April 2004

I’ve toyed with the idea of integrating my journal and website for a while now. I had some time tonight with nothing better to do, so I went ahead and did it! Now my latest few entries appear right on my homepage so people can follow my latest progress in life.

I’ll try toying with the style a little bit over the next few days. I’m hoping it will eventually look very seemless!

I’m very excited right now, I just heard back about one of the apartment applications I filed. It seems that despite my lack of credit history, the very nice ladies in the office have worked to get me the place anyway! The only stipulation is that I put down an entire month’s rent as a deposit when I move in.

That was really the last detail to work out. A quick recap, I’m picking up the moving van on May 15th shortly after graduation, loading etc that afternoon. Sunday morning my dad and I are driving to Northern VA to arrive sometime around 3:30 or 4:00 PM. I was told that I’ll be spending about 30 mins signing paperwork with the ladies in the office, and then I get to move all of my stuff into the newly refurbished apartment!

This is all very exciting, I’m really ready to go anytime now. I really don’t even feel like sticking around for graduation, although down the road I’m sure I’ll appreciate the closure. Now I get to spend the next two weeks relaxing, going to BBQ’s and senior week events, and saying goodbye to the people I’ve worked with for the past couple of years.

It is 17 days, 17 hours, 15 minutes and 51 seconds until May 15, 2004

The last week has been pretty busy, and for much of it I have been pretty sick (I’m getting better though). There is always a bit of uncertainty that comes about when you make a life change, so I decided to take the proactive approach and try to make all of the arrangements in advance.

I reserved a moving truck for May 15th, so the plan will be to have just about everything in boxes by the time my parents arrive for graduation on May 14th. After the ceremony we load the truck, and then hit the road for Virginia Sunday morning (May 16th).

I called several apartment rental companies last week looking for a place to live. I found several promising places, but the one that seemed best on paper was [this complex in] in Falls Church, VA. You can read all about the services and ammenities on their website, but most importantly they have a unit coming available right at the time I want to move in, so I don’t have to pay for rent ahead of my move-in day. The woman encouraged me to apply via fax, but I was a bit skeptical of renting an apartment sight-unseen. So I arranged to visit some of the apartment complexes on my list.

I flew down to BWI early Friday morning, rented a car (a Nissan Altima, very nice car that was the cheapest they had on short notice) and drove out to [Northern Virginia]. I stopped at [the aforementioned apartment complex] first, took a tour of several different apartments. The place was awesome, and the people were very nice. We bumped into several residents on the way through the building and they all seemed very happy to see management bringing someone through on a tour. I filed my application, along with $30 fee.

I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t take advantage of their five minute approval process that they advertised on their website. I guess the reason was that I didn’t have any back paystubs to prove my salary, so I had to provide an offer letter instead. The difference is that they have to call my employer and confirm my employment status. The other piece of the application is the credit check, which hopefully I will pass without any incident.

I really like this place and would love to live there. I was told that I will most likely find out tomorrow how the approval process went for my application. I’ll update as soon as I hear!

I spent the day wandering around Washington DC, a very cool city! I took the train from Baltimore to Union Station, my second time ever on Amtrak.

After walking around the White House and the Mall, I hiked out to the Lincoln Memorial… don’t let the maps fool you, things are much bigger and further apart than they appear! Mid-afternoon I met up with who I haven’t seen since graduation from CAC! We had coffee and dinner, and spent time catching up.

I honestly can’t wait to move here, it’s such a neat area with so many opportunities! Graduation is a month from today and I can’t wait! But for now I have to pack up my stuff and go back to Troy. Only two weeks of classes left, it should fly right by just like the rest!

Today I spent a good deal of time apartment hunting in the Northern VA area. I have to live within 30-40 miles of Ashburn (which doesn’t sound too hard, but read on). I left my hotel near BWI this morning, and within an hour and a half I reached the Herndon area (which is where I will be working starting on May 24th). Herndon is a collection of corporate parks and very high-priced condos. So I decided to drive East toward DC to find something a bit cheaper but also more convenient to the DC Metro.

There are several good places located right around Tyson’s Corner, which are all within a mile of the West Falls Church metro station. It will be a few days before I come to terms with rent of $1000/mo but they do have a lot to offer. I guess I’m used to rent being $400 (and I think that’s expensive!). Then again, these are really nice places and they offer a great deal of convenience in terms of location and amenities (yay for dishwashers!).

I have received my first job offer here in Washington DC! More details coming soon…

This website outlines a different kind of captcha (which is a simple test that humans can pass but computers cannot – typically seen on websites that ask you to verify you are a human by typing in a series of letters from a graphic):

http://www.captcha.net/cgi-bin/pix

You can read more about captcha’s here. I have to admit that there were a few that I couldn’t figure out and I failed. Of the rest, some were kind of challenging.

I kinda feel that I’m entering the home stretch of the semester, for better or worst. A lot of due dates are coming up, but I think they are all managable. I’ll be gone next week to Washington DC for job interviewing, which I’m really looking forward to (both the job prospect and my first visit to DC!). After next week it’s really downhill with only two weeks left until classes end. I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone and how close graduation actually is. I would feel much better about it if I had a job offer on the table.

Here’s the obligatory graduation countdown:
It is 39 days, 5 hours, 11 minutes and 4 seconds until May 15, 2004

I can’t believe the last time I did the countdown was 19 days ago. This is crazy!!