It Is Possible To Pick Up Everything And Move Cross-Country

I apologize for my recent absence. The last month of my life has been a blur of packing, purging, lifting, driving, saying goodbye, more driving, quite a bit more driving, worrying about someone breaking into my car and stealing everything I own, yet more driving, looking for an apartment while not having a residence of my own, yet more driving (this time to and from Anaheim), finding a place, unpacking, finding furniture, driving all over the valley picking it up, buying everything else I needed, and finally making a home for myself here on the west coast.

I am quite proud of myself. You see, I left Boston on Wednesday, September 3rd. I arrived in LA 5 days later, on Sunday the 7th. By the morning of the 11th I had signed a lease, and it is now Tuesday the 16th and I am typing this entry from the sanctity of my own apartment, on my own internet, sitting on a new chair in front of a new desk and looking at a new computer monitor. 13 days strikes me as particulary good time to go from homeless on one side of the country to settled on the other.

I only hope finding a job will be so easy, though I know it most likely won’t be. I do hope that one month from now I can consider myself employed, at least on a most-of-the-time basis.

A few lessons I have learned during this process:

- Companies, it seems, don’t expect people to actually do what I did. Quite a few landlords refused to let me even look at places since I have no current employment. Most places were baffled that I had no current residence. I was given a lot of confused, head-scratching looks and the sort of grin that says “good luck, buddy. No one makes it in this town without having a red carpet and a limo waiting for them at LAX.”

- Your credit rating actually is important. I had always heard that I would care about my credit rating someday, and the day finally came when the determination for whether or not I could rent the apartment I wanted came down to my credit score. Oh, and if you want to check that score online, all of the sites that offer the service require you to know all sorts of information that there’s no way you’ll ever figure out, like the numbers to credit cards that you’re not even sure you’ve ever had.

- Money goes *quick* when you are buying all the incidentals needed to make a house run. Toilet paper, paper towels, dish towels, a rug for the floor in the bathroom so you don’t slip and die when you step out of the shower, soaps and sponges and hangars and all the rest…it adds up, not to mention the already insane cost of food, gas, rent, power, water…I will find a way to make this work, but don’t let anyone tell you that now is an easy time to make the transition to adulthood.

- Want furniture? Look online. Furniture stores, even used ones, are monumental ripoffs and don’t have furniture for people who don’t want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks to furnish their entire place. I went on craigslist and to yard sales and ended up paying $40 for my desk, $30 for my TV stand, $25 for my futon, $40 for my combination dresser/sheving unit, $10 for my glass cabiniet, and $5 for my filing cabinet. All of that together couldn’t buy you one dresser in a store, used or otherwise. Also: beds. I spent a whole morning going to different mattress stores, dealing with horrible, mean mattress salesmen, and couldn’t find a single one under $350 – and that one couldn’t be delivered for over a week. One second on craigslist and I found a brand new quilt-topped mattress – REALLY nice – delivered that day for $250.

- You can pack a near-infinite amount of stuff into one PT Cruiser if you do it right. All you have to do is look at the pictures and marvel at how much I was able to bring. And on that note…

Pictures of my new home!

My bed. Next to the window and A/C so I can run it only minimally at night and still keep cool. Note the decor in this part of the room is entirely Bobby Kennedy and Red Sox related.

Next up, my dreser and shelving unit. Yes – - all three shelves are full of Magic Cards. Shut up, theyre awesome.

My futon and entertainment center. The TV is set up with the DVD player and videogame systems underneath.The Absolute Magnitude posters are up above it, and there is a glass cabinet between the closet and bathroom.

My battleship of a desk, complete with my amazing new PC monitor that was on sale at Fry’s. The lower left drawer is missing and I’m using that space for my subwoofer.

The kitchen, with my antique bar set up next to the window.

The wall of the kitchen is done up in a style I like to call “Classic American Batman”.

Right now, my microwave is taking up most of the space on the kitchen counter. Soon, though, I’m going to get a small table for it and put the whole setup underneath the Batman pictures on the other wall.

My glass cabinet. My cameras are in the top part, some games and movies on the shelves. Stuffed animals from my childhood on the very top, and the Snake Hill Rd. sign leads into the bathroom.

My bathroom, done up in classic Star Trek. There is a great picture of Shatner screaming that you have to look at while you pee.

That’s it! Feel free to come and visit, one and all, next time you’re out here in sunny, beautiful North Hollywood. I live right off the Vineland exit of the 101, seconds from Studio City, and will have a decent amount of time on my hands as I look for work and plan job interviews!