I took the time this afternoon to look up the GPS coordinates of the new apartment. Moving is always an unbelievable chore, but at least we were trying to fit stuff from a small apartment into one that has double the floor space. It is by no means huge, but it is amazing that you can shut off one room and still not feel cramped.
The hot weather has kept the air conditioning on constantly, causing quite a bit of apprehensiveness about the looming electric bill. Matt, who helped us move the larger pieces of furniture, suggested what a friend of his tried in order to keep the utility costs low: tin foil. Apparently, by putting this stuff on all of the windows will keep the apartment a lot cooler for a lot less. I haven't tried it yet, but it might prove worth it if we end up with an $80 or more electric bill this month.
So, about that "we" part. Samantha and I are both paying rent on the apartment, and I of course have no reason to be anywhere else. It was a bit of financial mistake to pay rent on my room at the fraternity house when I wasn't spending more than a few days out of the month there. Sharing the apartment has already saved us a few hundred dollars in utility costs alone, and its close proximity to campus should keep the car parked a majority of the time.
In a bit of a confession, I've never directly raised this point with my parents. Samantha went through all of the trouble of talking to her parents about it, and they were thrilled at her wise financial decision. I'm sure they've long suspected I wasn't actually staying at the fraternity house that often. In case anyone asks, however, I am "living" in Greenfield, but "staying" with Samantha.
It annoys me that the stipulation that only "married couples" can live in these apartments. Doesn't it seem a bit strange to anyone that these baseless and discriminatory rules trumpet "morals" even though the same people who find two unmarried people living together willingly sanction two homosexual males or females living together? I suppose they try not to think too much about that. What difference does it make to the university what our marital status is? Mind your own morals, and quit pretending that all of this part of the total collegiate experience.
Some might argue that me actually "living" here incurs an unwanted liability on the university's part should I (as a guest) damage property. If that was the case, why not charge a fee as most rental companies do? I'd happily pay a $50 to $100 security deposit in my own name rather than have to "live" elsewhere. I'm confident that these stipulations would not hold water in a civil suit, and that these folks pray it never comes to that. To me, this equates to a renter deciding that only white people from Georgia could live on his property.
My message? I'm paying for a place to stay one way or another. You get your money; I get a place to sleep. Get over it you jackasses.
Now that rant is over with, on to a few not written by me. Apparently a flame-war has erupted on an earlier post regarding the plight of college journalists. I typically respond to comments on an individual basis rather than just perpetuating the fray, so rest assured I'm not silent on the issue. The comments are still rolling in at this hour.
In other news, you might notice my "permalink" structure got a face lift, replacing the typical ./index.php?p=33 with a much more linkable ./2005/01/15/black-and-gold-gets-a-little-purple-and-red/. I had written a rather lengthy walk-through of how I accomplished this, but ran out of geek-ness to finish it. Even I'm surprised that was possible.
I'm working a few updates for my fraternity's Web site that should greatly improve its design and functionality. This has taken up most of my waking hours of late, while the rest is spent working on the property in Greenfield. All of the front windows are glazed and painted, along with one on the east side. Somehow I have to figure out how to take an eighth of an inch off a piece of glass I bought to fix one of the back windows. After that is handled, I should be able to have the rest done tomorrow or Tuesday. That is, if this damn dying hurricane doesn't decide to nix that idea. You just got to love the southeast this time of year.