Thursday and Friday

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have actually been busy! I am going to start with Thursday (last week)

This is what my room looked like on tuesday night:




There were boxes EVERYWHERE. Look at the little walkway I made for myself.
















Picture from the other direction. One of the suitcases I took with me. (This one wasn't over the limit). My printer. My red chair. I love that red chair.









Thursday:

So we (both parents and I) made it to the airport on time. We had six luggages. Well, when it came time to weigh them, 3 out of 6 were too heavy. All my fault. My parents give me 5 bags to fill up but I filled up only 4. So we had to re-arrange EVERYTHING in the airport. Hahaha. Then we got to out flight.

The carrier was Frontier. I enjoyed the flight completely. They had cute little lcd tvs in front of you. You could watch a variety of channels. Which was way cool. They had something for everyone. For me: SciFi, Boomerang. My parents: NEWS (newsdorks). The only catch was the viewing is free for all the time spent on the ground and approximately 15 minutes in the air. Then afterward it is 5 dollars for regular tv and 8 dollars for pay-per-view. Me being cheap, I didn't want it after my free 15 minutes. Hehehe. We had one stop in Denver, CO. If it had transfered to the next plane, I would have highly considered it. Meh.

We get to California around 11 am and get our car. WELL, we were supposed to get a mini-SUV or a van. But my dad got a Dodge Avenger. Luckily all our stuff fit. Amazing. We decided to go to my apartment first and get the paperwork done because their hotel was FAAAARRRR away. They wanted to be closer to the airport (which is understandable). But on top of being FAARR away, their is LA traffic to consider. Eh.

Jum's apartment! We went in there. No problems. I sign the stuff I am supposed to sign. They give me my keys. Tada! DONE. We go and look at the apartment with the agent to see if there is anything out of place. It was great. We went and ate at a nearby restaurant. Then we went back to the hotel. By this time, it is around 5 pm. We check in and call it a night. That's thursday. :)



Friday:
So Friday, my dad told me to call Arroyo to ask for my money back. They didn't pick up the phone (biiiig surprise). I left them a message and they haven't called back (today is wed.). Then I called Will (World Moving Services agent) to ask where my stuff was. He re-directed my call! He was (is) the one in charge of letting me know where my things are. So I talked to the next person. And they re-directed my call again. I am getting irritated at this point because of the run around I am being put on. The third person is trying to figure out where my things are and then tells me "THEY DON'T KNOW". What happened to cell phones!??! Oh then I get the "they don't know when the delivery will be made." So my dad says I should call Will again. Then he takes the phone from me and gives him the third degree. We haven't heard from them since. And no one knows where my things are. The only thing is that they have until thursday (jan 24) or they have voided the contract and therefore, they won't receive any money and the deposit that was made, will be refunded back to my parents. Overall, no one was happy.

We went to look around the area. I took my parents to my work place. Well around my work place. Not inside. I don't even know what it looks like on the inside (the lobby incident). Hehehe.

Next stop: DMV. Matt had forewarned me that they will give me a written test. So I went in there and waited in line. Got to my turn. The guy who was processing my stuff didn't say anything about a test so I thought I got lucky and was really excited. Then he took my money and said "Go over to Camera 2 for your photo and test". AAHH. So I asked him where the booklet was so that I could cram. I was going to come back another day after I studied but I would have to forfeit the 28 dollars I paid. And well, money doesn't grow on trees. While in line, I am trying to read in super fast mode. I get my picture taken and it is time for the test. I might as well have no read the book because nothing I read over was on the exam. There are 36 questions. A first time license seeker can miss 6 questions. A renewal can miss only 3. I didn't know where I fit in because I am technically a renewal. But I am a newbie in CA. I just hoped I wouldn't miss more than three. So I had to get back in line for the dude to grade my exam. There were about 10-12 people in front of me. Only two passed. That did not make me feel good at all. I get to my turn and I only missed three! WOO. I passed. Then he tells me I need to go through some doors and I asked him for what. He said to take a driving test. WHOA. Noooo. I told him I have a license already. So he has to do some paper correcting and I got a temp license (that's how they do it here). But in the end, I got my license. That's out of the way.

Then my car got there on time. No problems. So I had a car, a license, and no furniture. On Friday that is.

I will try and do the other later. Time to go do something fun.

What a day

What a day indeed. I got my car. Hurrah. My furniture and things will NOT be showing up until next week. My parents are mad. I'm mad. But it could be worse. My car could not be here. But it is. So I can get around. I will go into it more tomorrow. I am tired so off to bed. Goodnight.

