First of all, it took me forever to figure out how to spell "spontaneity", I'm still recovering from learning the verb form of the word. Second of all, I half-didn't even want to title this post "spontaneity" because it reminded me so much of the movie
Serendipity, and while I have nothing against that movie (
Click was coincidentally on
Encore today and
Kate Beckinsale is as beautiful as ever in it), that word always bugged me. But I thought "spontaneity" described my last couple of days pretty well, so I decided it would serve as a perfect title to this post. Oh and by the way, this paragraph was completely unnecessary.
My story begins a few days ago, on Friday the 8th at a little after 8 PM (if you stop and look at that, it happened on 8.8.08 at 8 PM!). I was with Josue and Carie at
The Habit Grill next to the
Pacific Theatres in Winnetka, about an hour before seeing
Pineapple Express. If you haven't experienced either of those things, The Habit Grill and
Pineapple, go. The burger place is great and the movie is simply spectacular. Anyway, we're sitting there in the corner of the packed dining area, waiting for our number to be called so we can go pick up our food. Those two are talking about how amazing it is to attend a UC and discussing that all other colleges besides UCs are horrible places to learn. Not wanting to join into such a disrespectful conversation, I take my phone out and check my e-mail: I have a new message from
USC. Now, if you don't already know, I was [gratefully] accepted to USC [as a transfer] a few weeks ago, the letter was waiting for me when I came back from my epic, three-week, ten-thousand-mile journey around America. Since then, the school's been sending me periodic e-mails and letters about a number of things, from financial aid to classes, job fairs to housing, some of which are re-sent numerous times for no apparent reason; this particular e-mail was about housing, something they had yet to send me any information about. The e-mail stated, to my surprise, I got USC housing.
I say "to my surprise" because when I was first accepted to the college, I started my housing application right away. The only problem was, the due date for the application was a few weeks before I even received my acceptance letter in the mail. They sent my, and many other transfer students', acceptance letters way too late. I was sure that getting housing on campus was completely out of the question, so I had already accepted the fact that I would be forced to commute. But that e-mail I got at Habit proved me wrong and, subsequently, changed everything. They were offering me a room in the
Trojan Hall, the e-mail said. It was a double, which means I would be sharing my dorm with another student. In my housing application, I specifically listed apartments as my primary choices of living, I did not want to pay to live in a room smaller than the one I live in at home. But they were probably giving me this Trojan Hall dorm because some guy had canceled recently, and I was the person filling in for him, so I understood why my choices were no where near considered.
The cost was $3085 per semester, roughly $800/month. Additionally, a meal plan was required with the dorm and it was not included in the price, therefore adding another $2000 per semester, or another $500/month. For you math deficients out there, that totals roughly $1300 per month for a 193 square foot dorm room, that I have to share with a freshman (I find that the freshmans going to USC, or any other college that is difficult to gain admittance, do not quite appreciate the college and what the acceptance means as much as a transfer student does – but I won't point the finger at
all USC freshmans, I guess I'll just point it at the ones with whom I have come into contact, if you catch my drift). You don't have to be a rocket scientist, I sure am not, I'm majoring in Broadcast Journalism; to realize that $1300/mo for 193 square feet is definitely not a good deal. And, the community bathroom aspect of the dorm did not help the deal fall through either.
I explained these thoughts to both Josue and Carie, and Josue and Carie both agreed I would be dumb if I didn't get the dorm. They argued it would be impossible for me to find a place and get situated in such short notice (August 25th is the first day of classes. And yes, I am aware that is in less than two damn weeks). But I told them I could do it, and we left Habit to go see
Pineapple across the parking lot. The movie was fantastic, it did a beyond excellent job in helping me forget this newfound mini-dilemma of mine. That was Friday. I then dropped them off and got home around 1 AM (officially, Saturday). I went online to
Craigslist and got serious about finding a place. I had already been searching for apartments a couple weeks prior, but I was more window-shopping than actually seriously looking for a new place to live. But my window-shopping really helped me get an idea of how much places in the USC area go for, and the $1300/mo price tag that USC put on the dorm they were giving me was more than double what the average apartment went for. But by 3 AM Saturday, I found five suitable places (of about twenty places close to USC, added that day), all of which were put on the site within thirty-six hours prior to my viewing, and I e-mailed them all. One place stuck out more than all the others, listed by a guy named Sean. It was a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with almost all utilities included, for $600 per month. It had all hardwood floors, [it looked like it] had granite countertops in the kitchen, and it had a cozy little patio in the back; I would have to share the place with two others (Sean would have a room to himself), both were Business majors. So when I went to bed after that, I was hoping that when I awoke a few hours later, I'd get a hit back from at least Sean, if no one else responded.
