the hypercube of happydalek

I like my apartment.  I really do.  And I just got the living room set up the way I want it.  But An Opportunity has appeared for me to relocate to a two-story, two-bedroom apartment that is about 30% cheaper per month.  It's also about 15 minutes further away from campus than I am now.  But the bedrooms are upstairs, and you don't have to walk through them to get to the bathroom (which is how my current place is set up and annoys me).  The sitting room and kitchen are fairly spacious, there's decent closet space (though not quite as epic as my Giant Closet of Giantness that I have now, but it also has a full attic I could use), and if I get a roommate (which is likely), I could cut my monthly rent bill to nearly a third of what I'm currently paying.  If I wouldn't get a roommate, then I'd still be paying less in rent than now, with an extra room I could use for an office. 

The downside to the place is that, as mentioned, it's further away.  Also, it has no appliances.  No fridge, no stove.  I'd have to purchase those for myself. The upside is that I could also get a washer and dryer, since it has a hookups for those, which would be all kinds of awesome to have, because I am sick to death of using laundrymats.  The place also has a back garden with a clothesline.  But I'm not sure what the utility costs would be.  It uses gas and electric, and it's an older house (built in the '40's), and even though the attic has been recently insulated, I'm not sure how weather stripped and airtight the rest of the place is.  That savings in rent could get eaten up by utility bills and the set up costs of purchasing or renting large appliances. 

The other downside is that the place is available NOW RIGHT NOW, and my current lease isn't up until May, and I'm not sure how easily and cheaply I'd be able to get out of it before then.  My lease says that "tenant may not terminate this lease during the intial term," which it later clarifies as a "one-year initial term," but I don't know precisely what that means, since my first lease was for five months, and then I signed another, identical lease for one year when that one was ending.  I am going to ask the landlord tomorrow to explain.  I wasn't really prepared to relocate before May anyhow, but with a price tag like it has, that two bedroom place won't stay vacant long.  I'm living on student loan money right now; I haven't worked this break like I had hoped to be, so I am looking to start saving money any way I can.  I can get the landlord to hold it for me for a month, which I'd probably have to do at a bare minimum in order to give notice at my current apartment and get my stuff together, but I'd need to make that decision really soon. Really soon.

Aaah, decisions.

My apartment woes are partially solved! 
On another note, my Stallone obsession continues to rage unabated.  I just ordered two Stallone movies on DVD from Amazon--Copland, which I've heard is very good, and D-Tox, which I've heard is very bad.  And I still have Rambo, First Blood from Blockbuster sitting on my desk in my apartment, waiting for me.  I'm still perplexed by the whole thing.  Just have to let it run its course, I guess.   I'm not really worried, as I went through the same thing with Johnny Depp a couple years ago, and as a result, half my DVD collection is Depp movies (the other half is Doctor Who, naturally!)  I just get obsessive like that.  At least these little benders tend to broaden my cinematic tastes.  I expect to have a respectable Stallone collection when it's all said and done. 

To switch tracks again, I do lament that in the midst of all the goodness going on in my life right now, I haven't found time to finish my Who-related writing projects.  It's starting to irritate me, that "Fission" is hanging there, just three parts shy of completion, and isn't done yet.  I hate leaving stuff unfinished, but between all the real life stuff going on in and out of college, I just haven't been able to muster up the creative energy for it.  That's not really a good excuse, admittedly.  I'd just better have it done by the end of term.  Then there's my other novel (a multi-doc featuring Nine and an OC) sitting quietly over at Teaspoon that's over half done.   I need to finish it so I can begin a decent rewrite, and that thought is just souring the whole thing.  But I can't stand leaving it there unfinished.  I hate amateur writers that do that, and swore I'd never be one of them.  It's just going to take a while, since I've finally started to settle in at the college I'm at and forge some social connections.  I tend to write the most when I'm isolated and depressed, it seems!