The Move: A retrospective

It all began one fateful evening (I refer to 10 pm as evening), when I turned the latchkey and brought my weary body into my apt at 1717 Malcolm, fully expecting my house gang to be asleep. Turns out the gang was awake and in good spirits. AM dropped the bomb. No warning.
'We have an order to vacate the apartment' he said. Always a bit of a sensationalist, this AM. I nearly fainted in my bone weary state.
'When!!!' I asked. 'Well, not right away, anyways, but it is on the cards. I think in a month or two.'

'Whew, so we don't need to vacate it tomorrow or ....today!'.
'No'.
Like I said, sensationalist.
In my nomadic life, a month was an eternity. Time enough to move out of, and settle into, three different homes.

So it dragged on for three months. Finally, we got THE notice. The final notice which suggested that the suspense was over and we really had to find a new abode.
Now that is easier said than done. In LA, in Westwood specifically, a decent apartment stays on the market no more than a few days.

We had a problem.
I wanted to live close to work and my homies, though they wanted to share an apt, wanted to live cheap. Typically desi. I was willing to lay down a big bit more than they were. So to meet proportions, we were going to have to find a crappy place. I told them that I had sworn off crappy places. I worked 12-14 hr days so I could afford better.
Long story short, some strategy, some finance logic, and some serendipity helped us find a decent apt building VERY close to work. I can see the light in the senr VP's office. And it is a half block off the famous Wilshire Blvd and right next to the Westwood Village.
This is what we saw when we entered the apartment.


The view was nice. The apartment had a very homey feel to it. AK and I waffled for all of 7 mins and then ran back to the manager to tell her that we would take it.

The next few weeks were crazy at work and there was a point when in the middle of a catastrophe week, we heard that we couldn't move into the new place because the current (then) tenant could not move out, leaving us in a horrible situation.
It was extremely stressful.
I was going to be homeless for the first time in my life, despite having a lease for a really nice apt in my name. Go figure!
The situation de-escalated, and we were in the last weekend, and I was packing like crazy to get my clothes and stuff in. Frankly, my stuff packed in easy, very easy. The kitchen stuff, common stuff and AM's stuff took the most physical and time bandwidth.
But the boys did do a few things that saved the day.
Note for the future: don't be lazy and hire professional labor to do this shit. I can afford it for sure. Not worth my while breaking my back for this!

The house looked like this: lots of stuff, lots of packing!



The next day, I dare add, was spent doing hard physical labor!
For 8-9 hrs, we did 3 trips from our old apt to the new one, in a hired U Haul moving stuff.
That evening our place looked like a warehouse but finally in a few days everything settled down, as we all did. I settle very easily into new places. No 'new place' anxiety, no sleepless nights.
One of the benefits of working hard.
One is too tired to care...one merely needs a place to call one's own and spread out.
The new place has much to offer...a nice view, a good homey feel due to the hard wood floors, and a spanking rooftop pool and jacuzzi.

You see this:


and this:



and this:



The view from my room is similar to the one above and in addition I see some really pretty houses around like this one:


It need not be stressed that I am fairly happier for the move.
The place is decent (though everything can be better), the location is nice and stuff is gelling.
The move will be memorable, as have been the last 'n' moves.