Posts Tagged Moving

Possible move in January?

Oct 12

Posted by Ashley in General | 2 Comments

A few nights ago I posted this blog about random people knocking on my door at all hours of the night; well, it hasn’t stopped and I’m up to 5 people now. Needless to say, I’m getting tired of it and want it to stop but how that’s suppose to happen I’m not exactly sure. The property manager already knows of the situation and he knows I’m tired of it and he watches out for me but it KEEPS HAPPENING. I’ve been tempted to post a note on my door saying DO NOT KNOCK OR I CALL THE POLICE because it’s THAT annoying. Aside from the random knocks, I’m perfectly fine with where I am and my apartment but I know I could be in a safer environment than where I currently am.

So, I was looking through the rental part of the classifieds last night and noticed an ad for one of the larger apartment communities – the community I had hoped to get an apartment in to begin with. It’s right down the road from the campus, is still on the bus route and is ALL college students that live there with the exception, I’m sure, of a few households. Either way, I know that I’d feel safer living there than where I currently am so I decided to check out the site again and see if their availability list had been updated. They have a few apartments that will be available at the end of the semester around December/January, one of which is one of their newer apartments and includes a washer/dryer in the unit which would be REALLY nice. I emailed one of the leasing agents and asked her to forward me the rental prices for the one bedroom units that would be available and I’m waiting to hear back about them.

I’m hoping that rent won’t be too high for one of the apartments there as I’d have to pay the cable and electric bill separate from my rent where as the apartment I’m currently at it’s built into the rent payment so it’s a set amount each month. At the beginning of January, I won’t be so stretched for money like I am now because I’ll have my tuition refund and I won’t have to buy all the crap I needed to buy when I first moved here. I am really hoping I can get into one of the apartments – I don’t really want to move again because I HATE moving but it’s for the better for my safety.

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New temporary bed.

Oct 10

Posted by Ashley in General | No Comments

When I moved to Kansas I wasn’t able to take all my stuff with me which included my desk and my bed because I was driving my car, alone and it wasn’t able to pull a U-Haul. It’s ridiculous how much U-Haul’s and any moving equipment actually costs and because of said costs, my mom hasn’t been able to figure out how to get my stuff out to me. So, for the past two months I’ve been sleeping on an air mattress that I got from my dads and everything was great until that air mattress decided it wanted to start leaking air, then it decided it wanted to get another hole and THEN another hole…by the time I found the third hole, the second one had become so big that it completely ripped and was unfixable.

So, Tuesday and Wednesday I spent the night on the couch and the floor. My mom told me to go check out mattress sets at a local mattress store but after realizing it would cost between $300-600 for a mattress and box set, I decided to get another air mattress except the one I got is an elevated one. Hopefully, it’ll last me longer than the one I had gotten from my dad. I slept on it for the first time last night and boy, was it so nice after having slept on the floor the previous night; I was so tired that I went to bed at 9:30pm which is EARLY for me!

Next time, I move anywhere that I need to take a lot of stuff with me especially bigger items I’ll check into a moving company or something; I won’t ever be moving to New York so I won’t have any need for New York movers but I may need some help getting to Michigan when the time comes!

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Woe is me.

Jul 12

Posted by Ashley in Education, Family, Health/Fitness | 2 Comments

My mom left Kansas in April of 2001, I stayed behind and lived with my dad, step-mom and sister because starting high school with my friends and being with my then boyfriend was more important to me than anything else in the world. When my dad kicked me out and sent me packing to live with my mom in South Carolina only three or four months after she left, I didn’t ever think I was going to go back; at that time, I wasn’t and since then I never felt like I’d ever live in Kansas again and over time that was okay with me.

However, that may change in a month and I’m not exactly sure how to feel about it. As most of you know, I was accepted to Michigan State University which I had been pulling up my GPA/grades to get into for the past year; I was ecstatic about it when I received my admissions packet and couldn’t wait to get things going…however, I won’t be able to attend because of the finances. As an out of state student the cost of attendance is $35,838 for a year (two semesters), with $21,000+ of that coming from a loan my mom had to apply for which she was denied. With her being denied, there is no way I can cover the cost of MSU outside of what my financial aid covers and believe me, I’ve pushed, pulled, twisted, screamed and hollered until I made sure every last option was exhausted.

