The Moving Story Part 2: Idaho

As we left Utah, my car was in the lead...and I managed to get a number of miles ahead of my parents (I might have a lead foot).  Because of this, there were quite a few "where are you?" phone calls from my dad.  As we got about an hour from our destination, I called the leasing company to arrange for someone to meet us at the apartment for the final hand-off of rent for keys (I will note that this was what I was instructed to do in the e-mail correspondence I had been having with these guys over the course of the previous month).  When I got on the line with a very confused guy who thought I was trying to merely view the apartment, and had a hard time getting him to understand that I was physically moving in, I had hoped that speaking with someone else would be a good thing.  However, they proceeded to tell me that I had to come into their office to do the hand-off.

Did I mention that I didn't know the area?  I DO know that I failed to mention that the guy I was buying the washer/dryer from had to be at work at 2:30, and was taking off a little time to help us load it up and take care of it.  I was in a bit of a time crunch.  I anticipated that we would not be rolling into Idaho Falls until 2:45 at the earliest...I was supposed to be at my new apartment at 3:00 to meet the movers, but I still had to get the washer/dryer and NOW I had to go to the leasing office to boot....not only go to it, but figure out where it was.

I was having fun.

Trust me....I was.

We got the the washer/dryer guys apartment (well, my dad and I did...we kinda lost my mom somewhere), and they were super duper nice, offered to help load it up and even let me use their bathroom... so I left the money (with an additional $20 for helping so much) with my dad while I went in search of the leasing office....and called the movers to let them know we'd need them around 3:45 instead of 3:00...luckily they said that worked just fine for them.

Once at the leasing office, I got a call from my dad saying that he and my mom were having a hard time figuring out where to go...and could I direct them (because Idaho likes to use 2 or 3 different names to describe one road...), but as I've stated before...I did not know the area...so they were on their own...kinda....I gave them maps before we left, so that was something.  Anyway, the guy at the leasing office, realizing that I hadn't physically seen the apartment before (Did I leave that out?  Yeah... it's true), decided it would be "kind" to put me on my guard and explain that it had been a hard unit to rent out.  But I was here, I had all my stuff, and I didn't care if it was a hole...I was moving in.

I left the office and headed toward my new digs (luckily, I had spent some quality time looking at Google maps of the area over the previous month, because I got lost too).  But I managed to make it to the place...before my parents, who I had to direct once I kinda knew where things were.  We were just grateful to be done driving for a bit...EXCEPT that I had gotten a message from washer/dryer guy letting me know that my dad had short-changed him... gah!  I now needed to run the rest of the money (which had remained in my dad's pocket) over to this guy.  But first, I STILL hadn't physically seen the inside of this apartment that I was now going to be calling "home"...

Oh the apartment.

Ants.  Lots of them.  Tiny, scurrying, evil little ants....everywhere.  Mostly outside, but a bit inside too.  First order of business was going to be to eradicate the buggers.  Well, maybe not the first order of business, but it was pretty high up there.  Walking in, it was easy to tell why the place had been so hard to rent out.  It looked sad, worn and unloved.  Cuts in the doors and floors, holes in doors, broken appliances, no hot running water in the shower (didn't actually find this one out until I wanted to take a shower...yeah...), ugly piping all over the place, and just some all over craziness.  Filling out the initial move-in damage sheet was a blast.  We even had a visit from one of my new neighbors...who asked if we were "church goin' folk"...I kid you not!  We ended up having to borrow a pair of pliers from him later, so I was glad he stopped by.

By now, I was beginning to wonder where our movers were since it was now after 4:00.  Having the movers on both ends be late was not my favorite thing, but at this point I didn't even care, as long as I didn't have to do all the heavy lifting.  They showed up about 15 minutes later and began unloading

I quickly made a list of a few things I needed immediately, like ant killer, something to fix the oven with, outlet covers, and a new vacuum, to name a few and headed out to pay washer/dryer guy and pick up the needed supplies, leaving my mom to direct traffic (luckily I am a bit OCD and had color coded boxes to the rooms they would go into...see, the crazy is helpful sometimes).

I think I'll just wind down this incredibly loooong story now.  I've been here for 3 weeks now and I love it.  I got the hot water fixed (after having to bathe in the kitchen sink for 4 days...not fun), the ants are dead, the place isn't as ugly now that there is furniture in it, I love my little town, I have made some fun new friends, and things have been great!  So despite the grand adventure that was moving day, everything has gone smoothly and I love being here.