Thanksgiving Update

Things have been moving along nicely here at the apartment. We have a few final things to do in terms of the setting up/unpacking/moving in and we're about to move in to the decorating phase this weekend. Life is starting to feel a bit more settled which is good since Kim started her job this Monday and I start this coming Monday. It's been a bit of a trial with getting paperwork sent where it needed to, but everything seems to have come through and I should have my practice permit on Saturday, just in the nick of time. We'll probably also be decorating for Christmas, which is always a highlight. I can't believe how quickly Christmas is coming up! It seems like only yesterday it was Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving, we had dinner at my parent's house. When I was younger, we had Thanksgiving at our house almost every year with both sets of grandparents. Then my mom's parents moved to Florida so it was just my dad's parents. Then my dad's parents got a new, bigger house and so my grandmother starting cooking dinner for the whole family again. Which was nice and all, but everyone besides us would already have eaten at their other in-laws house so then my grandmother would just complain about how no one ate her food. So since my grandfather has been sick this year, she threw in the towel and my mom and I got to make Thanksgiving. It was fun and with only minor arguments, my mom and I pulled off a fantastic dinner. My dad even pitched in by deep frying the turkey. And I am telling you it was to die for! Most of the family did get together the following Saturday for homemade pizza which was equally yummy in its own way. I'll leave you with a few selected shots of Thanksgiving at the Calimer's.

Thanksgiving

Three Places at Once

Moving is not a fun endeavor. Especially not prolonged, drug out moving. That is exactly what I'm currently doing. Sadly, I don't even remember where I slept when in the past week. All I know is that in about the last two weeks I haven't spent more then two nights in a row in the same place. My little overnight bag has been perpetually packed. I've actually just been washing the clothes in it over night and then stuffing them back in again and rotating out my pajamas and socks while I'm at my school apartment. Anyway, the moving, it's not so fun.

When I'm at my school apartment, I've been trying to pack things to take to my Philly apartment every time I'm going there. At first this was easy and non-stressful and kind of fun. Then I looked at my google homepage and it said 7 days till furniture moving day. And only time for one trip to Philly between now and then. I've begun to panic. I have too much stuff to move on Saturday. I have to have everything out of the apartment by the walk through on the 20th. I currently am working in 3 piles: take to Philly, store at my parents, or toss/Goodwill. My major question in life is when I do I take the things to my parents? I think these are primarily going to be kitchen essentials and by nature of the fact that they are essential, I can't just pack them up and bring them home till I'm sure that I won't be there and need food. I don't know when that point is. The only thing that I'm sure of next week is that Wednesday at 3pm I will be graduating and giving a speech because I am number 2 in my class (yay!). I've survived nursing school, but somehow I can't handle a move.

This whole moving thing would be much easier if: 1) I didn't currently have possessions in 3 locations separated by an hour. It's hard to decide where you'll need things when you don't even know what you're doing. I currently have a plastic shopping bag of important papers that I don't really know where to leave that I'm shuffling around with me. It's a bad system. 2) I was moving out of a place where I don't have a deadline that is rapidly approaching. I'm not worried about the stuff at my parents. I can move that whenever. 3) I wasn't moving from one third story apartment into another third story apartment an hour and a half away. This makes moving a tiring and slightly exhausting ordeal. And finally 4) If I had some money to buy boxes or remembered to steal some from Kim so I could stop using random backpacks, suitcases, shopping bags, and tote bags from my closet. They don't call me the bag lady for nothing.

I'd like to say this will all be over soon, but really I have no idea when it will be over. The stressful part should be over on the 20th. And hopefully nothing else will go wrong till then.

First Philly

Friday was a very successful day for me! I got a job offer (I'll give more details once it's official) and Kim and I signed the lease on our new apartment. It's official! We're beginning our lives in Philly! Click the picture below to enjoy the photos of our new apartment.

New Apartment

The Many Countdowns

This update is, as everything has been lately, sadly tardy. Much has been happening lately! I thought I'd give you a little picture of the things I'm looking forward to in the near future.

1) 5 days till my first nursing job interview at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
2) 9 days till my last day of nursing school!!
3) 11 days till Kim and I sign the lease on our new apartment in Philadelphia
4) 24 days till commencement activities a.k.a. freedom from Seton Hall
5) 30 days till I am completely and officially moved out of my present apartment :(

As you can see the next month is rather busy indeed. Since I missed posting this when it happened, I'll give you the update on the new apartment in Philly, because that's really the most interesting thing anyway.

On Friday October 12th I had the day off from class for "Fall Break." Whoot, one whole day. Despite what looked like a pitiful showing on Craigslist, Kim and I decided to schedule some appointments to go look at apartments in Philadelphia. We managed to schedule to see 6 apartments in various locations though out the city. The one with the most promise by far was one in Old City. But we'll get there. So we drove into Philly for out first showing at 9:30am. The apartment was ok but a loft and small and in Chinatown which smells. The next apartment we saw the old guy was randomly mean to us and the kitchen was from the 70's. Really. The next apartment was a bargain price and was actually a little better then we expected but by no means what we were looking for. The next apartment was the one in Old City.

