Moving day

Well, in the end, I didn't get the apartment I wanted...but having just received in the mail a $2,500 bill from my lawyer I think it's safe to say I couldn't have afforded the one I wanted anyway. So I suppose we wound up in the right place.

It wound up being a mad scramble at the end, because Kristina, last Thursday night, begged me to find some way to let her stay in the Stafford school district. That would be because she absolutely loves Stafford High School, making this the first time since she set foot in America that she has gotten up every morning excited about going to school. Well, that counts for a lot for me, and I talked it over seriously with Anya and Natasha and they both told me they would rather stay in Stafford. So I told them, "Okay, guys, here's the deal: I am not going to be homeless. So I am due to sign that lease for the apartment up near Memorial and Dairy Ashford on the 29th -- and I am going to sign a lease on the 29th. Either we find a place AND we like it AND we can afford it AND they approve us, and it ALL happens in time for me to sign a lease on the 29th -- or else we move to Dairy Ashford on the 29th. Because I WILL sign a lease on the 29th."

Then we spent an hour driving around in the car scouting nearby apartment complexes, and I hunted up a map of the Stafford MSD boundaries on the web and spent another four hours on rent.com and apartments.com sending out e-mails to every apartment complex within the district explaining the situation. And much to my surprise we got a response, from an apartment complex a half-mile from Duane's house -- only two-bedroom (though not actually all that much smaller than the squeezed-in three-bedroom apartment that was Plan B), but I got a month's rent free even with a six-month lease, and they gave me $50/month off their market rent, bringing me in $150/month below the other place -- and that's not counting what I'll save on gas by being able to keep carpooling with Duane. Easily a thousand-dollar difference in the first month (which, as soon as I got that lawyer bill, assumed a great deal more importance). There was only one problem -- they looked to be right near the district border. So I asked them if they were in the Stafford MSD or in Ft. Bend ISD -- and they told me that of their twelve buildings, nine were in the Ft. Bend district and three were in the Stafford district (the city limit, it turns out, runs smack through the middle of the apartment complex).

"Um, this is kind of important, because the whole point is to stay in the Stafford school district...which building is the one with the apartment you have available for immediate move-in?"

"That's in Building Two."

"Is that one of the Stafford buildings?"

"Yes, it is."

So I applied on Friday, they approved us and I signed a lease on Saturday, we cleaned out the storage facility and dumped everything in the new living room on Sunday as my parents pulled out of West Virginia and headed for Stafford, and tonight we'll move most our personal stuff over and buy groceries and actually sleep in our own apartment. Tomorrow morning my parents get here and they will take over all the settling-in logistics (such as, for example, dealing with the fact that Kristina has a 3:00 job interview and that I have no furniture other than air mattresses and bookshelves) so that I can, for the first time in two weeks, focus properly on my job.

And on Friday Desiree gets back, and for the first time in months she'll be able to live in her own house without having to put up with me.

So while money remains very, very tight (and will for the foreseeable future as I don't foresee any alterations in Dessie's tactics that would allow me to stop running up legal bills), the housing situation is at last settled, and while it's not a perfect situation there's enough to like about it for me to breathe a sigh of relief that's the result of two weeks of breath-holding.

Thanks so much for all your prayers.