as have noted previously, am beginning to sink into the anxious part of “i have to move!”

my lease is not actually up until 30 april, but this being me, i want to have what i am doing figured out long before then. i keep browsing the reader and craigslist listings, which is ultimately an exercise in frustration because anything posted in mid-december is a posting for immediate or january occupancy, not april. but i think mostly what i’m after is not an apartment which is everything i want and for april occupancy, but an idea that i will be able to find something that i want, in my price range, in a neighborhood i either want or don’t mind.

so far, here’s what i have figured out. don’t feel obliged to follow the jump; i’m just being obsessive and anxious, here.

Required. No Arguing, Here. Really, Really Nice — More or Less Required Super Awesome, but Not Mandatory Drawbacks.
  • Parking availability
  • Can have two cats
  • On-premises laundry
  • More than 600 sq. ft.
  • Non-zoned parking availability
  • Hardwood floors
  • Dishwasher
  • Central air
  • Neighbors who act like they’re not undergrads anymore, or else walls that actually deflect sound
  • Access within four blocks to either red or blue lines, or a decent owl bus line.
  • A parking spot (even if I have to pay a little extra)
  • Bike room or someplace secure to keep my bike (mandatory if a very small apartment)
  • Workout room on premises
  • In-unit washer/dryer
  • Included cable/satellite
  • Electric stove
  • Radiant heat (debatable)
  • Window a/c units

and as for location — well, that’s part of the problem, i guess, as there are a couple of places i would like to live, and a number of places i wouldn’t mind living, so it’s hard to narrow it down. (realtors got kind of sigh-y at me for this, last time.)

Yay! Okay. Meh. No.
  • Printer’s Row
  • South Loop
  • Streeterville
  • West loop/west loop gate
  • “University Village”/UIC campus area/Medical district
  • Pilsen (near the el)
  • near northwestish
  • Uptown/Ravenswood (don’t want to go north, but I used to live there, so.)
  • Chinatown (at least I could reserve a parking spot year-round by littering.)
  • Hyde Park/Kenwood/Woodlawn
  • Wicker Park/Bucktown
  • Gold Coast
  • Old Town (probably out of my price range anyways)
  • Lakeview/Wrigleyville (don’t want to go north but I suppose there’s a universe where it could be made worth my while, especially if it’s temporary)
  • Lincoln Park. Surprise!
  • Anyplace more northwest than Logan Square
  • More west than UIC’s west campus

i have already, it must be confessed, started to think in terms of boxing things up and getting rid of other things. i actually have three boxes packed already. of course now i cannot stop seeing things in terms of “what is the order in which this should be packed?” i am practically jonesing to go to the movers and get boxes. however, i did learn something valuable from my only-slightly-neurotic packing: i simply don’t have the room to really pack yet. i mean it very literally when i say i have nowhere to put boxes. i’m kinda thinking in a very casual, uncommitted way about unpacking two of them to get that spot of the hallway back.

these practical thoughts do not, however, do a damn thing to stop me from wanting to pack up. soonest begun, soonest done, or something like that.

oh, on the bright side — i got a letter in the mail the other day; they’ve sold my apartment already. hooray! no more showings! i am now being offered my right of first refusal. i could change my mind this very moment and commit to buying this place for only $145k. but i’m totally not gonna. because the new management people have
completely destroyed our entryway — they PAINTED OUR WOODWORK, the fuckers; and if the act of painting it wasn’t bad enough, the colors really just seal the deal (SILVER??? what drugs are you people on?) — and have executed a few other choice strategic movements which betray their evident complete ineptitude, so, yeah, i’m totally blowing this taco stand.

i would just like the taco stand blowing to be done, you know, now.