Hallelujah!!

Many of the apartments in my price range are called "bachelor" apartments. Typically a bachelor comes without a kitchen. Yes, you read that correct; no kitchen! Also, they are not forgiving in their size. Since I have quite a lot of furniture and like to make mac 'n cheese from time to time, I wanted something more than that. The best way I saw to make that happen, was to start my search now. I signed up for a local apartment search service and updated my rental checklist. One of the first places I found seemed almost too good to be true. It was actually a 1 bedroom and in my price range! They were showing the apartment on 9/25, so I had to go check it out after work. After looking on a map, I see that this place is only 3.5 miles to the beach and just 4 miles from Brian's house. So far, so good. Upon arriving in the neighborhood, I realize that I had wondered about this area before, thinking I might like to live there. Getting better. I park and walk to figure out exactly which building it is. As I walk up to it, I see a clean, lovely building with a nice courtyard area filled with plants and flowers. Very cute! I head up to view the open unit. Immediately when I walked in it reminded me of my old apartment in Mpls. Gold!

The woman showing the place and I got to talking. She is actually the daughter of the caretaker who happens to be 90 years old! So her daughter helps her with showings and cleaning vacancies. I glance around the whole apartment and know that this is what I want. I start doing the math in my head, wondering if I can afford double rent for October and November. Our conversation continues and she mentions to me that she'll "be going through all this again next month." I perked up with interest. "You mean November 1st?" She replied, "Yes." I jumped on the opportunity to explain my situation and how that is when I would like to find a place and how I really the love the apartment. I tell her that I will pay the deposit now to secure it and ask what steps I need to take to have the property owners approve me.

A short online application, and a weekend later and I start getting nervous. This really seems too good to be true. A one bedroom, assigned carport parking, laundry on site, in my price range, close to Brian and the beach?!?! There's no way. I try to stifle my excitement with looking at other apartments and doing anything to keep my mind off of it.

Monday evening I received a phone call from another landlord that I had contacted telling me about his vacancy. After hanging up, I sit down to eat my dinner and my phone rings again. I'm a little annoyed as I would like to eat a hot dinner, but I figure it best to go into my room and check my phone. It's an unknown number, so I pick up. Sure enough, it's Casey from the apartment I loved. She doesn't waste any time letting me know that the owners have selected me as the person for their November 1st vacancy!! I nearly dropped the phone and almost started crying in the same moment. She let me know the details of paying the deposit, rent and signing the basic tenant rules, which I plan to do tomorrow after work.

I honestly couldn't be more thrilled. Sometimes the heartache and headaches we are put through test us and then it makes the treats in life that much sweeter. I believe every choice we make will guide us to our next step and even though the past year and a half, I feel I've made mistakes and haven't gone with my gut all the time, that is all behind me and I'm looking forward. This home will truly be my home and I cannot wait to see what the future will bring.

Oh and come visit me! I live by the ocean now! :)

Until next time...

Hopeful Autumn

The past few months my friends out here have been hearing me say, "September is going to fly by." Well it certainly has! Here we are with just 6 short days until we can say good-bye. I can honestly say I'm thrilled. The closer and closer I get to moving into a new home, the better. Last night it took Brian an hour to get to my house and he didn't leave until after 7pm. By the time he arrived, his mood was ruined and all he could say was, "I can't wait for you to move." I feel the same. I'm more frequently going his direction, so I deal with traffic even more. It will be so amazing if I can find an apartment near enough that we can bike to one another's houses. On top of that I'm excited to have my own little place in the world again. Some place where no one can bring stress into my home unless I allow it. After doing a little budgeting, I think I'm going to be able to swing living alone and I cannot wait! Yes, I've basically been living alone since June, but it has not been without drama. I swear every other week something new gets drummed up. At any rate, I will be out for sure by November 17th. Come on November!

Now for a little of what has been keeping me sane. Labor Day Weekend, Brian and I decided to go camping together. It has been years since my last camping experience, but I felt confident that going with Brian was going to be a whole new experience. I couldn't have been more on the money! We had a blast. It was one of the better weekends I've had in a long, long time. We relaxed, ate, hiked, swam, slept and even fished! Yes, I fished! It didn't actually go too well. After my fifth cast, my line tangled so bad that I was out for the weekend. We're going to give fishing another shot one of these weekends though. I need to redeem myself! I digress. It was such a different camping experience to go with someone who has done it a million times, has all the gear and knows what it takes. We ate like kings! Also, it was just incredible to have him all to myself, with no distractions and no life stress. I cannot wait until the next trip!

This past weekend, Brian and I made another trip to Colorado for yet another wedding. This one was quite interesting. It was a sunrise ceremony on top of a mountain! We were up before 5am and up on the mountain by 6. It really was beautiful and they pulled out all the stops for this one. The groom was a friend of Brian's and also happened to be someone we both went to high school with, so I saw a few high school folks which was kind of neat. Since we were in Colorado, we wanted to see Brian's sister, Beth and her boyfriend. They came and picked us up at our hotel near Boulder and we went to play a round of disc golf. The course wasn't overly tough, but it was so beautiful. It was right at the base of the Rockies. You can't ask for better scenery!

Another exciting item is that Brian has asked me if I'd join him for Thanksgiving in Iowa. I'm really looking forward to meeting his parents and more of his extended family. We are having a little difficulty finding reasonable airfares, which stinks. I ran into the same issue when I wanted to go home to Christmas last year. I'm sure we'll find a way to make it happen and of course I will report on how it goes!!

Time to sign off. I included a few pictures of both our camping excursion and the Colorado wedding. Enjoy!

Until next time...