The last time I attempted to write my blog was in May. Seeing as how it is now August, I obviously failed there. Heh. But, thanks to some snide comments from my lovely Uncle passed off by my mom, I have returned to the computer to try and update on our story. :: We join our heroes in progress at their hotel, walking over to the café to get a free continental breakfast. ::
Christopher and I woke early, with ease, after a night of sleeping in a decent bed. We made our way over to the hotel’s café to get our continental breakfast. We were all too aware of the cost of things in California and were determined to use our “freebies” as a way to save money. After all, spending money happens in a blink, especially when it comes to grabbing food here and there.
After eating, we separated the car from the trailer and truck filled with our possessions. There was no need or desire to drive the truck around, so we left it sitting out in front of the hotel. (We made a point to check that it was still locked and unharmed every time we left and returned to the hotel.) We set out in the Lexus to Los Angeles from our hotel in Ontario. We had at least a month of relevant research on possible places to live, and we knew a lot of the places we wanted to try and see. There were two management companies that seemed to have apartments in our price range, so we started there. The GPS continued to show its worth. I’m not sure how difficult it would have been to find places just based on a printed map from Google, but I imagine it would not have been fun.
Without dragging you along with a story of every apartment we looked at, let me just skip ahead to the evenings we returned to the hotel:
Evening 1: We still believed it was going to happen. We were going to find a place to live. That first day of apartment searching, we saw a few possibilities, and a few “no way!”s. All and all, I it was an eye-opening experience. It was crazy to see how small apartments in our price range were here, versus the size we could get in Texas. Guess it’s true, “Everything is bigger in Texas.” We learned more about Los Angeles, and made surprisingly good time to and from the hotel.
Evening 2: We were disheartened. We had doubts, pain, and frustration clouding our minds. That was by far the longest searching day. We saw some crazy-awful places. The price they wanted for those, we’ll just say, was ridiculous. There were some interesting locations, like a place right outside the giant, and blue, Church of Scientology. We were told it would be a very safe area because of the amount of security they had. We decided against it, however. Sorry to those of you who were hoping to visit and convert. ;)
Evening 3: We found it. It was the last place we looked. Not at all like what some people experience with buying a house or their wedding dress. You know the story, “It was the first thing I saw. I looked at other places/dresses, but that was it!”
Our apartment was a different story. We were thinking about moving into a place on Berendo but asked the management company to show us an opening in the Oxford apartments. We had driven by the building several times, and we decided we liked the look of it. We told the leasing agent, Myra, that we wanted to see one of the open apartments, even if it wasn’t the one on the first floor that she had told us about originally. She agreed (though I think they were trying to get rid of the apartment in the other building). We saw the door of the not-move-in ready apartment on the first floor. She didn’t want to show the inside because she was unsure of its condition. The first studio she showed us in the Oxford building was on the fourth floor. It was somewhat remodeled, and it was a nicer size than the Berendo. The final apartment we were shown was directly below that apartment: #305. As soon as we walked in, we liked it better. Christopher headed off to the bathroom, while I went the opposite direction toward the kitchen. Yep, this was it. I mean, I was so happy with the stainless steel appliances, ample cabinet space, and slate tile floor. Christopher came out of the wardrobe area that led to the bathroom, we passed each other in the living area, smiling, and switched inspection places. I liked the bathroom and was happy to see the amount of closet space. Indeed, this was it.
We told Myra immediately that we would take it. After the previous day’s apartment searching disaster, we were relieved to find this spot. We filled out the applications and learned of the next steps. Because neither one of us had a job waiting for us in California, we were required to get a co-signer. Christopher’s parents were kind enough to help us. That day, there was a lot of back and forth of faxing paperwork, talking about the requirements, etc. We headed back to the hotel, happy with our decision (since we were nearing the end of our time at the hotel), but nervous, hoping that everything would go through and we would be approved.
Our next day at the hotel, we were able to relax a little bit. After all, worrying about the status of our application the entire day wouldn’t have helped things.
*From “All the Gold in California” by Larry Gatlin