Ack

Note on moving: My car is arriving sometime friday evening / saturday morning.
Well, in less than 5 hours, I will be on my way to the airport. >_<

I'm bummed. This is all wrong. BE HAPPY.

Continued...again

Sorry I didn't post when I said I would. But here I am!

I took pictures of my room because it got horrendously messy and gross. I haven't uploaded them yet to my computer but I will! Then we can all have a laugh. :)

The movers came friday at 7 am! They originally were supposed to be there at 9 am but something happened and they said they were showing up at 7. Everything got packed up. I had to follow them to the furniture store b/c my bed was chilling out there. I live approximately 40 minutes from the furniture place. I was almost there when the car movers called to tell me that they were near my house. Which is all great except for the fact that I am 40 minutes away now. I told the dude that I wouldn't be able to make it back until 10 am.

10 am I was at home and car moving dude wasn't. He calls at 10:10 am to ask directions to my house (ahahaha). Yeah. Then apparently he needed to be at an auction by 11 am. There was no way he was gonna make it. Luckily, I knew where he was going to be because it happened to be close to where my family used to live before. I had a friend (Kat) pick me up and we hung out.

It was fun. We had pizza and we played DDR. LOVE DDR. I got to meet her puppy Grayson. GRAYSON HUMPED MY LEG! I was sooooooooo weirded out. Hahahaha. Thinking about it now still makes me feel weirded out. Aaaaahhhh. I thought only little dogs did that. Nope. Aaaah.

I called the moving company to make sure the weight of my things did not mysteriously climb up. And sure enough it did. I'm glad I checked it out now because it would have been a problem when we got to SV. And that's where rumors start becoming reality - the whole "if you don't pay this much, we keep your stuff" thing. I told the moving company I wanted a re-weigh (is that a word?!?) done.

I think that's pretty much it until thursday. I'll post if anything else come up. :)

Continued

First two down...Agoura Hills...10 minutes. Agoura Hills is ....quaint. I went to Archstone Agoura Hills for my appointment. The lady I spoke to (Shannon) was very nice. I told her I was interested in the 1 bedroom 1 bath apartments etc. Turns out they don't have models to show me and that the 1 bed/1 bath will be available in January but are not currently. Then I asked if she could show me anything so that I could get a feel for the place. Alas no. The manager had stepped out and taken the keys with him. I told her I would come back later in the day. Which I did. But it was meh.

I went to Simi Valley next. Which is farther out west. Love Simi Valley. It's cute. Very. I went to the complex and the lady (Amber) was really cool. She asked me what I wanted in an apartment and she gave me a list of those that fit what I wanted. Then we went and saw all of them. I took pictures of one of the apartments! :)







The bedroom. Most of the wall on the right is closet space. I love that there is a ceiling fan.















The bathroom.


















Washer and dryer.






















The living room and balcony.












The kitchen. One thing I should say about ALL the kitchens I have been in while looking at different apartments. They are all gas! No electric stoves. I mean, I survived two years in Hilltop with gas stoves but really! What does California have against electric stoves!?!??! I like the kitchen btw.








So I really really like this place. I had a few more to look at but this became my #1 option. Then I went to Thousand Oaks. I had 4 apartments to view there. I didn't go to the first three. Well I would go up to the building and turn back. I just couldn't see myself living in those areas. The first was completely submerged in familia suburbia. The apartment complex was surrounded by houses. The next two were in not so good areas. Then the last one. Arroyo.

I tried to make an appointment on the phone with a lady I will soon learn was Mary. When I had called pre-Christmas, she was very...abrupt with me. I shrugged it off as a 'must have been a bad day'. When I went into the office, there was only one lady there. Her name was Linda. She wasn't mean but she wasn't helpful or nice either. She did show me what a model of the available one bedrooms looked like.




The bedroom.

















The bathroom. The structure of the bathroom bothers me. I didn't like it.













The kitchen.
















Part of the living room.













Arroyo Villa was having a special that if you put part of a deposit down you got an apartment for $1370. The rooms normally start at $1650. Even though I liked Simi Valley better, I thought with Arroyo Villa I was getting 'more bang for my buck'. It certainly looked that way. Then the paperwork. I understood why most of the questions where necessary until I got to the part where I had to show proof of work. I told Linda I wouldn't be working until Jan 28. And she said that was fine. I just needed to put my work number etc etc. The end. I put a $150 as deposit and felt pretty good.


