Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Window Shopping

It was getting closer to time to move out! Management arranged for someone to do inspection in my apartment. I wasn't very worried because I took very good care of the place. I even would wipe the walls every now and then etc. My main concern was the broken window.
The guy and I met outside, lo and behold, I ended up standing right by the window when he came through. I was on my way from throwing out trash, when we bumped into each other. Nice guy! He was happy with the condition of the place. I was glad he was. We didn't talk about the window. My intention was to take care of it myself. Now that he hadn't seen it, that gave me time to do that.

I made a few phone calls and you would believe how expensive a window pane can be! My gosh! The last time, I had to fix a broken window was way back when in South Africa. Old tenants of mine had a kid who apparently broke the window playing ball on the balcony. I talked to the body corporate and they told me that the body corp is in charge of fixing things like broken windows. Long story, short, I moved back into my place after those tenants moved out, I was in love, my man came to see me, we went on a date one day and when we came in, the curtain was flying out the balcony. My then boyfriend went to investigate. The entire window was on the balcony. Great! The manager who had promised to replace my window had since passed away. The new one, told me that's not their responsibility, I have to fix the window myself, so I did. I bought a window pane, a huge one! Placed it in the trunk of my car and drove very carefully home. My then neighbor was quite handy. We made a deal where I was going to give him some DVD's and was going to install the window for me. I gave him the DVD's and when he had a chance, he came over to do the installation. He broke the window!

I digress!

One of the companies I called for a quotation quoted me $850. Eight hundred and fifty dollars! Just to replace a window pane! It's not even a big one! It's one of the sliding side ones in apartments! What? They went on about lifetime warranty and guarantee and whatever! I was like, Dude! I'm moving out in two weeks. I don't care about lifetime warranties! I eventually got a sweet deal with a guy through Yelp. He had 5* ratings. I couldn't believe it. When I called him, I got it! I wanted to give him 5 stars just from the peace of mind that he gave me from talking to him. I was going to Calvin's for the weekend, as usual, so I told the guy I would call him back the following Monday or so.

I took a few bags full of clothing with me while at it and started unpacking at Calvin's. I was moving out on one side and totally settling in on the other. It was hectic! I am so glad that guy moved out when he did. That gave me the room I needed both emotionally and literally to get packing! I had to decide whether I was going to try and sell my furniture, failing which, put them in the curb or move them along with me to Calvin's. At first, I thought it was a given, I was going to put my stuff in the spare bedroom that didn't have any furniture, thankfully. Calvin is the one who brought up the idea of selling my stuff. That threw me a bit off considering, he once told me to get a measuring tape and see how I wanted to set the spare bedroom up with my furniture.

I moved things like dishes, pots, and whatever could fit in my Truck with me over the weekends in March and left the big pieces for either throwing away, or having someone haul them for me.
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        One of the weekends, Calvin went over to his parents and came back mad. What's wrong, babe? He told me something about his dad being in bed and needing help walking. I was like, what? You did needs help to walk? Why? Since when? What happened? Is he home alone? I can go over there if he needs anything! I love Calvin's dad. He is the sweetest man ever and an amazing cook. At this point, I still hadn't met Calvin's mom. Calvin's dad's so energetic, he is always driving three hours to the desert to work on his properties there and do deserty stuff. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Calvin told me that his dad was on new medication for an old condition and his body wasn't handling it well.

I didn't know this but Calvin's parents' birthdays are both in March, like ten days apart. If you're into horoscope, they're both Pisces.

The Monday after the above weekend, was Calvin's dad's birthday. I didn't know this until later, so Belated happy birthday, Jim!
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   You know, you can live in a place for an entire year, and all of a sudden time flies when you're supposed to get the heck out? I don't know what happened to the time but I wasn't able to call the window guy. There were so many loose ends to tie up. So many things that were going to expire soon, that needed to be used, gift cards, and what not. These had nothing to do with where I was going to live but the expiration date was around the corner, so use them or lose them! Also, I found a gift card I had been looking for for more than 6 months. I had gotten this amazingly powerful vacuum cleaner gift card from The Doctors TV Show, put it somewhere and never saw it again. I was going nuts because I knew there was an expiration on it and really didn't want to lose out. Some of the girls I know from going to The Doctors so much had already received theirs and told me they are worth several hundreds in real life and are great. Dang it, I wanted mine too! I found this while packing up stuff in a closet I was using as my eBay store storage. The thing was going to expire in like three days. I still mailed it and wished for a miracle. Spoiler alert: I got it!

The apartment office had told me that I could move out a week before the end of the month. Mind you, I moved in a week into the month, so they weren't being pain in the assy about this. I love those folks! Best apartment management I have ever had!

Moving out, I had to pay for cleaning of the rugs. They told me that I could find a professional cleaning company and make sure that I get paperwork from them proving this and that that I could forward to management because by law they have to do this; or I could just pay a small fee and have them do it. I was like, take it! Take the money and do it yourself! I wasn't going to burden myself with one more thing over and above everything else I was doing. I was doing all this by myself! It's a lot!

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