Cross Country, Part Six, The Last Leg

The last day of my trip was tough.  I woke up around 6 because it sounded like it was raining in my room...I think that there was something wrong with the mini fridge...anyway, I woke up and got ready for the day.  Went downstairs to put my stuff in the car and get breakfast.  I noticed the bright and warm Nevada sunshine.  When I got back up to my room to finish up getting ready, I decided I was too tired to drive an additional 5 hours, so I took a nap and woke up again at 9:00am.  Perfect!  I should miss most of the Las Vegas rush hour.  I checked out and got on the road.

I drove and drove and drove some more.  Through the desert, through death valley.  There wasn't really much to see but desert and occasionally a mountain.

It was a very long, very boring drive, but I did see this sign.  If anyone can tell me how to pronounce this correctly, you get a prize...

Driving through, I got to a "pass" where the fog was incredible.  I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me.  It was a curvy pass with a lot of traffic and the fog just seemed to come out of nowhere.  That's when the rain began and it didn't stop until well into the next day.  Of the 3 days that it rains in Los Angeles, I chose one of these days to move in.

I got into LA around 2 and had to find a bank to get a cashier's check for my deposit and first month's rent.  I could not find a Wachovia to save my life.  Supposedly around here, Wachovia's are going out of business and being replaced by Wells Fargo branches.  The three Wachovia branches I had the addresses for weren't there any longer, so I went into a Wells Fargo branch, hoping that I could get the cashier's check there.  Wells Fargo and Wachovia are not integrated yet, so due to ATM caps and blah blah blah, I was sent on a wild goose chase in the rain looking for someplace to get these stupid money orders...Anyway, I now have an account at Wells Fargo so that I don't have to worry about it anymore!

I went to the rental office to sign my lease, got my keys and started unpacking my car.  I'll post pictures of the apartment with furniture next week when it's all unpacked and such..  But for now, you can get an idea of what my place looks like sans furniture.  These pictures are terrible...it was tough trying to shoot artistically, especially when the light was awful...

First, here is the floorplan so you kinda know what you're looking at:

Now for  the real pictures:

My Door

My Doorknob.  My key is a plastic flat card that goes into the top slot to open the door...

The Entrance

The Bathroom

The Dressing Room right off of the bathroom

From the main room looking into the bathroom/dressing room.

The Common Room looking into the kitchen

My cute little kitchen...

In Alexandria, three days after I moved I got a fish because my former roommate wouldn't let me have any pets and I really wanted a pet, thus was born McClellan.  McClellan died and I replaced him with Birkin.  Birkin made the trip across country with me in a large McDonald's cup.  It was touch and go for a bit, his dark blood red color was yellow for a couple of days, but he seems to be fine now.  He likes his new home and his view looking out the window and seeing the Hollywood hills...

Finally, what you all have been waiting for.  It took a couple of days, but I finally got a picture of my view.  This view depends a lot on the visibility, for example, I couldn't see it at all the first day, the second day it cleared up, and today is the first time that the visibility has been limited.  However, when the weather is nice, I can see all the way to the Hollywood sign.  Unfortunately, the Hollywood sign is no longer lit up at night because there were something like 500,000 reported car accidents a year due to the distraction of the sign from the highways, so they decided to stop lighting it but it's still cool to see it during the day.  The little white line in the mountains is the sign.  It is much more visible from my apartment, but of course the camera doesn't zoom that far.  But I can clearly read "Hollywood" from my living room.

So that's my place.  It's very bright and light and the temperatures range from chilly to hot.  My a/c likes to turn on and off randomly and make strange noises (like putting a book down on a table) all the time, but my view is amazing and I only have to run the a/c at night and that's only because I like it cold when I sleep.  There are a lot of sirens in the neighborhood, but so far I haven't felt unsafe walking around.  Parking here is valet and the valet guys are very nice; one of them even offered to come up and help me move my furniture.  I politely declined.  So far I've gotten 5 cards and one bill  Four of the cards were from the same person and the other card was from my parents.  They are displayed proudly on my windowsill.  So far, I love it here and can't wait to see what adventures my life brings me next!!