I find my keys exactly where my landlord told me they would be and my mom and I head up to my new apartment to check it out (I’m exhausted, but the excitement is running through me like a child waiting to open presents on Christmas morning). As I open the door and look in, I’m shocked and slightly disappointed. Its much smaller than the pictures made it seem to be (must have been the huge mirrors and angles). As we walk through my new tiny studio, I’m wishing I could have flown down to LA and looked at apartments myself (my mom picked out my first apartment in Hollywood back in 2003, so I trusted her judgment, although none of the apartments she looked at this time she fell in love with).

The walls are two-toned, but not purposely. They were touched up paint jobs, but never full painted. The wall heater/AC was COVERED in dust and dirt. The bathroom sink, toilet and shower were also extremely dirty. The only thing that looked clean was the fridge and floors. My mom made an executive decision to find the nearest Home Depot, buy some paint and paint over these mismatched walls (and we’re such rebels, we never even asked permission from the landlord). My mom was also disappointed, and almost upset with herself for not noticing when she originally checked it out that things were dirty. I personally expected them to clean and paint before I moved in. I mean they rented the apartment to me a month before I even moved.

Once we painted, we headed to Target to pick up miscellaneous items that we needed for my apartment, such as toilet paper, paper towels, hangers, CLEANING SUPPLIES, etc. We did a major deep clean, and then started to unpack my car, then my pod (which everything was covered in black dust). Unpacking for me is not as bad as packing; there are a few items I forgot I even had in my storage, and some that I wondered why I even kept. Items my mom was worried that the two of us wouldn’t be able to carry up my stairs ended up not being as heavy as either of us remembered them being, or maybe we’re just buff. By the time we had everything laid out and a few boxes unpacked, we noticed it was getting late so we started to put my bed together, BUT we were missing two very important screws, luckily I had bought a bag of hardware from Ikea, thinking I was missing pieces for my bed anyways. Wrong- they didn’t fit, nothing fit, my bed was an older model than their current beds, and they had changed and upgraded their hardware, in fact now most of their products require a real hammer and screwdriver instead of their crazy little Ikea tools. We put my sheets on my bed, and decided we’d go back to Home Depot in the morning to get new bolts.

We continued to unpack and the next thing we knew it was already 2am, we had now been up for longer than 40 hours (well, with a few two hour naps in between the other driving). We passed out around 2:30 am only to wake up in a few hours for the cable/internet guy who was supposed to arrive between 8am-12 noon. Since we had woken up to listen for the cable guy, we started to unpack again and my apartment was starting to look like a home. The cable guy finally came at 11am, and to our surprise (or not), Time Warner Cable got my order wrong. I asked for basic cable (just ABC, NBC, Fox, etc) and wireless internet. They put me down for Spanish channels and a cable modem, not wireless and my mom had to work Sunday night, SO that means we had to run out to Staples to find a wireless modem. We also cancelled the Spanish channels (I barely have time to watch English channels let alone Spanish). This was another long night. We finally passed out again around 2am, but this time my whole bed was set up and put together so it wouldn’t fall apart (go mom!).

We were supposed to drive to Arizona to pick up my microwave, toaster and blender, but we realized that with the cost of gas, we could just re-buy all those items and not have to drive another 12 hours (there and back).

Monday was a new day, much needed. Everything was falling more and more into place and I was finally happy with my cute little apartment. The only thing my mom didn’t like about my new place was that I don’t have a parking spot (the only one out of my 8 unit building, but I am also the only studio and I also get a fridge and all utilities included when the other apartments don’t, so it’s a trade off). I went to run some errands Monday night and by the time I got back to my apartment, there was no parking. I had to park a half a mile away and a few streets down. Note to self- carry my mace.