That's a Wrap!

I am back home from my adventures in Los Angeles. I spent the final few days with Katie picking out a couch and bar stools, setting up a bank account, lining up insurance, and shopping for the necessary items she will need to get by until her stuff can be shipped to her. She was also busy making contacts and lining up interviews. In a lot of ways it does not seem real that she is staying out there permanently. She has traveled so much during the past year that it felt to me like a temporary stop on the road we call life. The song "Wide Open Spaces" came on my iPod while I was with her, and I thought the lyrics were so poignant of my feelings.

Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes 

I decided to book a flight to head home on Sunday. I went back and forth as I had heard the weather forecast in St. Louis. But I had only reserved my hotel room through Saturday night. I probably could have added another day, but quite frankly after 11 days I was ready to head home to Jim and my own bed. My flight was scheduled to leave at 12:25, so Katie dropped me off at the airport about 10:20. I checked my bag and printed out my boarding pass. My first clue to potential problems should have been that I wasn't charged for the bag. I attributed that to the fact that I booked my flight so late and paid an obscene price for it. The second clue was my boarding time, but I didn't even notice that. I just looked at the boarding pass long enough to ensure that it was Flight 818 to St. Louis. My bad!

About an hour went by before I checked my boarding pass again, and then I freaked out when it said that boarding was to begin at 3:40, with the flight departing at 4:10. Holy crap! I ran to check one of the boards, and sure enough the flight was delayed. After speaking with an American representative I found that due to bad weather in St. Louis on Saturday, many flights had been cancelled and it was balling everything up on Sunday. Bad weather on Sunday added to the problems, especially since the Midwest, Dallas and Chicago were all experiencing delays. Darn it! I should have gone with my gut and booked for Monday.

So I hung out at the airport all day, and mid-afternoon my flight disappeared from the board altogether. The American rep assured me it was because they had no room on the board and bumped our flight to add a different one on. Liar, liar, pants on fire. When I asked later, I was told that the gate had changed. When I went to the new gate, there was no mention of Flight 818 on the screen at the gate. I had to check with other passengers to make sure I was in the right place. Finally they 'fessed up that there was a mechanical problem with our plane, but they thought it could be fixed. The woman next to me said they were told the exact same story on Saturday. She was supposed to fly to St. Louis at 8:15 Saturday morning. They fed the passengers b.s. about delays, then a maintenance problem, then the fact that they thought they had a different plane to put them on, until finally at 9:00 Saturday night they told them they weren't going anywhere and put them on the Sunday 12:25 flight. So when the gate attendant said our plane could not be repaired but they thought they could get another plane for us, we did not hold out a lot of hope.

We finally began our taxi down the runway at around 7:00. We got a free snack on the plane, but only if you were smart enough to ask for it. They weren't offering, that's for sure. We arrived in St. Louis at 12:40 a.m. Poor Jim had to stay up to come and get me, and he had been on a challenging motorcycle trip all weekend. Next time I will listen to my gut.

A Place to Call Home

We signed a lease on an apartment today. Woo, hoo! We went back to take a second look at the loft apartment. While it has some things that were not as nice as the first complex we looked at, the amount of space in the unit, the location of the apartment in the back of the complex, and the view simply outweigh the negatives. As it still needs to be cleaned up we went ahead and committed to it so that management will put a priority on getting it ready for occupancy. Katie can move in on Saturday. It seems funny to say "move in" when really all she has out here is one suitcase of clothes and a couple of bags of miscellaneous items. Should make the process pretty painless! Here is a picture of the interior before they had finished the cleaning process.

We did need to go pick out a bed because with the loft set up she can actually finally have a real bed. In the past at home as well as in Chicago she has used a trundle bed. That is one less big item we will need to ship from St. Louis. The bed will be delivered on Saturday afternoon. We also had to make arrangements for a refrigerator since the apartment did not come with one. I have to say that is the one thing that really didn't sit well with me. What kind of apartment doesn't provide a refrigerator? And what do you do with it when you move out? We decided to rent one for the time being, but it won't be delivered until Monday. The power will be turned on Friday, so that is helpful. The last item is to get the Internet set up with AT&T, which we should be able to handle tomorrow. We are feeling pretty good about where we're at right now.

Apartment Hunters

Today we spent most of our time looking at apartments. At the first apartment complex we had an exceptionally nice man who showed us around the grounds. This place has four open studio apartments right now, so we got to see a variety. They were all the same in terms of layout, but definitely had different feels to them. The first one was on the ground level but a little below grade, so the window looked out into the window well. Granted it had plants in it, but it gave the unit a bit of a claustrophic feel. The second one was on the third floor and had a nice view of the hills. The only problem was that you have to look through a bunch of thick electrical wires to see them. It had much better lighting than the first apartment. The third unit had a patio, and I use the term loosely. You had the main door to enter the apartment, and then a second door (French style but a single door instead of double) that opened onto the patio. You could put a door mat on it, and that was about it. Definitely no patio furniture. It was also on the first floor. The fourth apartment, again on the first floor, actually had the main door and next to it a sliding patio door which opened onto a concrete patio, albeit a smallish one. They had one additional unit that is being renovated, which he also showed us. We didn't feel that for the additional money the few upgrades were worth the extra monthly rent.

We felt like we were on House Hunters. What, you call that a patio? Where are the stainless appliances? What about hardwood floors? Granite countertops? It was kind of funny. The second apartment building we looked at was right next door to the first, which was great since driving is a bear here and parking is next to impossible to find. This complex has only a one bedroom unit available and a loft unit. We quickly dismissed the one bedroom due to its location looking out over multiple units with tons of kids toys on the patios. But the loft unit...oh my goodness. It was nearly 200 square feet larger than the studios we looked at in the other complex. The windows look out again to the hills sans all the wires. It is in the back of the complex and the mounted police have their stables next door so you can see the horses. (Didn't smell them however, which is great.) The rent is comparable to the studios, but it feels so much more spacious. So this seems like a no brainer, right? Well, no utilities are included and it doesn't come with a refrigerator! What!

So we have made our list of pros and cons and don't have a clear winner. We will see a different complex Wednesday morning. It is more expensive, but it is a true one bedroom and has all the upgrades in it. It is also only ten minutes from Katie's potential employer, which is amazing.