It upsets me greatly because all I wanted for the past year was to get into MSU, to be going to Michigan to finish my schooling and be closer to Alan and now the one thing I’ve looked forward too all this time isn’t going to happen. It doesn’t help either that since finding out about my acceptance that these little “signs” keep popping up everywhere as if to tell me “hey you’re suppose to be going to Michigan!”; people moving from MI to SC, people visiting from MI, me checking people out at work who are from MI, seeing people around here wearing MI school t-shirts, MI mentioned on the news and the TV in general. I don’t know if you believe in such things, but I do…and for the first time in what seems forever, Michigan feels right and it’s still not happening.

Originally, I had no back up plan – it was MSU or nothing. At the last minute, I applied to University of South Carolina amidst an argument that Alan and I got into which made me feel like it wasn’t going to work out. And had it not been for me checking University of Kansas website, I wouldn’t have seen that they were accepting late applications until July 1st, and so I applied again – both schools accepted me. What’s nice about USC and KU is that I can receive in-state tuition from both schools, USC because I graduated from high school here and I’ve lived here for six years and KU because my dad still lives in KS and I can get tuition rates because of that. However, I’m having a hard time dealing with my decision…

As of right now, KU is at the top of the list, I’m just waiting to get my tuition rates figured out and waiting for the loan stuff to be cleared on my moms end. I never wanted to attend USC, and I’ve wanted to get out of SC for years now so KU seemed like the best choice out of the two. But even that makes me nervous. I’m nervous because of how much Lawrence has changed since I last lived there, I’m nervous because it is a big change and a big move but that would be the same even if I was going to MSU. Most of all, however, I’ve come to realize that I’m really worried about my mom. For the first time, in eight years (since my parents divorce), my mom will be alone as my brother plans on going back to KS as well to attend K-State.

I know, in the end, that I can’t let my mom being alone affect something that will effect me for the rest of my life, but it still bothers me. It also upsets me that Alan can’t be apart of my change and that I have to do it all alone. In the end, I’ll make it through…because I know I’m strong enough to do so, but god I never thought that going off to college and leaving home for the first time would be such a stressful thing.

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Going to get Toto.

Feb 18

Posted by Ashley in General | 1 Comment

My mom and I are leaving some time Saturday to drive to Kansas to help pack up my brother and move him to South Carolina. My brother, Josh, has been living in Kansas for quite some time now (I can’t remember exactly how long…too long I guess!) but having difficulty surviving on his own with a full time job at McDonald’s. He had been living with dad after he left S. Carolina years ago, up until last summer when dad and step-mom decided they were going to buy a house in Junction City which is about an hour or so from Lawrence (where they use to live). My brother was left behind at the old house after he wouldn’t give an answer to my dad as far as him moving to J.C with them, and so he’s had to take over all the bills and such – he gets hardly any help from his roomate Sean and it’s just become too much for him to handle. He wanted to start college, but can’t do so unless he gets some help from someone because the only type of jobs he can find around Lawrence at the moment are minimum wage jobs that don’t bring in enough income to pay all the bills AND give him the time to attend school, not to mention he’d only be able to work part time if he went to school fulltime.

And so…he finially decided it was time to move here because it’s the only chance he’ll have to either get an education or find a decent paying job to where he can save up and eventually start life the way he chooses too. My uncle has already looked into getting him a really nice job with the power company (uncle works there) so hopefully my brother will be good to go. It’ll be really weird though for me…and I’m sure for him too since we haven’t lived together in YEARS and with him having lived in Kansas, we hardly got to see each other during the year either. But with me, hopefully, going to Michigan by the Fall it shouldn’t be too bad. I’ll be gone for a week…I’m ready for a vacation even if it is to Kansas.

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It’s been awhile!

