On The Move

When I graduated from Penn State, I already had a job lined up at an architectural firm in Ithaca, New York. (This is the first time I’ve ever been able to say, I already wrote about that here). Luckily, the firm was willing to wait a few months for me to start since I was still in my final semester when they extended the offer, and double luckily, they allowed me to tack on some extra time to their wait so I could move there and get settled. I had 5 weeks between grabbing my diploma and showing up at my desk (well, drafting table) to start work.

5 weeks was generous, but my to-do list was pretty extensive. I owned clothes, a dresser, a desk and chair, a floor lamp, an oriental carpet, a small chest of drawers, a drafting table, a computer, and some pots and pans. Everything else I was going to need to acquire. I say acquire instead of buy because I wasn’t proud and more furniture than I care to admit came from the reject piles in the attics and barns of family members or the curbs of strangers. Oh, I was also going to need to find a home to put all that in.

The day after graduation, I packed up all my stuff from my college apartment and went back with my parents who had come for the festivities, and stayed at their house temporarily until I could get myself moved. They lived about an hour away from Ithaca. The list of things I didn’t own yet included a car, so after just a few days my dad graciously agreed to take an afternoon off to drive me there so I could start looking around and forming a plan of attack. Time was of the essence.

First, he took me to a bank and helped me open a checking account. Then, because being my personal taxi driver would eventually have gotten old for Dad, the next stop that afternoon was a car dealership. I saw a car that looked nice. A brand new little red Volkswagen hatchback with a moon roof, which, as did the other windows, opened and closed manually with a crank handle. Cloth seats, no AC, but a tape deck. To me, it was gorgeous and sleek and sexy and freedom. So I bought it. It was a little disappointing that I had to wait and return to pick it up another day, but still, it was beyond thrilling.

Then we were supposed to have met someone downtown who was going to show me several different housing options, but they never showed up. Dejected, we started driving back to my parent’s house. I noticed we passed an apartment complex that looked interesting, and I made my dad swing back around so I could take a look. A closer viewing further piqued my interest so I found the manager’s office. She showed me two units, one of which I liked better than the other, and I signed a lease then and there.

My mom was aghast. “You did WHAT? I thought you said you were just looking around! I would have gone with you! Are you telling me you had lunch here, drove to Ithaca, opened a bank account, bought a car, found an apartment, and are home in time for dinner?” She had a point. Today, I would research the heck out of all of those things and overthink each decision like a proper adult. I think I was just so excited to start the rest of my life that everything looked great to me that day. To be fair, the car turned out to be a lemon, but I still have that checking account and I lived in the apartment for over 10 years.

Mom wasn’t going to miss out again, and she was a huge help. My car wasn’t ready yet so she made herself available and took me all around, helping me select a couch, a bed, bedding, plates, silverware, kitchen supplies, a vacuum cleaner, drapes and blinds, etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum.

I had to wait for the first of June to roll around for the apartment to be mine and I was so excited to be able to show it to my mom – you know it had been killing her that Dad had seen it and she hadn’t. True to their word, the apartment management had put in new carpeting and replastered and painted the apartment. Disappointingly, they did not use a drop cloth. And they put the carpet down before painting. Mom was not impressed, but God bless her, she went, on hands and knees, around the entire perimeter of all the rooms with manicure scissors, cutting plaster clumps out of the brand-new carpet. When she opened the door to the closet and turned on the light, she took a beat before calmly stating "I don't know what it is but it's alive and eating your carpet." It was a sea of carpenter ants. One of the workers had spilled what looked like quite a bit of soda onto the carpet. Apparently, ants love Coca-Cola.

I also discovered the kitchen cupboards and oven hadn’t been cleaned, the fridge didn’t work nor did one of the burners on the stove. I swear this was a nice, modern, sunny, garden apartment with a patio, in a complex with a swimming pool and a common area with a library and pool table. And yet management got a lot of phone calls from me that day as each problem was discovered. Culminating in something along the lines of “I would appreciate it if you could fix these issues and also, please put a note in my file that unless I burn this apartment to the ground, I should get my full security deposit back. Thanks!” Luckily that wasn’t my move-in day and they had some time to fix the issues.

I went back a few days later with my mom. She helped me make a massive grocery run, getting all the staples, and took it all to the apartment, wondering what we’d find. The carpet and kitchen had been cleaned, appliances repaired, and bug spray sprayed. Things were looking up! Mom no longer thought I was crazy for choosing the place.

The only remaining issue was, I noticed when stocking the refrigerator, the lightbulb in there had ice built up on it. I could actually see gases swirling around in the bulb and then it exploded. Another call to management. They sent a maintenance person over who came in smoking a cigar. He opened the refrigerator door, took out the base of the broken bulb, took a puff of his cigar, put in a new bulb, exhaled the cigar smoke into the fridge, shut the door, and left. Well, ew. Not only did smoke come out when I opened the refrigerator door again, but he’d used a regular light bulb. It was so bright you could read in there.

I was still waiting for the furniture I’d ordered to be delivered so hadn’t moved in yet, but one afternoon I drove, in my new car, to the apartment to have TV and internet services hooked up. After he left, I remember sitting on the floor watching TV and eating a snack. It was exhilarating. I’d never lived alone before. The place was all mine. I could watch whatever show I wanted, whenever I wanted. And no one was going to tell me not to eat Planters Cheez Balls in the middle of the afternoon while I imagined how to arrange the furniture and decorate. I felt so free!

I usually use chairs now and try not to eat anything not spelled correctly, but I still categorize my move to Ithaca as a super good idea. And that company that was willing to wait for me to start? Not for nothing, I still work there, although part-time now. In fact, I started that job exactly 33 years ago on this very day. All in all, that plan worked out.