hill from school at Urbane Cafe (SO good; and naturally, Dad chatted it up with the owner and exchanged business cards) and while we were sitting there, Dad started scouting out boys who looked strong enough to help. We were going to pay them $25 each just to help us move a couch--that's desperate!! Well, it was when Dad suggested I go flutter my eyelashes at a couple of them and ask them to help us that I frantically whipped out my phone and started thinking, "Come on, some guy I know has to be in San Diego!" I got lucky with my first try. I found a guy who was willing to help me and was going to bring a friend, thank goodness!

So Dad & I sweated up a storm while we moved the mattress up three flights and every other piece of furniture. We had to wait a while for my friend to be available, so while we were waiting, Dad gets thinking and says, "Hey, maybe we can take this thing apart..." So we take up the cushions and the mattress and Dad busts out his Swiss Army Knife (which he does at every opportune moment) and starts to detach the inside of the couch. After a good 15 minutes of getting out the tightly-wound screws, we took the middle section out. When we got ready to take the last piece up, some strangers came up to us and asked if the property manager was around. I said, "No, but I have his cell phone number." Then one of the guys (Bless him!!!) said, "Hey, you need help with that?" Neither of us skipped a beat. He and Dad carried the last piece up and we saved $50--and they got to peek around at the apartment.

So my apartment is pretty spacious... the living room is big, we actually have a little dining room and a porch that can probably fit a small table and some chairs. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I'm sharing a bathroom with Amy and since they gave me the bigger room last year, I took the room with the smaller closet (the master bedroom has TWO closets!!). We still need to deal with electricity and sign up for cable/wireless. The apartment is right across from school and I can see the staircase that leads up to it from our apartment. I will probably still get a parking pass though because I don't want to show up sweating to every class.

I'm definitely still sore from Saturday and yesterday I decided to walk all the way to the beach and then back up a giant hill, so that's adding to the pain a little. But hey, I've got to work off these meals somehow. Christine fixed the scale and I asked her to break it again.

I'm hoping we'll get to go deep sea fishing soon. I keep telling them I want to catch a shark and I repeat myself often so they know I'm not kidding. I want to sit in the chair, strapped down, reeling in a huge fish for two hours. I think that would be so much fun! But I guess nobody's really catching big fish right now, so I might have to settle for something smaller. :-(

I love and miss you all terribly!!

PS--Send some prayers up for my friend Chase from school. He's not one of my close friends, but I've known him since freshman year. He's in the hospital with some really serious head injuries and it's really touch and go. I've been reading the updates his Dad has been writing for everyone and they make me cry every time.