The Game Continued: Contestant Number 2

The second contestant is an apartment at Fountain Park. I was able to visit a friend who has an apartment there, and got the inside scoop. This is the link:
http://www.apartmentsbloomington.com/apartments/building_details.asp?property_cd=fountainpark

For these apartments, the pluses are:

1. If you find someone who will sublease, you can assign the lease to them and have your name taken off the lease (important for the hopeful December graduate).
2. It's way out on the east side of town so it's quieter.
3. There's a bus stop, and the bus runs every 20 minutes during the week (less often on the weekend).
4. Not only is there counter space, but even more cupboards and closets than the other place.

The minuses are:

1. Electric forced air central heating and a/c.
2. Even bigger complex (they have apartments on both sides of 10th street).
3. no shorter leases (they are usually leased, though, so apparently people want to live there and it could be easy to sublease).
4. I would have to take the bus to get everywhere.
5. Depending on where you are located in the complex, it can take 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop.

So far, I think I like Meadow Park better. I will post more contestants and info as I get it.

She only thinks she's a god

Alas, the picture of Callie as an Egyptian cat god is really just her picture altered in a photo editing program. This one is what she'd look like if she were a kaleidoscope pattern. The green stripy part is the quilt over the futon. She's still pretty, no matter what I do to her pictures.

She's also pretty happy these days, since I've been hanging out with her quite a bit. After having sort of a cold over the break, then getting the flu last week, and having a migaine Wednesday, I ended up with a sinus infection on top of it all. I went to the health service yesterday and am fully drugged. I'm resting up over the weekend, and will hopefully go into Monday feeling healthier. My new year's resolution: to stop saying, it can't get worse.

Her past life

"Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed…the Great Cat

Inscription on the royal tombs in Thebes

A New Game: Contestant Number 1

Since I have been so good at picking apartments (yes, that's sarcasm for those of you keeping score), let's play a new game. It's called help Trish pick a new apartment for next fall. I will be listing the contestants here. Once the list is complete, I will announce the voting, at which time you can cast your vote for an apartment.

The first contestant is an apartment at Meadow Park. This is the link: http://www.apartmentsbloomington.com/apartments/building_details.asp?property_cd=meadowpark.

For these apartments, the pluses are:

1. If you find someone who will sublease, you can assign the lease to them and have your name taken off the lease (important for the hopeful December graduate).
2. There's a built-in bookcase in the living room.
3. Since they paint after every moveout, you can paint your apartment and not get charged for it!
4. Some of the second floor apartments have small balconies in the back.
5. It's way out on the east side of town so it's quieter.
6. There's a bus stop out front and the bus runs every 20 minutes during the week (less often on the weekend).
7. Not only is there counter space, but lots of cupboards and closets.
8. They don't make you hire someone to clean your carpet.

The minuses are:

1. Electric forced air central heating and a/c (expensive, but probably cheaper than the wall-mounted electic heaters I have now)
2. Big complex (300 or so apartments).
3. no shorter leases (but people wanting to sublet in December were able to by January this year)
4. I would have to take the bus to get everywhere.

I got to look at the model apartment after work today. Bonnie came with me to be the voice of reason. They look nice, and it seems like a relatively quiet place. I will be posting the other candidates as I view them. I'll let you know when you can cast your votes.

On the health side of things, I'm getting better. I've had real food today. Yippee. I'm working tomorrow for awhile at the new job, to make up/catch up. Other than that, it's lots of reading and sleeping for me.

Feeling Better

After some very interesting dreams last night, caused by a bit of a temperature, I think I'm heading toward better health. I went out to get some chicken broth and crackers, and survived the trip. It's only 3 1/2 blocks away, but by the time I got back home, I was feeling like I'd done a marathon or climbed to base camp one on Everest.

Now I can rest up until I go to work tomorrow at the Education Library. It's usually fairly quiet on Saturday mornings, though, and as it's incredibly hard to find a sub, I would go in unless I were completely unable to do it. I'm going in to work at the new job over the weekend, to catch up/make up for missing two days.

The semester is off to a rousing start. I'm behind in classes and I'm sure my new boss is thinking that he should/could have hired someone else. And it's supposed to get very cold for here - highs in the teens and negative numbers at night. On the plus side, the cold weather and the recovery will help me continue with some crafty projects I've got going. So, in spite of some minor speed bumps, life is good, and certainly better than the alternative.

Longest Week in the History of Humankind

Oh yes it is. Okay, my perception is admittedly off. What I was calling the stress-beginning-of-the-semester-tired thing is the flu. It explains a lot, like why I've been dragging myself through the past few days and why my brain has felt like it's on vacation. Nothing like a bit of a fever to burn out the fuzziness, though. Now if the rest of my body would cooperate...

(this is where I wish I were)

Let the Games Begin

So, week number 2 begins tomorrow. While I began my new job this past week, things were slow. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing there. With things picking up for this next week, I'm hoping I get a better feel for how the office functions. The council meets Tuesday for a state of the campus address by the Provost. That sounds interesting, but I learned Friday that this involves a reception afterward, something that strikes terror into the heart of socially inept library science students. Ah well, this is where I start paying back that fee remission part. Wish me luck, because I will need it.

I have begun checking on apartments for fall. This is the initial contact phase, which will result in the official visit phase, which in turn results in the signed lease. I am hoping to find a six month lease. I don't think that will happen, so the next best option is a place which allows a subleasee who can assume the lease. That (also) is highly improbable. We shall see. I have never lived in a place with such unusual housing issues. When I mention any of them, I'm met by, "It's a college town." Hate to say, but I've lived in several other college towns, and this is less a college town thing and more of a all-bets-are-off-there-are-no-regulations thing.

