Apartment Hunting

I am exhausted. It has been such a long day and it doesn't help that I need to get away from my mother. I am fed up with riding in the car, especially with her. When I'm driving my mother can be much more of a hazard than other drivers. Whenever we're behind someone who's stopping or turning mom tries to stop the car by freaking out and pushing her hands against the dashboard. What is that going to do? Absolutely nothing. It's no help what so ever, it's a hazard. No matter how much my dad and I try to get her to stop it doesn't work, it just becomes worse.

I tried to find a place in East Aurora so that I could ride my bike to work and no have to drive to work because the gas prices are outrageous. Gas here is right around $4/gallon. Unfortunately that was a no go. So I tried to find a place within 10 minutes drive time of my office - nadda. Last night I found a place on craigslist and called the number listed with it. It ended up that mom and I quickly changed out of our pj's and drove about 20 minutes to Holland to look at the place. It was cheap but didn't have a stove or fridge and i would've needed to pay electric, gas, water, garbage and I think there was something else. It was also in a building with 5 other apartments that mostly all had older men in them. So I decided I didn't really want to live there, besides it also smelled really bad and I didn't like the town in was in at all.

I lucked out this morning though. I picked up the Buffalo News and immediately looked in the classifieds. There were about 7 different listing for places somewhat close to work. I called a few and like most of the other people I've talked to about apartments they weren't very nice. Most places wont rent to a college student or a college aged student first off and then if you mention that you're looking for a short term lease your chances of finding a place become even worse. My stipulations for an apartment were the following: I'm college aged, I'm from a completely different state and only know one person in East Aurora, and to top it off I needed a place for only three months.

I then called this number for a place in West Seneca. The lady who answered was incredibly nice. That was amazing to hear someone as nice as she was as compared to just about everyone else. I asked if the 1 bedroom apartment would be available for a three month lease, to which she responded "Of course." So mom and I got in the car and headed on up to West Seneca. The apartment was great. There's lots of light, it has a feeling of safety, there's plenty around it, the minor downside is that it's about a 20 minute drive from my office. But like I said the lady, Stacy, now my landlord was great. After looking at the apartment and deciding to take it we went to her house to fill out all the paper work and then she let me use her phone to make all the phone calls I needed to in order to hook everything up - gas, electric, and internet/cable.

So this afternoon is what really sent me to being driven nuts. I understand directions pretty well, especially when I'm looking at a map. My mother on the other hand has no clue. She doesn't catch on very quickly. So she asks the same questions repeatedly and again and again and again. I think she expects different answers but what I know doesn't change, at least not unless I find out something new between when the questions were asked. This afternoon we figured out 5 different ways I can get from my office to my apartment and they are all about the same distance and amount of time, except when the school buses are taking the crazy little children home. I also bought my bed this afternoon - I'll be sleeping on a queen size air mattress this summer, yay big bed!

Upcoming plans:
- Tomorrow Niagara Falls with my grandma
- Saturday moving into my apartment and sending mom back home
- Sunday and Monday figuring out this place on my own
- Tuesday work