behind in my blogging ... again

Well, I've officially made the big move to the metropolis of Sioux Falls, SD. It's a crazy, lawless, casino-filled, Repulican-dominated land out here, and I'm trying to get used to it after living in the blue state of Minnesota for two years.

I wanted to post some pictures of my new apartment, but my stupid digital camera seems to have gone on strike for the time being. But the big news is I bought a couch. And no, not the type of furniture I would normally buy -- the kind with holes in it that comes from a thrift store. I bought my first real piece of new furniture. It's eggplant microfiber, or something to that effect. Actually, I just thought it looked pretty, I don't remember all the details. I'm trying to find some other pieces of furniture that would look good with it, like a new desk, entertainment stand and some sort of shelving system.

I feel like I've officially joined the upper middle class. I've really given in to my inner American desire to buy crap indiscriminately. So I'm just going to try to get my apartment set up and looking hot, and then I'll try to get it under control. Hopefully it won't be too late by then.

It's the pricey one

After much agonizing thought about which apartment to rent, I went into panic mode and signed a lease for the last apartment I looked at on my cutoff date to find a place to live. What can I say? Time was running out, the walls were closing in, and I panicked. But then I thought about it for the whole rest of the early evening and laid awake much of the night, and I decided another place I had looked it would be the best place to live -- primarily because it was in a more centralized location and offered washer and dryer hookups, meaning I would be able to keep my washer and dryer.

So I called the apartment for which I had signed a lease first thing the next morning, precisely at 9 a.m. I said that I had thought it over, and I didn't think living there would work out for me. I said they could keep my deposit, but I wanted to cancel the lease agreement. And, in a very rude manner, the lady on the phone told me that there was no way in hell I am ever getting out of that lease.

So basically, I found out that my landlord -- which is actually a corporate management company -- is an asshole. No business hours had passed since I had signed the lease, the paperwork hadn't gone through yet and the company hadn't run a credit check and signed off on the agreement. Basically, by letting me out of it, they would've gained $150 for doing nothing because I had told them to keep the deposit.

I'm trying to focus on the positive, however. It is a nice apartment, and it's one of the ones I liked the most from the beginning. The primary drawbacks are the edge-of-town location and coin-operated washer/dryer. Unfortunately, the managers are asses and we already don't get along very well.

Apparently, once you sign a lease for something, the friendliness and helpfulness of the management company is replaced by sinister, maniacal laughter.

So many choices, so little time

I've never actually moved somewhere where I had much of a choice about where to live. In college, I just had to move into the absolute cheapest place I could find as close to campus as possible. And then I moved to Dutch hell in northwest Iowa, and my choices were limited to the sole apartment complex in town. After that, I moved to a slightly bigger town in southwest Minnesota, and I had basically two choices -- an apartment complex that was the site of a stabbing shortly before I was slated to move, or the duplex that I currently live in.

In Sioux Falls, however, there are choices galore -- in the $500-$600 range, you can get two bedrooms in a slightly questionable place, a closet-sized one-bedroom in a luxury apartment complex, or basically anything else you can think of.

For instance, I can live in the facility pictured at the above right, which features a hot tub and indoor pool, as well as a weight room/fitness center, vaulted ceilings, a gargantuan walk-in closet, and numerous other cool amenities. However, it's only one bedroom and costs $615 a month.

Then, there's the place pictured at the left, which offers two bedrooms minus the huge walk-in closet, but has no pool, fitness center or hot tub. It's definitely bigger, but the carpet is an ugly brown and it's just all around not as nice. It is cheaper however, at about $550 a month.

So this leaves me in a quandary. What would I rather have? More money, more space and a lower-quality apartment? Or less money, less space and a higher-quality apartment? I can't decide, so I'm going to look at about 10 more apartments tomorrow.