I got up at about 9 AM and checked my e-mail right away. I had a couple new e-mails, but only one person responded to those apartment e-mails, and that person was, Sean. I have to admit, I got pretty excited. Of the five places I found on Craigslist, I wanted this one the most; it was the closest, the best priced, and the writer of the ad (Sean) seemed pretty cool. When I read his response, the cool factor was still pretty high. After a few messages back and forth, and all questions answered on both sides, it was decided that I'd be moving in. In a little over twenty-four hours, I went from thinking I'd be commuting for two hours everyday, to having my own place (well technically, I can't say it's my own place as I'll be sharing it, but you get the idea). But that wasn't it, now that I had my own place, there were a couple other things on the list to get. What was next on my list? A laptop of course. This choice was the easiest as I lust over new toys every week, so the selection was a no-brainer, the
Dell XPS M1330,
(PRODUCT) red edition. I'll of course go into more detail on that at a later date (when the laptop actually arrives), but I bought it Saturday night at 8PM from
this ad on
eBay for less than $1100. It's quite a steal, I wanted to buy the
exact same laptop new from
Dell.com for almost $2000. The laptop was listed as "used" on eBay, but very, very slightly used. But again, I have yet to get it, but when I do, I'll of course make a post about it (duh!) and explain if it was a great buy or not. So in a full twenty-four hours, I went from thinking I'd be commuting for two hours everyday, to having my own place and buying my dream laptop. Naturally, the last thing on my list of things to buy before moving into this new place is furniture. But because I haven't sat down and discussed the apartment necessities with my roomies (that's my name for them from now on), I just bought the furniture I needed for me in my room, a bed and a desk, from a nice little place in North Hollywood, on Sunday afternoon.
So how about a rundown (because those last couple of things after the apartment were rushed)? Friday, 8 PM: I found out USC would be giving me a dorm for $1300 a month. Saturday: 3 AM: I e-mailed five people about their rooms for rent. Saturday, 9 AM: I got an e-mail back from Sean saying his room was still available. Saturday, 12 PM: We agreed that I'd be moving in. Saturday, 8 PM: I bought my dream Dell XPS M1330 laptop from eBay. And finally, Sunday, 5 PM: my Mom and I bought my room furniture from a place in North Hollywood. So in forty-eight hours, I went from thinking I'd be commuting for two hours everyday, to having my own place, buying my dream laptop, and buying furniture for my own place. Now that's what I call spontaneity.
That would've been the prefect way to end this post, don't you think? But I didn't want to leave you so suddenly without any pictures. While I still haven't seen the inside of the apartment (haha), Josue and I dropped by to visit the exterior yesterday after watching
Transsiberian at the
AMC near
UCLA. That movie wasn't as good as a lot of people made it out to be. Anyway, I took two photos, one that is the graphic, and one of the building's front door. Right after I took the second photo, some guy left the apartment and held the door for me, so I walked in, haha. Jo wasn't with me because he was too scared, he thought it would be safer to stand by my car on the streets of South Central: that's a Bruin for you (zing!). I walked around the lobbies, all three floors. I probably passed my room, but have no way of knowing as I don't know the apartment number. I walked all the way through into the back where all the patios are; it's a nice cozy little building. Smells a little, and the dark-blue carpeted stairs creak a little when you walk on them, but it's all pretty nice. After I got locked out from the back door, I entered the alley and came back to my car by walking through a neighbor's backyard. The area is okay, nothing compared to Jo's new area (but then again, I think it's illegal to compare South Central to Westwood). If my roomies are cool, and the neighbors are cool, then I think the place will grow on me fairly quickly. I still have no real opinion about it because I know so little about it. I also have no idea who's going to be sleeping in my room. For all I know, the guy could be a serial killer. But I say, so long as he doesn't kill me or Sean, what he does on his own time is none of our business, who are we to judge? But I'll end this story with those two photos, and I'll bring the story back up when my laptop comes or when I move in this Saturday (so soon!), whichever comes first. And no, I won't list the address here, I don't feel like getting new stalkers. If you mean something, you will find out the address. If you don't know whether you mean something, just ask and I'll tell you – I'll tell you the address, not if you mean something, you're on your own in that part:
