Getting Adjusted

About a month and a half ago, we moved into our new place. We found our new apartment on a rental site (you have to pay a premium and you gain access to all their listings. Landlords have to post their rentals.) It's a lot easier to navigate than Craigslist and short of just driving around neighborhoods, it helps give an idea of what's in an area (and then you can check it out and potentially find a place not listed). For us, since we have le grande pooch, this was a fairly easy way of finding a rental that would allow Gamby, was in our price range, showed photos, and also in the area we were interested in. Granted, I still had to make several phone calls in which number two question after "Is X still available?" was "What is your pet policy?"

Our new place is only a handful of miles away from our old place (4ish miles according to Google Maps)--and is located in Koreatown. It's so much larger than our old place- so much larger. Unlike our old place, our new apartment is 1 bedroom in a small building (only 8 units total) and has gated entry and parking! It feels more like a 1 story 1 bedroom townhouse than an apartment; at least that's how Cameron and I have been describing it. It has a front and back entrance and is large enough, we think, to be described as such. For instance, we have a formal dining room AND a laundry room (so grown up!). It's in a much more residential area-- it's a heavily populated area, but it's mostly family homes and apartments (Cameron said he felt like he was in a sardine can). Talk about a change of pace from Hollywood! We only really grapple with local traffic (so much more preferable than tourist or movie premiere traffic). Cameron's commute is way better (13ish miles for him = 30 minute commute regardless of time etc) than mine (9ish miles = 30 minutes in the AM and an hour in the PM).

Now, onto the "getting adjusted" part of this post. So, in the weeks we've been in our new apartment, we've had maintenance come to apartment practically every week- sometimes twice! It's nothing alarming, but rather just getting the kinks worked out. My co-workers suggested I blog about our breaking in stage since I always seem to have a new story about what's going on with our apartment.

Week 1: Request for shower light replacement, shower drain clogged, bathtub drip, shower faucet repair
Week 2: AC replacement
Week 3: Plastic removed from back door glass (later that week) water leak at washer hook ups
Week 4: Bathroom sink leak (that weekend) bathroom sink water backed up
Week 5: (pending) replacement burner caps for stove

Part of the reason for the high amount of requests, especially plumbing is we can't use Dran-o or any type of liquid plumbing due to our pipes being old and of a certain type. Having to ask for so many repair requests has made me very appreciative of our management company as our apartment manager is friendly and easy to get a hold of as are the people they contract for work. I just feel bad being "those tenants" that have a bajillion requests and has only been there for a month. But the more we're here, the less and less we've needed to contact them (for obvious reasons).

Another trial we have been facing is getting packages delivered to us. It seems that only USPS has a key to get into the building and so FedEx and UPS can't enter our building unless we're home. And they usually deliver in late morning/early afternoon and we're never home at those times. We can go the warehouse and pick up the packages, no problem. It just takes a hour out of our evening as we battle downtown traffic.

HOWEVER. This one time, a certain delivery company just left it, and I quote, "by the driveway in the bushes." What. By the time I got home said package was gone because it was pretty much on the sidewalk in a busy Los Angeles neighborhood for over five hours, and last I checked, bushes don't exactly have security systems. The delivery company was absolutely no help because the package didn't require a signature so it was the driver's discretion to leave it where he/she may... Luckily, the company I ordered from was willing to resend the package with a signature request so we can at least get it from the warehouse. Needless to say, there's now a note by our doorbell asking for packages not to be left on the doorstep.

One day we'll be all settled in. One day.

And, of course, some obligatory (but awful sad looking) photos of Gambit. I think he was pretty bummed about not getting his PetBox (which was the aforementioned lost/stolen package).

So....news?

Howdy, everyone.

So, the point of this post is really to reassure you all that I haven't forgotten about this blog and I definitely want to share some photos once we're all unpacked... we're going on 3 weeks now. Moving is the worst!

Unfortunately, I don't really have any exciting news to share, other than a few weeks ago before we moved from Hollywood, we saw two movies at the TCL Chinese Theater and Disney's El Capitan theater. We did take some photos, but they all came out blurry... It was pretty neat to sit in an old school theater, especially the Chinese Theater where a TON of premieres have been held. Not gonna lie, not going to miss that premiere traffic at all.

