Moved in

August 12, 2017. Not a date that will slip my memory. It's the day that I moved into my first apartment. I had the date set for probably three weeks in advance. Waking up that morning, I didn't feel afraid. I didn't feel overwhelmed. Well, except I wish I had a little more cash for it. But my attitude was I had a job to do and I was going to do it that day.

 

It was absolutely pouring rain that morning. Not the day to be moving a ton of stuff back and forth. I loaded 25 or 30 hangers with clothes on the rod inside my car, wishing I could have covered them in plastic bags. I arrived at the leasing office at 9:55, waiting for the doors to open. The staff arrived late and I did not get my keys until 10:15. Fifteen minutes may not sound like a big deal, but knowing I had more belongings still sitting in my room, and knowing that my friend was waiting for me to be ready so he could help me unpack, those minutes crawled by ever so slowly.

 

Craig came over and we started unloading my car. He focused on my clothes and I took just about everything else in. Thankfully, the staff let me use a covered parking space, so my items didn't have to get too wet. After about ninety minutes, we were done with the first load. The only casualty was half a bottle of cheap glass cleaner from the dollar store spilling on my kitchen counter. At least it was from the dollar store so it only cost me about five dimes

I made one more run back to the hotel, mostly for food and winter clothes. My car was only about half full this time. It seems like 90 percent of what I have is kitchen stuff and clothes. All in all, it took us about 2 and a half hours to unload everything.

 

I offered to take Craig for lunch to say thank you. We walked to The Cove, a tropical-ish restaurant in City Centre. We split the crab dip and each had an order of fish tacos. It certainly wasn't the best meal I've ever had, but after all that moving, it hit the spot. I will say the crab dip with the lightly toasted bread points was quite good, even if it was a little heavy.

After lunch, I went back to #5411. The apartment was very clean, the carpets had been professionally cleaned before I moved in. I started rearranging my closet and the kitchen. The two things it's very short on are furniture and light. I have one card table, one folding chair. No couch, no bed, no bedroom furniture. All my clothes are either hanging up or they're inside one of four suitcases. Then there's the light issue. There's no light in living room, aside from two small lamps I put on either side of the TV. There's no light in my bedroom, as I couldn't fit any floor lamps in my car.

But the biggest setback I had was the mattress didn't inflate. Even with new D batteries, there was no airflow at all. So I'm essentially sleeping on carpet. At this point I have a stack going on. It's my yoga mat, then the deflated mattress, then two bed sheets folder over twice, and two blankets. My back was not at all comfortable last night. The only way I got through the night was to put a pillow under my back the long way for support. And I still woke up at 3 and 5 am.

Keith from Cox came over at 3:45, and stayed about an hour to install my cable and Internet. So that's good, though I could use a stand to put the TV on.

 

I don't mean to complain. I'm thankful for this place and everything in it. It just feels half empty. But in two weeks, we'll see if it truly feels like home.