Married life has been blissfully serene so far. While we didn't get to go on our honeymoon right away, I formed a sort of peace with the idea as it meant I got to begin playing house right away and what could be bad about that? Unfortunately the reality of what could be bad about that came crashing in pretty quickly...MOVING.
My new husband has a job not close to my/our current neighborhood. The commute was beginning to wear thin and with all the warnings of "make things simple" during the beginning of your marriage, this seemed like a bad combination. For example, the day we were leaving town to head up to our wedding (we live in the city, were married in the mountains) he worked his first 7pm to 7am shift. Not only did it take him 2 1/2 hours to get to work, it took him 3 hours to get home. To say he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown a few days before our wedding is an understatement. It was at that moment I decided apartment hunting was of top priority upon our return.
Begin apartment hunting for the first time in seven years and enter all the emotions of moving. I love my place, I don't want to leave, but close quarters leads to many things such as me thinking, if my husband talks to me one more time when I am writing I am going to rip his head off. Literally tripping over each other every time we head to the kitchen is not a fun way to spend a day. The pile of presents stacked in corner of our one bedroom apartment is pressed up against the heater, so we should move before it gets cold or we are the definition of a fire hazard.
Apartment hunting in the greater Los Angeles area is not a fun time. Let's not mention how far apart everything is in this city, let's just add that technically my husband would love for us to move to Orange County. While to many this might not sound like a big problem, I will liken it to him telling me we are moving to Oklahoma or a Manhattan girl being told she's going to Long Island. No matter how you cut it, I am a city girl. While I love the mountains, if we are moving to somewhere it should either be far out of civilization like Mammoth or Yellowstone or a city, NOT a suburb, I HATE the uniformity of suburbs, they just aren't for me. I love to visit them. I love my friends who live in them. But I don't choose to live in there. Full country or full city, no middle ground, make a choice.
So after the torturous task of narrowing down the options, we get to go search together on Thursday. I bring reinforcements in the form of our good friend Craig as he brings a guy perspective but also doesn't want to see me move to Orange County. Two guys performing a task they aren't fond of...I really didn't think this through. After the first apartment not only being rather blah I must endure the guys continually talking about how they have no idea if there is really enough room for our pet monkey in the place and what is the pet deposit policy anyway? Ugh!
We do go check out the one place in the OC that was, even I have to admit, nicer than the rest. Lucky for me there were multiple screaming babies on this particular day. So while the townhouse was mere minutes from Chris's job, the sheer thought of children was enough to force us back up to Long Beach.
This is the moment. This is the come to Jesus moment where you gave in and said...Long Beach is a pit, why would we go look there...only to arrive and find a sort of middle ground heaven you never knew existed. It is not perfect, it is not as close to the LA as I would like BUT it is new and pretty and feels like a city and has everything a girl could want. Am I giving up my principles? Not really, we're technically still in Los Angeles COUNTY. Do I love the area? Yeah, gotta admit I do. Am I happy that my new brother-in-law's only complaint about the area is that it was a bit too seedy late at night? Hell yeah! It's perfect! I think Brett would think West Hollywood is seedy, scary and strange too. Sounds like a perfect mix and a better commute. All in all I learned compromise isn't that bad and even if a place sounds horrible you won't know until you go. I can't wait to watch football at Hooters, walk to the movie theater, and sip fruity beverages by the pool. Did I mention I love the new apartment?
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