Moving

We spent the last Saturday in April looking for an apartment in Northampton. I was reminded of my first ever apartment search with Chase, although less painfully so. Chase flew into Massachusetts for our wedding 2 weeks early, and we had one open weekend to drive to Philadelphia and find a place. It was a “do or die” situation unless we wanted to be homeless for his first day of school, which also happened to be 2 days after our honeymoon. (We were young and lived life by the seat of our pants!) I had been busy planning a wedding in four months, so I explained to Chasen that I would take care of the wedding stuff, but he needed to look for viable apartment options in Philadelphia. Looking back, I’m not sure how I relinquished so much control for something as important as a place to live, but I think the wedding stress had taken over my brain at that point.

The sun was barely up on Saturday morning as we set off for Philly. (I believe our first appointment was at 10am.) I remember looking around the city from the car, hopeful and excited, but everything went downhill from there. Neither Chasen nor I knew ANYTHING about Philadelphia neighborhoods, and his school happened to be in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the entire city. I was so emotional after the first or second viewing (I can’t remember which because the horribleness blended together), that I sat in the car crying into my hands wondering how I would ever be happy again. Poor Chase was so shaken up that he tried to reassure me, “It’s only a year! We’ll be together!” I was re-thinking the whole idea of together in Philadelphia.

Finally around 4pm we pulled into a neighborhood that was so beautiful I thought I was seeing things. Chase explained that he contacted a realtor on Craigslist and she thought this area would be an easy bus ride to his school. It was historic and cute and had fun boutiques and restaurants. I was in love. We almost ran up the 3 flights of stairs and did a dance around the living room. “We’ll take it!” I shouted at the lady with the clipboard. Everything that followed was a rush of checks and forms, but when we finally made it back to the hotel room after the most delicious Chinese food ever (we continued to eat there for all 4 years), we were exhausted and relieved.

We ended up moving out of that apartment as soon as our lease was up. Craiglist apartments in North Philly may have added to our Rose Colored Glasses Approach for the third floor walk up, but I am so grateful we found it the day we needed it most. Apartment hunting can be fun, but it can also be stressful. We found out yesterday we were approved for an apartment, and we were so relieved. We ended up second guessing the first place we applied for, so we withdrew our application. I'm just glad we won't have to revisit looking at 10 places in one day-at least for another year!

The right half is ours!

In unrelated news, I was also able to see one of my dearest friends and her wonderful sisters and mother over the weekend! I spent every possible moment with this family growing up, and I consider my memories with them to be some of the best from my childhood! (The photo is from last November, but I never got around to taking any on Saturday.)