Feb 10

Posted by Ashley in General | 1 Comment

I’m still alive, just been busy. My mom and I moved over the weekend into a bigger (3 bedroom) townhouse as my brother will be moving in with us at the end of February from Kansas. The cable doesn’t work in my room and I have to wait until Tuesday for them to come and rewire the outlet, but I set up my PC in what will be Josh’s room to check email and things for my classes. I’ve been busy working just about every evening except maybe 2 days a week, so when I get home all I want to do is play WoW with Alan and relax. My birthday is on Tuesday, I’ll be 22 and we’re going to a local seafood restaurant to celebrate. Other than that, it’ll be a few days until I’m fully back again as I get settled in the new place.

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Budgeting Money.

Nov 4

Posted by Ashley in General | No Comments

A few nights ago, my mom and I had a long conversation about money and moving out. I was asking her how you go about figuring out how much money you need to make in order to move out and still be able to pay bills – the one thing that stresses me out about moving out is doing so and then getting stuck in a rut because I can’t pay bills. She basically told me that I would just have to setup a budget and that the easiest way to do so is write down how much I need a month for rent and then about how much bills like electric, gas and water will cost and then add in anything extra like cable etc; which I already knew but I wanted to get her opinion and ask her for advice. At least when it comes to this type of stuff there is budgeting software out there that makes it a little bit easier, especially if you aren’t very money savvy.

Luckily, I’m not a big spender and even my mom said that both my brother and I are very good about not blowing our money when we do it. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that while we were growing up and especially after my parents got divorced, we didn’t have a lot of money and often times lived paycheck to paycheck. My brother and I don’t ask for much and when we do ask for something it’s for the essentials like clothing or food and we wait until the very last minute to ask; we like being independent and knowing we can afford and take care of things ourselves. The last thing I want is to move out on my own for the first time, not budget correctly to afford the bills I have and fail…having to crawl back to my mom with my tail between my legs. Sure, it’ll be a bit easier with Alan and us splitting things down the middle but even then, he’ll be making the most as I’ll only be working part time while I’m in school. We’ll see…I know it’ll work out but I’m trying to not kill my brain thinking about it :P Keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow and Tuesday when it comes to my interviews!

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The Hunt.

Nov 1

Posted by Ashley in Job | No Comments

Job hunting is such a pain in the ass, but something one must do in order to…well you know, FIND A JOB! :P Being in school though makes the process a little more difficult because you have to find an employer that is willing to work around your schedule; having classes in the early afternoons, leaves the late afternoons and evenings + weekends open for me so I get stuck with retail jobs which aren’t that bad but still pretty hectic.

I know all jobs have their perks and disadvantages just as all jobs have their fair share of “hard work” that you must do…but retail is just “ugh” sometimes – then again every job as their “ugh” moments! Not because of the pay, most of the time you can get a fairly decent hourly rate even working part time that is above minimum wage (the last retail job I had was $7.15/hr which was the highest I’ve ever had), depends on the store of course – but retail jobs aren’t 9 to 5 type jobs is what I’m getting at. You’re lucky if you can get the schedule you want; for instance, my cousin when she applied to Old Navy told them she could only work from 8am-5pm during the weekdays and any time on the weekends (part time), mainly because of the fact that she has a soon to be three year old son that has been staying with her more frequently than before (he normally “lives” at her parents house), she was lucky that they were willing to work with her on that and even they said they would work with her.

It just seems that most of the time when you’re a student whether it be high school or college, they expect you to work during the late afternoon/evening time because you have classes during the day. In the end, I guess what I’m getting at is that if I didn’t have to worry about school I would have a wider range of jobs that I could apply for, especially full time jobs (just looking part time right now) because most of them ask for Xam-Ypm unlike retail jobs which can be all over the place. I’m not complaining but just an observation, this is partly why I can’t wait to finish school COMPLETELY but then again when I do that, I’ll hopefully have no problem finding a CAREER job in the area that I studied :) It would just make it a little easier, in my opinion, if I felt like I had more options whether it be because of schedule or because of pay but I’ll take what I can get at this point because moving to Michigan is priority numero uno after classes are out for the semester ;) With that being said, I did send in a few more applications online awhile ago to various stores around here so keep your fingers crossed about me hearing back from them, as well as hearing back from Old Navy either Monday or Tuesday of next week!

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