Moving and FINALLY Feeling Settled

This past week has been bonkers. BONKERS I TELL YA!

On Friday I packed up my hotel room for the last time (happy dance) and picked my momma up from the airport (happy dance and happy hugs) and spent my last night in a hotel on a crummy mattress (super happy dance)!

Virgin America lets you check up to 10 bags at $25 each. Way cheaper than shipping my stuff!

Saturday rolled around and it was TIME TO MOVE INTO MY VERY OWN APARTMENT!!! If you couldn't guess already there will be lots of all caps in this post. They are meant to convey excitement.

We moved my suitcases into the apartment and went in search of furniture. On Friday evening I had done some scouting so we didn't have to go a million places if there wasn't anything worth seeing. During my apartment search I had driven past a Macy's Furniture Outlet and during the scouting mission found a few couches I liked that were good prices. We decided on one that was supposed to be a section but did not have the chaise lounger part attached. Fine by me! One side has this awesome angle that is perfect for watching TV and I'm actually leaning against it right now as I'm typing. It's fantastical! We also found an awesome deal on a mattress and another awesome deal on an accent chair. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that everything was on sale in addition to outlet prices? And that since it was labor day weekend everything was another 10% off on top of all those discounts? Yeah, that happened.

So once we purchased the goods we went to pick up the U-Haul van I had rented for the day. We figured it would be a tight fit....yeah we were right. It was like playing furniture tetris to get it all to fit. The guys that helped us were great sports.

The doors wouldn't close....we tied them together

We drove back to my apartment, thankfully it wasn't far, and had my childhood/high school friends Kevin and John (both also recently moved out here) meet us to be our muscle and actually move the furniture. We would have either died or been crushed by my couch without them. 

After we moved that stuff we went off to get stuff. Ya know, all that random stuff you need when you move and set up a new place to live. We basically, single handedly stimulated the economy. After a long long long day of shopping and driving all around the east bay we finally stopped to have some dinner. 

Alright Chicago friends, when you walk into a restaurant and see some sort of small book on the table what do you think it is? Specials? Drinks? Desserts? Ha. Ha. Ha. Not in California (at least in Claim Jumper). It's nutritional information. When you're in the mood for a drink that's not exactly what you want to find. 

Don't look at how many calories are in a chicken pot pie. Just don't 

After some setting up and lots of little random unpacking/cleaning things we finally went to bed. I slept on the first comfortable bed I've encountered in two months. My new mattress is like sleeping on a cloud. Every morning when I wake up I don't want to get out of bed. That never really happened in hotel beds. I was much more productive in the morning in hotel beds. 

Sunday arrived and we went in search of a kitchen table. After some returns made to Lowes and a trip to Costco we stumbled up on Krazy Pat's Furniture Outlet. Outlets are my favorite. Krazy Pat himself helped us! He guessed prices. We suspect he was drunk. We got a great deal on a dresser, nightstand, and kitchen table with delivery. And I was fully expecting to wait awhile for the stuff to arrive but they were delivered yesterday. Krazy Pat may have been an alcoholic but he did good business. But here's what you really wanted to see, pictures of my place with all my stuff! I cleaned up just for you guys. Also, before you think my life is super glamorous and I can afford all these new awesome things all on my own please know that probably 60% was gifts. People seem to like me and I am forever grateful. 

Taken from standing in the back corner, by the window and nightstand

Taken from the doorway. The lamp on the nightstand was $5! With CFL lightbulb! Go Goodwill!

Bathroom. There is more counter space but I couldn't fit it in the picture

My kitchen with the new table and chairs. Mr. Ethan Apple sent me the "I love bacon sign"
For a toddler he has great taste

From behind the couch looking towards the living area. The front door is just out of sight to the right. 

My couch and chair. I'm in love. 

So after a long day of more buying stuff and putting more stuff together and way to much California for my sanity to handle we deemed Monday a tourist day. Krazy Pat had told us about the Winchester Mystery House (link) and we had both heard about it previously so we decided to give it a visit. It was pretty cool, quite the maze of rooms. The crazy lady that built the house just built rooms on top of rooms and enveloped old buildings on the property and build crazy short steps on her stairs. When she died they stopped construction right away and repairs are still being made to the house with original materials because they had so much on hand at the time. They never knew what she wanted built day to day so they just had a ton of building supplies. It was wild. 

After touring the house we went to dinner at ...try and follow this... my dad's childhood friend's second cousin's house. One of "The Walsh Boys". And by "boy" I mean middle aged. He and his wife had my mom and I over for dinner and it was the first home cooked meal I've had in two months. It was awesome. They're wonderful people and it's good to have the phone number of a responsible adult just in case I ever need it. They also invited me to a concert with them and some of their family, nieces and nephews and people more my age, in early October that I'll probably go to.

We had one last night of mother/daughter togetherness then a goodbye the following morning. Always difficult saying bye to the momma but I'll be home before I know it! And I have a brand spankin' new apartment and lots of visitors to occupy myself with in the meantime.

This is getting rather long so I'll save the saga of my cable/internet set up for another day. It's comical in a "this would only happen to me" sort of way.