Plannning Ahead

Apparently, I'm insane.  Who knew?

I'm in the process of looking for a place to live in Westwood.  This is turning out to be difficult - but not for reasons that one would at first assume.

I mean, Westwood is expensive.  There's no denying it.  But I'm actually being pretty reasonable in my expectations: $1000-$1400 a month for a private room in a shared apartment, or $1300-$1600 for an efficiency or small studio by myself.  These are actually pretty realistic, and there are a fair amount of listings proving such.

The problem is that everyone wants someone now, not mid-August (or later).  I can totally appreciate that: people leaving school want to get on with their lives, so they need out in June, and thus their replacements need to be in for July.  But, seriously, is it all that insane to be planning something as major as a move 2 months in advance?  I've seen only a handful of listings with a move-in of 9/1 or later, and they're all management companies for larger buildings (and thus at the higher end of my window for smaller places or with issues; they *could* work, but they're things I'm not enthusiastic about).  I mentioned this to one advertiser, and they came back like I'd sprouted a horn and was farting rainbows.

Really, if the place is cheap enough (say, ~$1000 a month), I could afford to overlap it with my current apartment for a couple of months without much of an issue.  I mean, I'm not saying it would be fun, financially, but it would be doable in a pinch.  But it looks like I'm going to have to give notice on my current place without having something lined up for the new one (I have to give 60-days' notice).

Oh well.

I've started cleaning my place up/out.  I did about 7 loads of laundry on Saturday and ended up putting aside about four bags of clothes to toss (old/torn/useless) or donate (decent shape, just not stuff I wear anymore).  Doing so, I realized I actually need more good black or gray socks, as while my dark-sock-drawer had a lot of stuff in it, most of it was stretched out completely or had holes.  I'm going to try to tackle the rest of my closet this week, as well as start in on the south wall of my bedroom (which is probably the worst area in the apartment at the moment).

But I'm also going on vacation this week, starting Thursday - which is my birthday.  I figure I'll spend the day wandering around Westwood looking for apartments and such or even exploring campus a bit, then head down to West Hollywood for the first time in ages just to hang out for a while.  Of course, all that's dependent on getting my car back; it's in the shop right now, as it seems to be leaking oil again (I don't drive much, but the oil pressure light started flickering when I was idling on Saturday).  They haven't called me to tell me what's up, so that's either good news (and it was just an oil change and a leaky valve or something) or they haven't looked at it at all.

Sunday, I drive out to Palm Springs for three days, then I'm back on the 4th and still off of work until the following Monday.  So, more apartment hunting and cleaning, though I'll probably also take a day or two and just goof off.  We all need down time, even us crazy folks.

On the plus side, just sent my final transcript off to UCLA.  I'm officially leaving my school with a 4.0.

Planning to plan

So, today is the last day of regular classes at my community college.  I've already got two confirmed A's; I need a 50% or so on the final for the third to get an A (I have a B if I get zero on the final).  But really, it means that I'm done with late night classes - possibly forever, but at least for a few years.

It'll be novel to be able to actually cook and have a somewhat normal life for a change, for however short a period that is.

I need to kick the apartment hunt into high gear.  I have to give notice at the end of the month: they require 60 days, so if I want to be out in early September, I have to tell them at the end of June or early July.  I'm debating making the official day the middle of September, with a planned actual move-in early in September.  That would give me a week or two to juggle between places and move stuff as well as clean the apartment once I'm out.  Not that I'm too worried about the latter: I've been there for over 7 years and I know for a fact they're going to replace almost everything (carpet, appliances, etc.) since they've done that for every other apartment in the building while I've been here.

But arranging the new place has a different purpose, too: right now, I can't get excited about UCLA, because I still have the anxiety of finding a place.  Once that's taken care of, I'll be mentally ready to start really thinking about the rest of the process.

So, that's the main focus right now: getting through the last week of school and getting the whole moving thing locked down.