The thing I’m most excited about graduation is that I can finally MOVE. I’m looking forward to a functioning dishwasher, hardwood floors, direct sunlight, and a neighborhood that doesn’t scare my friends and family.
Also, I can’t wait for stairs! The other day a classmate asked me if I’d be staying in Hollywood or moving closer to work and I was like, “Um, I don’t know — I just want to find someplace where I can afford two stories so my cats can get some exercise.” I think this threw him off because, uh, who selects their abode based on their cats’ needs? AWESOME people, that’s who.
Anyway, he looked at me funny and replied, “Uh, yeah, cuz there’s nothing worse than a fat cat.” The first words my brain sent toward my mouth were, “Yeah, totally, a woman knows no pain like a 20-pounder walking across your full bladder at 4:30 in the morning.” Luckily some sense that I didn’t want to come off like a total weirdo intervened, and I stuck with, “Yeah.”
My mom has even grander ideas for what Fred & Ethel need in a new home. She is the Virginia Woolf for cats. “What Fred needs is a big bay window, with a view out into some trees, or where he can see people passing by. And his own little perch, so he can feel engaged with the world.”
I don’t know why I’m so excited. Last time I tried to search for an apartment I ended staying where I am because it was too stressful to find a new place. I called Laurie frantically trying to decide whether to take a place. Her sage words: “Jen, if you are tearfully debating the merits of a ceramic vs. a plastic tub, perhaps it’s best to stay where you are.”
Oh. I know why I’m so excited. I’ve forgotten the trauma. Because, as I’ve noted before, hindsight is legally blind.
Anyway, who cares! I just can’t wait for a place with an oven light. That, my friends, would be worth any price.
Sunday Undies 
January 31, 2007 at 9:49 pm
How do they develop that incredible sense for the exact moment when your bladder is full and the exact point that will cause maximal discomfort??
February 1, 2007 at 6:23 am
You don’t have an oven light? That’s just criminal.
I had not thought of the stair thing. All I have thought about in my next home is that it have more space.
February 1, 2007 at 8:08 am
We have gone through the apartment search saga at least 5 times in the last few years, and still havent moved. I feel your pain.
February 1, 2007 at 8:51 am
I also am anxiously awaiting the day I can afford to move, so Bob can have stairs to run wild on. Poor thing, the other cats are starting to call him “Blob.”
February 1, 2007 at 12:49 pm
My only stairs are to the basement and the cats are NOT allowed down there due to the “never drying paint” on the floor (that the previous owners decided would be a GREAT decorating idea)due to licking it off paws and dying from poison overdose, not to mention all the available plastic to chew off and ingest thus ensuring a very uncomfortable death. So I bought the cat-trees sold at Wal-Mart. $30 for major funnage and climbing and butt-hangeth-over, and near fatal leaps onto other cats and myself. Never stand directly in front of the cat-tree when the large and in charge wild man fat ass kitten is carooming thru the living room, racing up the ottoman and Chair of Death, ricocheting off my shoulder and left cheek, and finally hanging off the tree with his two front double paws. It’s a scratch I still have evidence of on my cheek. Nice. It’s been too too too fun. I have two trees and am going to get two more.
February 1, 2007 at 5:19 pm
If you’re going to be making big firm bucks after graduation then you can pay someone to find a good place for you. The rental services are very nice to you when you’ve got lots of dough.
February 1, 2007 at 5:47 pm
I wish you were going to move into my complex so we could be neighbours and I could really knock on your door and borrow some sugar.
February 2, 2007 at 10:27 am
I don’t know if they have any townhouse-style places, but I do highly recommend our landlords. They’ve been fantastic about fixing things — when we discovered upon moving in that our oven only heated to 200 degrees, we got a brand new one within a week. They’re at rentcwp.com.