Moving on...

WE'RE MOVING. I'm a little nervous. We put in our notice to Matthew that we'll be moving out of the apartment on or before November 1st...and we haven't found an apartment to move into yet. Let me explain. The appeal for my unemployment came through and the original decision (to deny benefits) was overturned. So Mike and I came into a chunk of change - most of a summer's worth of unemployment that I didn't cash before. Not that it's a billion dollars but it's a nice nest egg. We had talked about moving but nothing really serious. Mike, being Mike, likes to look at apartments - even though we weren't really planning on moving right away. The next thing you know, we're looking at places. Then last night we saw a gorgeous place that we loved. A 2 bedroom apartment in Ukrainian Village with hardwood floors, high ceilings, storage in the basement...and a picture of Pope John Paul II in the hallway. We loved this place. I wanted to tell the guy that night that we'd take it but Mike wanted to look at the other places that we had appointments to see. But we made the decision that we were definitely going to move. Our lease is up and we have just outgrown the apartment we're in currently. It's a cute apartment and I adore Matthew - but we're tripping over our stuff and each other and if we re-sign the lease then we're there for at least another 6 months and we might end up divorced if we have to fight about the state of the apartment for 6 more months. :D We have no storage area and we have books and papers and CDs that are spilling out of every available area. Mike, being raised in the clean and orderly Kurczewski household is driven INSANE by this. Me, being raised in the clean but much less orderly Harris household, finds this a minor annoyance but Mike's complaining DOES drive me insane. Every day we have a conversation that is some variant on the following:

Mike: We need to clean up this apartment. There's all this stuff all over the place and it looks so cluttered in here.

Me: Where will we put this stuff? I like it to look nice in here too but there's just no place to put it.

Mike: I don't know - just figure it out. This is driving me crazy.

Me: You're driving ME crazy.

Mike: Yeah? We'll you're ugly. (Ok, ok...he doesn't really say that. Hee hee. )

But the conversation does deteriorate from there until I end up saying something like, "You're such a pain in my ass, Kurczewski."

On a side note, this conversation is making me miss my mom. The part where I accuse Mike of being a pain in the butt is where (if my parents were present) my dad would pipe up and say, "You don't have to take that from her, Mike." To which my mom would say, "You better watch it, old man, you're skating on thin ice" - as she drew herself up to her full height of 5'4 and looked him square in the...chin. But I digress -

I had pretty much set my heart on this place we looked at last night. My dad gave us enough money to cover the first month's rent and a full month's rent for security deposit - so we wouldn't have to dip into our savings at all to secure and rent a new apartment. (How could you not love my dad - not that money is the only reason I love him but y'know, money never makes anybody LESS loveable, right? *winkwink* I kid, I kid!) Mike called the lady today with a list of our questions and whatnot. Her son showed us the apartment last night and said that they usually ask for a month's rent for security. He said that they're considering putting a washer and dryer in the basement and that the fact that we're moving in on Nov. 1st probably wouldn't be a problem. Well, it turns out that his mom isn't quite as laid back as he is. Mike says she's very nice but firm. Turns out, she's not really going to put in a washer and dryer. Everybody uses the laundromat on the corner. I'm not crazy about the idea of schlepping the laundry down the street - but it's not a deal breaker. She has people looking at the apartment this weekend and if they want it before Nov. 1st, they'd get priority. Reasonable, I guess - business is business. The thing that is a deal breaker for me is the fact that she wants two months rent as a security deposit. That's crazy - I've never heard of anybody wanting so much money to move in. So we're looking at other places tonight - maybe we'll find the "perfect" place in the next few days - but I was majorly disappointed.