summer's end..

HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND FOLKS..

oh, and no I never did finish editing those Bay Area pix from August.. nor the Tofu Fest pix. Nor the last minute visit to Santa Monica on Tuesday. Got a lot of stuff on our minds lately.. (well mine anyway) like where is an affordable and transportation friendly place to rent in North Hollywood or something. I'm tired of looking online, and coming back to the same place. Maybe that particular place is meant to be, (it can't be much closer to good transportation & fun) but they just raised the upper end of the rent so it may cost even more to be on a top floor.. sigh. Everything else around it is even more.. Maybe it's time to rent a house? heh. oh well.

Oh and the other thing.. when looking at apartment ratings why is everything rated a "2" or less? Is the world of apartments so horrible?? I look back to places like Berkeley, where we rented for some time.. and it really was a good place. A bit small for 2people with a lot of stuff, but it had a good location and rent control. We had a good manager too. Not to mention it was extremeley cat friendly. I wonder what sort of places the students rent in Iowa or wherever where they expect to not have to pay high rents or deal with other humans making sounds as they walk around their apartment or goodness knows, watch their tv and have company over (within reason mind you). It doesn't matter how nice a place is they seem to throw that word "ghetto" around too much. sheesh. Who's paying their rent anyway? Probably their parents is my guess. Rents in CA are expensive. Even more so if you don't have a job or room-mate(s).

Lately I've been wishing for plumbing that worked and didn't bang like a banshee with a wrench every time one turns on the water. Maybe a door that closed properly and hung on its hinges properly, not letting the 'central air' escape and spiders enter. When it does come time to move, we'll have actually left our current place in better condition than when we moved in. How sad is that anyway?? (and no I'm not replacing their crappy door). But it does make my list of easily attainable wishlist look like a sad refugee from another place when my eyes light up and say "ooooh the door shuts! It really shuts!!" LMAO.. the main thing I'm wanting is a fun & quirky neighborhood and proximity to bus lines and secure building (and I mean really secure, not the joke of a gate that is where we live now) and people don't steal your mail (granted I am not aware of it happening yet, but you wonder if it hasn't). A place where if you have friends over they can park somewhere close by and not at the mall down the street. Seriously. How about a place where the residents can park? (that isn't an issue with us but it seems to be with the residents).

As much of a laundry list of items I have about our current place, it is in no way "ghetto" at all.. it's just too big for itself. A well run complex is one that has a staff that can maintain the buildings and it's residents. I just wish that more people would be honest in rating a place and not just put their anger out there. If every place in the world is "ghetto" and the management crap don't you think there would be a mass reforendum on getting these places up to snuff and have harsher penalties for management that runs the place like they are only in it for the money (or better yet, doesn't run it?). I don't know how we got to this. All I wanted to say was:

Have a good long weekend folks and don't set the bbq on fire. no, seriously don't. =P