Until four days ago. I got call from a lady called Rhonda. And she said she needed my bank statements and my offer letter to go through with my 'background processing'. I asked her why and exactly how would my bank statements help with that. She said she needed proof to see if I could actually afford the place and that I would need a co-signer in case I didn't pay. (At 21 yrs old?!??!) I could understand the offer letter but bank statements? I told her that my parents were out of town and that nothing could be faxed until saturday and she told me quite matter-of-factly that if I wasn't able to show proof that day, my hold on the apartment would be dropped. By this point I was very upset. How was that fair at all? I called my dad (he was in Utah) and asked him to call the lady. He somehow convinces her (I don't know how he does it) that Saturday was ok. He told me to fax the offer letter and the bank statements anyway. That evening (tuesday evening) I get a call from Mary (another leasing agent at Arroyo - the evilest of them all) that my 'background processing' was almost complete and that it looked like I could afford the place. BUT that since I was coming from out of state and I had no history of renting I would either have to:

1. Pay market value as deposit ($1650), or
2. Have a co-signer.

I obviously chose the latter. The next day, she calls me (actually she left me a voicemail) to tell me she didn't know that my parents were also in WI (and then blames Rhonda) and I couldn't have a co-signer from out of state because it was company policy. At this point I was so angry I wanted to tell to keep her stupid apartment.

1. How does that excuse even make sense!??! If I live in my parents' house in WI, then obviously they live there too!
2. COMPANY POLICY MY BUTT.


I knew they were just trying to be mean. And there was no way I was paying $1650. I read reviews online that they are notorious for taking deposits and finding excuses for keeping it (aka re-painting, steaming carpets etc). $500 is not bad. But $1650? No way. By that night, I was so irritated and I wanted to drop them like a hot pocket. I remembered Simi Valley and decided to call the next day (thursday morning). Apparently my dad gave them a good rundown on the phone about how unprofessional their attitude was and how ashamed they should be for what they were doing to me. Hehehe. Then after some father magic, they agreed to let me do a deposit of $500. I'm thinking what happened to 'company policy', eh?

I called Simi Valley and asked if the room I saw was still available. And it was! I asked if they would need my offer letter, bank statements, a co-signer, my blood, first born child....(FYI I really did not say the last two). They said no. All they wanted was an address of where I worked and how much I would be making. Ta-da! I haven't called Arroyo yet to tell them to make like a tree. But I will. Sheesh.

That's it for now. More to come tomorrow.

This should have happened earlier

Ok kids. I was supposed to have started this a loooooong time ago. And I didn't. But it's here now. I should be going to bed since the movers are coming at 7 AM! Ugh. I will be without a car for a week. But that isn't too bad.


If you didn't know before, I am moving to CA. Yay. Also. If you didn't know, moving is hard. Putting your life into boxes is hard. Trying to find things you need is hard. I think you get the point. I didn't start packing until two days ago. But I am done now. I'm impressed if you aren't.


Let's start with the apartment shopping part. I went to CA Dec 27 - 29 to look at apartments.

Sidestory: I was going to call Matt to see if he was in town. I never called. Turns out he was. Not that you care, but I felt bad. Back to main story.

So I went to look at apartments. I had about 8 I was supposed to look at. The first one was super expensive. They "pro-rated" it for me to make it cheaper. Cheaper was $1750 a month. No utilities. And no parking permit included in rent. LAME. They were The Pointe at Warner Center. Plus, I wasn't going to be on the top floor. I wanted top floor. I learned through my friends that I never want someone living above me. They would have put me on the 2nd floor. (There are four floors). Here are the pictures of Pointe:






This was the kitchen. The only thing that bothered me was that the computer desk place was literally in the kitchen. I didn't like that so much.














The living room. I can't remember what the square foot for the whole apartment was. But it wasn't impressive for $1750.












The bathroom.















The bedroom. I didn't take a picture of the closet but it was small. *sadface*











Next one was SUPPOSED to be in Woodland Hills. FYI Canoga Park and Woodland Hills are right next to each other. The former is a not so good town and the latter is a good town. The apartment complex LIED and said they were in Woodland Hills. They were clearly in Canoga Park and I was very displeased. I didn't even go into the building. I just drove off. Two down. I then went to Agoura Hills. Which is about 10 minutes from Canoga Park/Woodland Hills. I should also say that it was very not busy when I went. Probably due to it being around Christmas time and all.



I am going to stop here. I am tired and I need to get up b/c of the movers. Goodnight.