Like an Old Sweet Song (or "Damn it's HOT down here!")

As many of you know by now, I am very happy to be starting my new job soon! I will be working at Georgia State University as a Staff Psychologist/Crisis Coordinator. In addition to the excitement to HAVE a job after this summer (it is a competitive job market for psychologists), I am particularly excited that I was offered the job at GSU! I had interviewed for different positions across the country, from Seattle to Philadelphia, and some seemed to be "okay, it's better than not having a job, but I'd probably only stay for a few years before moving somewhere better." Not so with GSU. I could see myself staying at GSU and in Atlanta for quite some time! It's a great area, and I think I will really enjoy the people and work at my new job!

You should all come visit. No matter where you are, I am on your way to Disney World!

After thinking about it, I decided that it would be easier to move to the Atlanta area if I HAD a place to move to (otherwise, it is really just being a highly-educated homeless person). So, Karin and I took some time this past week to travel to Atlanta and look at rental homes in the area. We did alot of research online, printed out many good-looking houses for rent from realtor websites, and contacted a realtor to assist us when we arrived. We felt all set to have a smooth, quick, and easy search.

Not so. Let me tell you why....

To save time off of work, we took turns driving the 8 hours overnight on Monday, arriving in Atlanta at 8am Tuesday. All set with our cute little folder of affordable rental homes with nice little pictures, we reconnected with our realtor, who agreed to meet us at the first house.

Let the adventure begin....

House #1: We got there about an hour earlier than scheduled in order to drive around the neighborhood. As it turned out, driving was a good idea because we were afraid to get out of the car. Some nearby houses were boarded-up and a few others had razor wire around them. The streets held an intermingly on shitty cars and expensive german cars, all of which could have resulted from pharmacutical endeavors. Oh, and I think I saw my first crack whore ({sigh} do you ever forget your first?). Basically, the kind of neighborhood where I wouldn't feel safe walking my dog during the day.

Our realtor, a stocky old lady, arrived a bit late because she apparently had trouble finding the place (I had been under the impression that realtors knew the areas that they showed homes in). She walked with a cane due to arthritis, hobbled up the steps to the house, and found that there was no key in the lockbox on the door. This was not a problem, as we politely explained to her that the area was not a good match with our interests. She then proceeded to call her main office to loudly inform them that there was no key for the front door and that we didn't like the area. Great, insult everyone who does live there by announcing that they live in a shitburgh!

We had to take the highway to the next home, and since the realtor did not know the area she had to follow us to get to the interstate (again, shouldn't realtors know the area). Karin and I were losing faith in this lady, which was not helped by the fact that she drove about 40mph on a 6-lane highway with her left turn signal on for 10 minutes as we tried to follow her through rush hour traffic.

House #2: (I'll come back to this one so that my story has a happy ending)

House #3: We wanted to look at more than two houses before deciding upon a place to rent, so we asked our realtor to show us another one back in Atlanta. I don't think she knew where this one was, either, because we meandered down streets, and she stopped in a few intersections to ask passers-by for directions. But we finally got there, which turned out to be less of an improvement over being lost than we had hoped.

Before I describe this house, allow me to paint a picture of the neighborhood: A few less boarded-up homes than House #1, but the yard in front of the house next door was adorned with funeral wreaths and police tape. Not a good sign, but we came all that way, dammit, and we were going to look inside this house! Oh, and so glad we did!

We had some difficulty getting inside because the front door was so stuck, but once we did, boy were we in for a treat! The first thing we noticed was that the back door was open, the kitchen window was broken, and all the pipes under the sink had been stolen. Upon further inspection of the house, we also found that they took the bathroom sink and may have left a dead bat in the "finished basement" ("finished" in this house apparently meant "carpet, but keep the floorboards, wires, and pipes in the ceiling in plain view so that you have something to accidentally hurt yourself with"). We politely explained that we were not interested in this fine home, as we prefer our homes to come with pipes and no vandalism if at all possible, to which the realtor replied "yeah, I didn't think you'd want to live here" before calling her home office to report the break-in and advise that they lower the asking price.

After this ordeal, we eventually decided to take House #2 in Union City, which was SO wonderful. The lease says that it has 4-bedrooms (which I think is bullshit, because I should get to decide how many bedrooms my home has..."Hey, why is there a stove in this bedroom?" "How come you park your car and keep your tools in this bedroom?") and 2.5 bathrooms. The master bedroom is huge, and the master bathroom has a 2-person tub, separate large shower, and a little closed-off room with the toilet so that we don't need to be gross together in the morning. Our landlady is a wonderful person, and we are happy to be living in her home! I have included pictures below.

So, after deciding to take this house, we filled out the paperwork to await approval while they checked our references. We decided to stick around the area while they did so (we were told it would take until the next day) just in case anything went wrong and we needed to find another place to live. Good thing we stayed, because it turned out that they could not read my handwriting and we had to fill out the application again!

While we waited, we explored the surrounding area, and we really like where we live. Our house is in a rural area, but close to the highway, malls, and public transit (which will make getting to work alot quicker and less stressful because I won't have to sit in rush hour traffic or pay to park every month!). We are very happy with our new home!