Dinah’s Busy Busy Week of Fun

Well. What a busy week I’ve been having.

Monday was relatively uneventful, though I did register with RentTech in the evening and performed an apartment search. Got about 10 or so interesting results in my price range (which I had to do a reality check on and up from “under $900” to “$925 or under”).

Tuesday I drove up to The City and stopped by the RentTech office to order sealed copies of my credit report. While they were getting those together, I called the apartments on my list. I left some messages, reached some & found out the unit had upstairs neighbors (“Sorry, but thanks for playing!”) and then got one landlady who sounded nice & competent AND had an upstairs unit. We arranged to meet at the building in an hour, I went in and retrieved my credit reports and drove over to Hayes Valley. Off to a good start: I found a parking space 2 blocks away and had time to walk around the neighborhood. Laundromat 1 block away, good. Natural food store 1 block away, excellent. Pretty quiet area, wonderful. While waiting in front of the building, I stopped a guy coming out and said “Good place to live?” He proceed to gush about the building, the landlady, the neighborhood. Very friendly guy. Turns out he manages the building next door & is just doing some painting work for this landlady. Nice fellow. And when the landlady showed up things continued great. She’s very talkative, but devoted to improving the neighborhood. Really hands-on, make-things-better.

Ah, and the apartment. *sigh* It meets all my criteria (though it’s on the small side) and I decide I’m on to a good thing. Rather than keep hunting around & risk losing it, I choose to rent it on the spot. Fortunately, between my personable manner, my exemplary credit report and the fact that I’m wearing a suit, the landlady agrees to rent it to me. We arrange that I’ll sign the lease & get keys on Thursday morning. Great!

So I head off, leave lots of hyper-bubbly messages on friends’ answering machines and go about my business for the afternoon. La la la. Lovely day in SF. I got together with Carl for a visit and a tasty hunan dinner. Before dinner I amused myself photographing the cats of the person Carl’s housesitting for. Therefore, let us now pay a visit to feline supermodel Spencer:

Spencer sleeps.

Spencer wakes.

Spencer plots.

Spencer sits.

Spencer wants to be where the other cat is.

Spencer climbs.

Spencer climbs more.

Success!

So that was an exciting Tuesday evening. When I got home I realized “Hey, as of Thursday, I have an apartment in San Francisco. I better pack.” So I did some and then more in the morning.

Wednesday at work I found it hard to concentrate. I kept wanting to be working on the move. And I got to thinking: I have to go up there on my day off (I’m only working 3 days a week for a while) therefore I can and should take a load of stuff with me. Then I thought, hey, I could rent a cargo van and take the big stuff so that all the rest of the move will be little catch-as-catch-can runs in the Beetle. So, at 4:30 the wonderful Kristin and I left work early so she could give me empty boxes from her move and take me to U-Haul to pick up a van. Thank you, Kristin! Once I was at U-Haul, I noticed that the trucks are the same price as the cargo van, so I got a truck instead. Unfortunately, they were out of the 10′ ones so I ended up with a huge 14′ monster. Hard to drive, but I got the hang of it and got home about 5:30 or 6. The fantabulous Jessa was waiting there for me with more boxes (!) and a willing attitude. With her mighty help, I ended the evening with the truck containing two large bookcases, two cd racks, a large chair & ottoman, two dressers, a coffee table, a microwave oven, two chairs, and a bunch of boxes.

I was already a bit stiff when I woke up this morning at 7:15, but I managed to put a few more small things in the truck, eat some breakfast and get myself and the laden truck up to SF by a little before 10am. Signed the lease, got the keys and… oh my… look at all the stuff in that truck. Well, only one thing to do: I started carrying up everything that didn’t take two people to move. After about an hour or so my super splendiferous friend Beverly came along to help. Beverly is a goddess. She busted her butt with me and we got more than half of it up and were starting to lag when the phone rang and it was super stud Kevin Smokler announcing his appearance shortly to help with the last heavy stuff. Oh and help he did; my goodness, but he’s a muscley boy. I hope he doesn’t ache too bad tomorrow (or at least that the smug satisfaction of being a studmuffin outweighs the twinges).

Wow. I have a place in San Francisco. Tonight, though, I will sleep in Mountain View and I think I will sleep very solidly. My body is stiff and exhausted. Bed is calling even though it’s only 8:30pm. Thanks again for help & supportive email. I’m looking forward to having people over for dinner. Um, in small groups. Very small groups in my very small – but wonderful! – place.