Living in misery... err.. Missouri
I finally made it! and I have the internet. I've actually been here for over a week but the internet and contact with the outside world has been severely lacking since I've been here. The guy actually just installed it this afternoon.
The trip out here kinda sucked. Andy & I left at about 9:30 on Tuesday evening, July 31st for those keeping track. I suppose it was kind of better to do it at night because then I wouldn't be so dissapointed that the scenery was terrible. Driving I-70 is extremely boring, flat, straight road. I did see a lot of blood splatter on the road though, I assume from deer but one can never be certain. It was also really foggy which made the drive interesting.
Made it into Columbia at about 10am local time, which is central now and I'm still not used to it really. Whenever I talk to anyone from home I have to consider a time change. Bizarre. Anywho, when we got here, cats in tow, the manager of the building said that our apartment wasn't ready. Fuck beans. She told us originally that it would be ready in time for us to move in early. Apparently, the guy who lived in this apartment before us took such terrible care of it that they needed to replace the kitchen and bathroom tile, repaint the entire place, and then put in new carpet. This would just not do... The kitties had been in a crate in the back of my car for the last 12 hours and needed to get out into somewhere that wasn't 100 degrees. So they let us in one of the bedrooms so that the kitties could romp. It was funny to watch, since they were still drugged up and disoriented. The manager lady felt bad that we couldn't start moving in, so she gave us $30 to go have some lunch. It wasn't so bad though. We went and had food and came back, and the repair guys were pretty much done other than the bathroom, so we figured we would just move stuff in. The maintenance people offered to help unload the truck, which made it go much faster. We unpacked some stuff, said screw it and went to go have a beer with Andy's mom and Paul. Afterwards, we basically crashed for the evening.
The repair people have been in and out of the apartment for the last week putting up drapes, fixing the bathroom, tacking down the carpet and what-not. I think they're pretty much done other than we don't have any closet doors. I'm really not too worried about them though. They basically just take up space. I think they forgot about them, honestly. Even though it sounds kind of nightmare-ish, the management team has been really good to us.
The people here are mainly nice. Andy's mom decided the state motto should be "Missouri, we're really nice but kinda slow" which is extremely true. Everyone's been fabulous to us so far, though not too bright. Apparently there's another breed of Missourian, the not really nice but still slow variety. I haven't met too many of those yet, but I'm sure they exist in the wild somewhere.
Our apartment complex is in a residential area about 10 minutes from downtown and the university. We have a pool! Which has been great since it's been 100+ degrees and sunny every day since we've been here. There's also a really great farmers' market on Saturdays about a block from the complex.
I'll take pictures of the apartment sometime soon and post them somewhere. It's really big. And I think we're actually completely unpacked this time, with art on the walls and everything, unlike our last place which was basically a shit hole-not all of which was our doing.
Anywho.. I'm alive and well and internetted.
The trip out here kinda sucked. Andy & I left at about 9:30 on Tuesday evening, July 31st for those keeping track. I suppose it was kind of better to do it at night because then I wouldn't be so dissapointed that the scenery was terrible. Driving I-70 is extremely boring, flat, straight road. I did see a lot of blood splatter on the road though, I assume from deer but one can never be certain. It was also really foggy which made the drive interesting.
Made it into Columbia at about 10am local time, which is central now and I'm still not used to it really. Whenever I talk to anyone from home I have to consider a time change. Bizarre. Anywho, when we got here, cats in tow, the manager of the building said that our apartment wasn't ready. Fuck beans. She told us originally that it would be ready in time for us to move in early. Apparently, the guy who lived in this apartment before us took such terrible care of it that they needed to replace the kitchen and bathroom tile, repaint the entire place, and then put in new carpet. This would just not do... The kitties had been in a crate in the back of my car for the last 12 hours and needed to get out into somewhere that wasn't 100 degrees. So they let us in one of the bedrooms so that the kitties could romp. It was funny to watch, since they were still drugged up and disoriented. The manager lady felt bad that we couldn't start moving in, so she gave us $30 to go have some lunch. It wasn't so bad though. We went and had food and came back, and the repair guys were pretty much done other than the bathroom, so we figured we would just move stuff in. The maintenance people offered to help unload the truck, which made it go much faster. We unpacked some stuff, said screw it and went to go have a beer with Andy's mom and Paul. Afterwards, we basically crashed for the evening.
The repair people have been in and out of the apartment for the last week putting up drapes, fixing the bathroom, tacking down the carpet and what-not. I think they're pretty much done other than we don't have any closet doors. I'm really not too worried about them though. They basically just take up space. I think they forgot about them, honestly. Even though it sounds kind of nightmare-ish, the management team has been really good to us.
The people here are mainly nice. Andy's mom decided the state motto should be "Missouri, we're really nice but kinda slow" which is extremely true. Everyone's been fabulous to us so far, though not too bright. Apparently there's another breed of Missourian, the not really nice but still slow variety. I haven't met too many of those yet, but I'm sure they exist in the wild somewhere.
Our apartment complex is in a residential area about 10 minutes from downtown and the university. We have a pool! Which has been great since it's been 100+ degrees and sunny every day since we've been here. There's also a really great farmers' market on Saturdays about a block from the complex.
I'll take pictures of the apartment sometime soon and post them somewhere. It's really big. And I think we're actually completely unpacked this time, with art on the walls and everything, unlike our last place which was basically a shit hole-not all of which was our doing.
Anywho.. I'm alive and well and internetted.