drive you home

i am so grateful to my friend for letting me stay with her and her husband and their two cats. but i am really ready to settle down. i've been living out of a suitcase since basically last august - i had a 4-month assignment in ohio, which was great and worked out well because i knew, at the beginning, that it was going to be 4 months. i had a great apartment (i guess i forgot to take pics of it. hmm...) for the last 3 months and it was in a great area. then i went home to fargo for a few weeks and came out to sac to an unknown place to live. it was unacceptable. for over $1200 a month, i was living in a trailer the size of a car - here are the pics:

view from the doorway:
view also from the doorway, turned to the right:
here is the mini-fridge, note there was no freezer and no oven. the "silverware" was in the plastic bin to the left of the fridge:
the bathroom had a toilet and a stand-up shower (which is fine), but no sink, so i had to brush my teeth and take out my contacts using the tiny kitchen sink (seen above in the top left corner). there was a mirror - kind of.

very cutely decorated, and clean and new, but much too small, especially considering that my brother and his fiancee were coming to stay with me - i couldn't even put out my yoga mat, so i had to move from this place:

to a proper one-bedroom trailer. a bit bigger, and decent furniture and amenities (a real fridge and oven and flat-screen tv!):


with a cute little desk area:
and a functional bathroom (although when i turned the shower on, i could hear water dripping under the trailer - i dont know if this is normal, or not):
and a clean bedroom that felt like a bedroom on a ship:


this place wasn't bad, but it was not worth the $1700/month that i paid. the carpets were sticky (i dont even want to know!) and it was basically in the ghetto. so i moved out. i ended up at a friend's house who was out of town and i took care of their cats. it was great, but i felt like i was imposing. so when my contract got extended for another 2 months, i decided to move to an extended stay hotel which was closer to my budget of $1200/month (still a LOT). i think i wrote about my check-in experience and how i ended up in the 3rd room they gave me (again with sticky carpets, hair in the bathroom, cigarette stains / burns / holes in the blankets). i stayed there because it was close to work and i wasn't in anyone's way (that i know of). it was uncomfortable and not worth the money (again), so when my contract was extended for ONE MORE MONTH, i decided to move back in with my friend, hoping to stay out of their way (and paying rent!). i'm glad i'm gone a lot because i hate to feel like i'm in anyone's way. and the point is this: i've been living out of a suitcase for 9 months - moved 6 times in 9 months and its time for a PERMANENT HOME. and my belongings have been in boxes for TWO YEARS while i traveled around. i need to unpack, get rid of things, organize, put up paintings, have my own bed, etc. i'm so looking forward to getting back to boston just for this reason...

pictures of my new home to come soon!

[drive you home by garbage on the beautiful garbage cd because i hope to be driving myself home soon!]