I remain ever hopeful, though. After my previous experiences, my standards have been lowered. If I can find something that doesn't leak, has pipes that don't freeze, can be heated and cooled adequately, has even three feet of kitchen counter space, and allows a cat, I could be happy. I look back at my places in Missoula longingly, even those which I then considered to be unworkable for some reason. I would be happy to be living in any of them again. With a cat, it's even more fun looking for places. Here, we have not only the pet deposit, but the portion which is nonrefundable (you pay for having a pet, not for any damage that might be caused by the pet), in addition to a monthly pet rent.

How could anyone not want such a cute cat as a tenant? (the mat behind her is the first scratching device she's ever willingly used.)

Week 1

1. I have survived the first week of class.
2. It has stopped raining so much that my apartment is back to its gentle leaking (in the form of spreading water stains), and not the dripping from the ceiling, running down the walls leaking of Tuesday night.
3. I think I will like all my classes, some more than others. None as much as the kids' class last semester.
4. I think I will like the new job, especially once it picks up a bit more and I figure out what it is I'm supposed to be doing.
5. I am still working three jobs (2 regularly and 1 sporadically).
6. My bursar bill has been unraveled, so my financial state is now better than it's been for months. That began working itself out Monday, and I have seen concrete results today. (yippee)
7. As a result of the concrete financial results, I can now see out from under my bangs. Why is it that a haircut can make me so happy?
8. Now that I have some money, I can get my books and do my reading for next week.

Global warming drops by for a visit

It's nearly midnight and still 62 degrees. Okay, in, oh, say, April, this could be explained. But. It's. January. The. Seventh.

Happy first day of the semester.

Some Observations

These are some random observations from the day, in no particular order.

1. It's slightly after 8pm, and the temperature is 61 degrees. It's supposed to be in the 60s and 50s most of the week.
2. When you cook and freeze black beans, and then use them later in black bean soup, the texture is perfect. The cooking/freezing procedure would not work so well for other things, I think.
3. Bloomington is much nicer (ie quieter) during break, when all the students are gone. This makes me look forward to the summer.
4. My current apartment has been rented for next school year already. This is in spite of the fact that the roof leaks, the neighborhood is loud, it has no real insulation and only single pane windows, it's heated with cheap (read inefficient) wall-mounted electric heat. The new guy was quite happy, as this was larger and nicer than most things he'd looked at.
5. This says much about the state of the rental market in town and the lack of all but really basic code requirements. It's like a third world country right here in the US, and makes Montana look reasonable and quite humane. I am not looking forward to trying to find something for only half the year. (Most leases are from August to August, and are not flexible, which would be why my apartment will be with the new guy and not me.)
6. Classes start tomorrow, and I am generally looking forward to the semester.
7. I'm hoping that since the woman who has my tuition remission destiny in the palm of her hand will be back in her office tomorrow that the whole bursar bill/financial fiasco will be unraveled by the end of the week.

Careers for 2008

US News and World Report had an article recently on Best Careers for 2008, in which they listed the following as the careers for the year (http://www.usnews.com/features/business/best-careers/best-careers-2008.html):

Audiologist
Biomedical equipment technician
Clergy
Curriculum/training specialist
Dentist
Editor
Engineer
Firefighter
Fundraiser
Genetic counselor
Ghostwriter
Government manager
Hairstylist/cosmetologist
Higher education administrator
Investment banker
Landscape architect
***Librarian***
Locksmith/Security system technician
Management consultant
Mediator
Occupational therapist
Optometrist
Pharmacist
Physician assistant
Politician/Elected official
Professor
Registered nurse
School psychologist
Systems analyst
Urban planner
Usability/User experience specialist

Okay, so I changed the librarian listing just a little. I'm amazed that I have chosen a career that's made it onto a list of favorable careers. Who would have predicted that, knowing my penchant for esoteric academic degrees? Woo hoo! I may actually be able to find a job when I graduate!

This is what else the article had to say about the career, for those who wonder what's up with librarians being cool.


Librarian: Executive Summary
By Marty Nemko
Posted December 19, 2007

Forget about that image of librarian as a mousy bookworm. Librarians these days must be high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records. It's an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons dig up information and, in the process, learning new things. Librarians may also go on shopping sprees, deciding which books and online resources to buy. They even get to put on performances, like children's puppet shows, and run other programs, like book discussion groups for elders. On top of it all, librarians' work hours are reasonable.

Median Pay
National: $51,400. (Data provided by PayScale.com)

Clean Sweep For a New Year

I've been in the mood to organize for the past week or so. I don't know if it was the new year, or some sort of psychic connection to Adriana, but I spent the day going through things. I organized things I was keeping, filled a large plastic storage tote with things to give away, and filled half a garbage bag with things to throw away. I dusted and vacuumed, too, and did some sink laundry. It was a very domestic day altogether.

I don't know what it is about organizing and sorting things - it's so satisfying. Getting rid of things is very satisfying, too. There must be something to the feng shui idea that clutter stops energy from moving around; it gets stuck and so do you. I know I feel lighter and easier after clearing things. Now to find someone with a car who doesn't mind helping to take the box of give aways someplace.

I'm hoping tomorrow will bring some sort of resolution (or at least answers) to my current paperwork snafu. One thing is sure. The high tomorrow is supposed to be about 17, so whatever happens will happen in many layers of bundling.