Seattle...!

After much vigorous searching and aggressive lease-grabbing, we finally found an apartment in a part of Seattle called Wallingford, which is a cute, quiet, fun neighborhood very close to UW (U-Dub). It's about a ten minute walk on a pretty trail along the water-front, which sort of reminds me of my walk to the U of M on the Mississippi River - these are the things you have to really get lucky to have. Wallingford is an impossible neighborhood to get rentals in - it's mostly very expensive houses (reminds me of Prospect Park in Minneapolis), and only a few of the houses have been split into apartments. One house we went to during an 'open house' had about thirty young hopeful-looking people milling around (we didn't even bother filling out an application). The place we finally got is "Garden Level," meaning it is halfway underground, but this fault made it easier to get (although the guy had already had about four calls at the time of our viewing - which was less than 24 hrs after it was posted). Fortunately it has full-size windows on all four sides and it seemed to get plenty of light (although probably not as much as a 2nd level place). But, you gotta do what you gotta do to get into the good neighborhoods. The lease terms were also great, and the price and ammenities, and it's bigger than the place we have now which will be fun (it's a two-bdr, so feel free to come visit us, we have room for you!).

We also stopped by my 'Seattle' lab today and I got along with everybody really well which was a relief. I was too nervous during my interview to tell how well I got along with anybody, although I had met my boss at a meeting prior to the interview and got along fine with him then. Two of the guys in the lab live only a few blocks away from our new apt (in the 2nd floor of a house - maybe we can nab that place whenever they leave... or if they were to suddenly change their minds about where they wanted to live... hmmm....).

Due to my husband's rigorous school schedule we have opted to fly back to Mpls early (for only $140 - although we'll save about $100 on the rental car) and thus will be leaving early tomorrow morning instead of Wednesday evening. This will give me some extra time to set up utilities for our new apt, a daunting task. We also need to figure out how to move our stuff, and when, and then start scheduling that stuff.

And one other big thing on my plate right now... my mom is moving and we need to sell my horse. He's a beautiful, wonderful, polite, loving and loyal arabian gelding moving into his geriatric years (although not too geriatric) and has already attracted three prospective buyers just on his good looks alone. Since we can be picky about the buyers, we are... I have made them all send me pictures of where he will live and have emailed them about what kind of life he will have. They are all very good but also very different. It's going to be a hard decision. I wish I could ask my horse what he would want for himself. I think he's mad at me for selling him, so he may not give me a very good answer. He doesn't really like change. He's kind of like me that way. Or maybe that's just my interpretation.