Apartment hunting and Drew

The last few weeks have been, for lack of a better word, crazy. After we spent a week in Oregon preparing for Brittany's wedding, which turned out beautiful, we drove back down bringing my youngest sister, Stephanie, along to hang out for about a week.

The evening we arrived back down here--August 21st--Adam's brother Andy died in a motorcycle accident. We spent the next week up in Bend making arrangements and spending time with the family grieving. Andy was an awesome brother and a great friend. He gave the best hugs of anyone I know, and he giggled like a little girl even though he was a big tough guy. I've known Andy since I was 12; we met in homeroom at High Desert, and he nicknamed me Gerber for some reason that I can no longer remember. He was a good friend to me when Adam and I broke up, and he always hoped we'd get back together someday - I was obviously happy to oblige him. I will miss having him as a brother, but mostly I'll miss his smile and his hugs.

In the shadow of this tragedy, we found some joy in our decision to finally get a puppy. We've been wanting a toy Australian Shepherd (like Kristi's dog Sadie) for awhile, but the timing hasn't been right until now. Kristi's aunt breeds Australian Shepherds, and one of her dogs had a litter at the beginning of August, so we were able to go pick one out before we returned to California, though we'll have to find a new place to live before we get him because our landlady will not allow pets.

Which brings me to my apartment hunting rant. I've been looking for apartments for the last week with no real luck. Since the interest rates have gone up and the housing market has slowed slightly, rents have started to go up for the first time in about two years. I realized we'd have to pay more, but I thought about $200 more a month would get us a decent pet-friendly place. Boy was I wrong. It looks like we'll have to pay $300-400 more a month, and even in that price range, all I can find are dumps. After looking at quite a few crappy apartments, I broke down in tears yesterday after looking at this $1300 dump (see picture at right). I guess we can either get an apartment no bigger than the one we have for $400 more, or we can get a two-bedroom piece of crap. Why do I live here? Oh yes, the weather is lovely. ;)

However, thinking about getting the puppy makes me happy, so I must keep the end goal in mind. He's a little boy, about 4 1/2 weeks old, and we decided to name him Drew in honor of Andy. If we can find an apartment soon, we can get him after the first of October, when he'll be old enough to leave his mom. Otherwise we might have to wait awhile, but Kristi said he could stay with them until we find a place. We have so many big changes to deal with at once, but I guess the only way to cope is to deal with them one at a time. And breathe. I find that's usually helpful. When I remember.


Left: Drew at 3 1/2 weeks when we picked him out. Below: Drew a week later with his two brothers (he's on the far right) and his mom, Ferbie.