It's over a fabulous used book store and just blocks from the major Old City attractions (think Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House, etc.). The location is more fabulous then we ever thought we could afford. The first apartment we looked at was a nice size, had hardwood floors, but one bedroom was significantly smaller and had no windows. Bummer. Then the landlord mentions that there is actually another apartment and he just find out the guys deposit check bounced, so why don't we take a look? We agree and trot upstairs. This apartment is bi-level. Dream come true. It has a skylight and two big windows in the living area. The kitchen has a bar/pass-through into the living/dining area with cool pendent lighting that hands over it. The bathroom is large and has a lovely large mirror over the sink. The bedrooms are relatively equal in size with nice, equally large closets. And the rooms are not plain boxes but have interesting alcoves and angled walls as one might expect from a 200 year old building. There is a washer/dryer in the bathroom. The living area is on the top floor so neighbors cannot be upset about late night games of Wii tennis or DDR. Dogs are permitted and there is a nice fenced in park nearby to walk them. Each apartment has a 10x10 lockable storage closet in the basement. The only downside? The yucky navy blue industrial looking carpet. Oh well, we can buy area rugs. We leave the apartment, in love with both the building and the landlord.

We went to look at our last apartment and while it is perfectly fine, even nice, it just does not compare to the beautiful bi-level in size, amenities, location, or price. We immediately call the lovable landlord who e-mails us applications and after filling them out and dropping off our deposit, the apartment it being held for us. Unfortunately, the lovable landlord has given Mr. Slacker Bounced Check until 5:30pm to get his money in. We put our deposit in for either apartment with our first choice being the bi-level. Everything must be rushed because he is showing the apartment again at 6:30. We frantically exchange e-mails and calls until finally...we have the bi-level! Yay! The other apartment is also rented that evening. The following week we get e-mails saying that our applications (with the help of our parents as co-signers) have been approved and we can sign the lease November 1st. I am overwhelmed with excitement.

I'm helping Kim move the majority of her stuff in on Nov. 3rd. Which is also the day she takes her math GRE. Will someone else please tell her how crazy this is? I will probably be gradually moving my stuff in starting then with the majority being moved on Nov. 17th. Anyone in the area is more then welcome to lend a hand!

One of the most exciting parts of our new apartment is the fabulous location! Every month Old City hosts First Friday which is an open house for the many art galleries in the area. Music, wine, and cheese abound and with at least 2 art galleries on our block, it's sure to be hopping. It's also conveniently on our move in day this month! What a way to be welcomed into the neighborhood. According to Lonely Planet, Old City also has the densest concentration of liquor licenses anywhere in the U.S. besides New Orleans. See, you really do want to come help us move.

It Continues to Haunt Me

Today was my first day back from class after my month long break so to console myself I didn't pay attention and surfed the Internet. Really I always do that, but I thought I'd attempt a justification. After exhausting my usual reading material, I decided to check housingmaps.com for apartment available in Philadelphia. I'm scrolling through the list, not really seeing too much that's appealing when I come across a listing for a luxury two bedroom in Society Hill. I open it up and what do I find? The amazing apartment with original hardwood floors (listed as such this time) and tons of charm that I previously drooled over in this post! It was just listed again yesterday. This sent me into fresh waves of wanting it and whining about it to everyone that would listen again. It's like it's there, waiting just for me. Or it's there to torture me. I'm not really quite sure which yet. Anyone looking to sublease for two months in Philly?

The Philadelphia Story: A Day of Apartment Hunting

On Wednesday, my future roommate Kim and I set out to begin the research for our planned November exodus to the City of Brotherly Love. I finish my nursing program on October 31st so our goal is to move to Philly sometime around then. While we have been planning this for many months, no real actual progress has been made on the plans so on Wednesday, the second hottest day of the summer or some such thing, the research kicked off in high gear.

We spent most of Tuesday night researching apartments on Craigslist. But not directly on Craigslist. No no. We had done just enough research to discover the fabulous hybrid of HousingMaps. With HousingMaps, you get a blend of Craigslist and GoogleMaps with fabulous searching features. Simply pick your city and price range and off you go, or click on show filters for some more great tools like number of rooms. After investigating, we had a list of 20 or so apartments that interested us. Next came phase two, or the part where we plotted them on GoogleMaps using the MyMaps feature and e-mailed listings that only had e-mail addresses for information on how we could see the apartments. After about four hours of research we went to bed, only to wake up the next morning and call all the people on the list to make appointments. To make a long story short, we ended up with 6 appointment to see 7 apartments.

We saw everything from tiny, dirty apartments to spacious townhouses with basements and yards. We looked everywhere from center city to scary ghetto South Philly. The results were kind of strange. The price range? $1450-1695. It didn't seem to matter where the apartment was or what sort of features it was offering. That's just the standard price for a two bedroom. In fact, the pricest apartment was the one in scary ghetto South Philly. One apartment we looked at had a bedroom so small you could barely close the door with a twin bed in it. For only $50 dollars more you got an apartment 5 blocks away with better location, skylights, a parking spot in the private attached garage, and a roof deck. No, I don't get it either. For a $100 more you could get a spacious 4th floor walk-up with more closets then I have ever seen in an apartment in Society Hill in a historic 18th century brownstone with what looked like the original floors. Oh just thinking about the amount of charm hurts me a little bit inside. Needless to say, I was distraught that we could not immediately make a deposit on it. In fact I moaned about this very fact for something like 45 minutes. Everytime I would whine, Kim would start to list all of its wonderful features dreamily. It was not a good cycle.

So after sweating it out on the streets, we realized that our prospects look good, if not a little more expensive then I was hoping for. But I guess it's worth it to live in right in the heart of such a great city. Now that we have some info, we're suspending the hunt until such a time when we can actually take the next apartment we fall in love with. Which is probably wise because I don't think I could stand to loose another 18th century fourth floor walkup with central air, no matter how bad the parking is.