Happy Campers

With Austin in our rear-view mirror - Ryan and I drove by this cutie. He said it all:

We were happy campers. In fact, we were so happy, one water tower could just not convey the enormity of our happiness well enough - it had a cousin:

They sort of reminded us of something ...

But, legoheads just don't convey our happiness - pretty much they just look ambivalent ...

Yesterday, at the end of our Apartment Hunting: Day 1 - we were conflicted and frustrated. First - they guy who was supposed to take us around was a no show. I had CALLED HIM THE NIGHT BEFORE - everything was fine he said he would see us then. We get in at the appointed hour and he is not there. A nice lady (the manager, I believe) called him and told us that he was 'not coming in today'. No 'he is ill', no 'his grandmother died', no 'his dog ate his homework' - nothing - no excuse. WHAT? WHY? I have no idea why he did that to us - if there had been a reason, I am assuming the lady would have told us the reason. Without a reason, well ... I am bitch, there is that ... but can you figure that out over the phone over the course of four conversations? OK, yeah ... BUT I WAS NICE TO HIM. I swear. The Jerk.

I was livid. Told her that we had driven there specifically for the appointment we had set up for that date, so she sat down and put together some places we could go look at. Wonderful woman. Problem was - if they were affordable - they were a distance from the campus and not in an ideal area of town. The one we saw close to campus was just a few ticks above 'dive' and expensive. So we were having trouble trying to decide what was most important to us.

Went out with a woman this morning who HAD HER ACT TOGETHER. She had mapped out all the apartments she was going to show us - all in the area that students generally had apartments (nice areas of town) and was ready to go.

We visited a large area of town and multiple apartment complexes.

So in the two days, we saw all areas of town, all ranges of quality of apartments and varying degrees of closeness to the campus. Thing is - parking on campus, we have heard, is difficult to obtain and expensive. So I don't even know if on August 10th, when passes for the garages go on sale if we would even get one. Who knows? NOT US that is for sure and never got a straight answer from anybody - just 'parking on campus is a nightmare' over and over again. So we started forming the dream apartment: something close to campus (walkable distance), something livable, something that didn't cost an arm and a leg. A girl can dream, right?

And what do you know? The third apartment we visited today fit all three criteria!!! Went through the motions for the rest of the apartments - due diligence and all that - but knew we had FOUND OUR APARTMENT!!!

Went back, filled out the forms and we officially have an apartment a few blocks from UT Austin guaranteed.

HUGE relief!!

Might even get some sleep tonight!