Swimmin' pools and movie stars...

That right!  I finally loaded up The Duchess and moved to Santa Monica!  My apartment in Chicago was the only place I have lived in for more than a year since I went off to college.  I wouldn't say I'm a moving pro, but it has definitely become somewhat routine for me.  Except for this move.  NOTHING about this has been routine.

After being told that my original move-in date was October 1st, it then got pushed to October 5th.  My U-Box couldn't get delivered until the 8th so I got everything arranged for Saturday and would get the keys from my landlord on Thursday the 6th.  On the 6th, surrogate mom Sara and I drove up to Santa Monica with some of my stuff in The Duchess only to find that the house was still being worked on...sigh.  They promised it would be finished and cleaned by Saturday.  Sara, The Duchess, my stuff and I all drove back to Huntington Beach and ate Chinese food.

At this point, I'm supremely anxious.  All of the back and forth: alleged house, alleged job.  It's a lot.  And don't get me wrong, it's not like I've been living in a cardboard box on Hollywood or anything- my surrogate parents and housing were wonderful- I'm just so ready to start my life and get settled in.  In a way, I feel like I have been in transition since March...



So Saturday came and I drove up early so that I could call off the U-Box if the place wasn't ready.  At this point, I was thinking I had a 50/50 shot.  I was relieved to find it completed,though there will still work boot prints on the floor... can't win 'em all.

Front Door

Living Room

Front Windows

Bedroom

Bathroom

Shower

Kitchen

Kitchen

Eating Area (with worker trash...)

Hallway

Patio!

Patio- with worker tools...

So yeah... that's my place.  My California drivers license was waiting for my when I arrived so that was exciting.  Now I'm arranging, organizing, and buying things.  First order of business:

get the wine fridge in place!

Everything else is shaping up too:

Wine bar

Fully stocked!

Ready to cook- obsessed with my new knife rack

Bedroom progress

Saturday night I slept in my bed for the first time in over 2 months (crazy!).  It was sublime.  I love my house, I'm loving decorating and I'm LOVING all the room in fridge!!!

One set back, in line with all the others was the collapse of the bar in my hall closet.  Another thing I am loving is having all of the closet and cabinet space to myself.  I spent a good portion of Sunday running back and forth from my bedroom closet to the hall closet and deciding what clothes should go where.  Yes, I started categorizing my clothes by functionality and then assigning them a location... anyway, I was just about done with all the clothes.  Everything had a place and as I was putting my last 2 not-appropriate-for-work-dresses in the hall closet, the whole bar just fell down!  It was apparently not secured to the wall, just held up by tension which is completely not functional for anything heavier then a shower curtain.

I looked at all my clothes on the floor of the closet, shut the door, wrote an e-mail to my landlord and went to bed.  The contractor came by today, assessed the situation and will be back tomorrow to rectify.

In summary:
House- check!
Job- TBA- now that I'm in Santa Monica, the VA can expect me sitting in HR for hours a day until we get all of my stuff taken care of, hooray!