Perhaps you may have been thinking "Gee, it seemed like Rachel said she had a lot to share and then she didn't post anything..." Well, the explanation for that is that I have moved to a new city in the meantime! Last Sunday I shoved the remainder of my possessions into my car and drove to New Orleans, which will be my home for at least the next 1.5-2 years.
About three weeks ago, aka about 1.5 weeks after I got back from Thailand, my mom and I came out here to find me a new place to live. Since it was a company move, there was a dude who made appointments to see various places and who drove us around to see them. His name was Brian Gorshe and he worked for Gardner Realty and I cannot recommend him enough if you are looking for someone to help you find a place to live here.
Eventually, I picked a place. I had sort of hoped to try living outside of a complex, but a number of factors sort of sucked me back in. First, there are almost no places which are not in a complex which will let you have a dog... so it was almost a non-starter just from that alone. Second, parking is rare and complicated individual people's rental units and I definitely need my car because my work is 30 miles away (more on that later). Third, I can't give up on the idea of having a pool to swim in, and the place I eventually picked has a 25 yard lap lane. They pretty much had me at that.
Unfortunately, the apartment in the new place wasn't open until July 20th. So for one month, I am saying in fancypants corporate furnished housing. I am about a block from Canal Street, 3 blocks from Bourbon Street, and 6 blocks from the House of Blues. It is by far the faciest place I have ever lived, involving a doorman and valet parking where they bring you coffee as they pull up your car. I don't think that these are perks that I really need in my life, it just feels utterly ridiculous and is actually more inconvenient than it is probably really worth. However, the place is super nice and here are some pictures to show it:
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| Kitchen! |
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| Living Room Area |
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| Dining Area, with Living Room Interface |
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| Bedroom (ooooooo) |
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| Other Side of Bedroom |
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| Master Bathroom |
R2 was helpful enough to make an appearance in many of these pictures for a size comparison, so kudos to her for her helpful assistance! (actually I think she wanted to play.) I'm not sure if these pictures are actually doing it justice, because it is really a very nice place which I definitely couldn't (wouldn't?) afford if I was paying for it myself. It is a fun chance to get to try out this lifestyle though, and it mostly suits just fine.
The only real issue with this place for my life is that the closest patch of grass is 5 blocks away. This means that we really need to plan for going outside to make sure that R2 has enough time to make it there. You might thing, "Oh, it is just canal street, plenty of people pee there anyway" which is true, but it just doesn't feel civilized. The walking is good for the both of us though. Despite some drinking I have already lost a bit of weight...
The other main issue with this place, which will also be an issue in the other place, is that my work is about 30 miles away in a suburb called Covington. I did think seriously about living in Covington for a time, it is cheaper and a much shorter commute, but in the end I decided that I would enjoy my life a lot more if I lived closer in to the city with other people my age who share my interests. Basically every time I talked to someone I worked with who had lived in Covington, their response was "Oh it is lovely there! You can get a four bedroom house for practically nothing, the schools are excellent, and there are no loud bars!" It is worth noting that none of these people were female or married to a woman who worked outside the home. Not that there is a problem with making that choice for you and your family, but it is just a mold into which I do not fit. Thus, I will be living in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans in just a few short weeks.
I have more to say about my first impressions of New Orleans, but I'll leave that for another time. I'll just remind you that the food is excellent, the drinks are economical, there is always good music to hear, and you should all come visit me. :D