Our 4th of July was relatively low-key. We spent the evening with some friends down in Santa Ana and watched fireworks. Fireworks are illegal in Los Angeles County, but not in other counties (Santa Ana is in Orange County). Man, do they take it a bit far. You, like anywhere else, can purchase illegal fireworks, and here they go all the way. Many houses in my friend's neighborhood were shooting off the type you see at ball games or Disneyland. So, cool for us not having to go anywhere and the drive back was neat seeing all the different shows across the city. Gambit, however, is NOT a fan of fireworks. He did ok, but he was definitely startled most of the night.

We are going to a Dodger's game tonight- it's a Hello Kitty giveaway game, so a few of my friends from my program and their significant others are coming along. Cameron is thrilled about the Hello Kitty giveaway- not. Haha, but he's a good sport and is willing to come along :] Hopefully, this won't be our last MLB game of the summer- though ticket prices are wayyyyyyy more than the Greensboro Grasshoppers. $10 for premium seats are so not an option here.

Gambit has acclimated well to the new place- it's so much bigger than our last and he has plenty of places to sleep. In fact, often when we come home we have to call him rather than him immediately greeting us at the door. We're also pretty sure he spends most of our time in our bedroom (more specifically sleeping on the bed) since it's the only room that has AC and the sheets are usually balled up in one corner by the time I come home.

We also need to find a new groomer in town that won't cost us an arm and a leg. We had been going to Petsmart, but we've had some not-so-great experiences the last few times and their prices have become comparable to other pet groomers. Also, I'm fairly certain he got his ear infection from his last grooming session so there's really no incentive to keep going back. Now, the trials of finding a new place to get our dog washed when he gets a little stinky. It's a good thing we only do this every 2-3 months! It's expensive when you have the dog the size of a pony.

Hopefully, we'll be doing something newsworthy in the next little bit, like finally unpacking, haha.

Gambit & Manners

Ever since Cameron and I relocated, it has been an on-going battle with Gambit and walks. He has bad habits to say the least; he pulls, lunges at both people and other dogs, and sometimes acts out aggressively to dogs, which worried us quite a bit. For a few weeks, he was getting better with these behaviors, but that was short lived and actually got worse. My theory is he has become comfortable with our area and is getting a bit territorial. In the past few weeks, it's been rather difficult controlling him on walks, especially when another dog comes our way. Cameron and I talked about maybe getting a trainer involved, but ultimately decided trying out a gentle leader leash/collar before we went that route. When I had to order some books off Amazon, we decided to go ahead and get it one and also purchased a pheromone spray that helps deter bad behaviors.

We got the gentle leader and the spray yesterday, and holy crap, do they work well! After about four sprays, Gambit just has to see the bottle and he stops that behavior. In case you're worried, the spray isn't harmful to him (it smells like hairspray to me). You simply spray near him and it makes him stop dead in his tracks. The first time I sprayed it at him, he immediately stopped and gave me a look of "what was that? I don't like that at all." Cameron used it on his walk today and said that after he barked at a dog and was sprayed, he didn't bark again. On my walk with him this evening, he sat quietly while other dogs passed him on the sidewalk.

I can't express how night/day this change in behavior is, and I'm so grateful that it was a simple and relatively inexpensive solution. We're really hoping that the leader and spray will work and that Gamby's behavior will improve for the long haul. Maybe we'll start feeling more comfortable introducing him to other dogs and he can start making friends!

Since he had a very good walk, Gambit got a doggie ice cream treat (which he's a fan of, cardboard cup and all).

To continue the Gambit post, here are some other fun photos.

This is how I see him in the morning before I go to campus if he's in his chair: 

 

But, if he's not, this is usually how he looks: 

 He's a fan when I do this (foot bellyrubs):

We need to buy more Gambit-proof toys. I picked this football/raccoon thing up for him and an hour later...

It's like he know's he did that too quickly.

And even when we're just watching TV, he's got to be in the action too.

What a cutie!

One Day Until the Adventure Begins!

The final countdown has started until Cameron and I begin the long haul to the West Coast. We're officially leaving Tuesday morning with a 16' rental truck, a Mini Cooper, two additional friends of Cameron's, and a 75lb Australian Shepherd, who's making the journey in the backseat of the Mini (don't worry, there will be pictures of that, I can assure you). The boys are much more excited than I driving across country (I'm not a fan of long hours in the car. I think I filled my quota traveling to see family when I was younger). However, I'm sure the excitement of moving will overcome the dread of long hours on the road.

The plan is to take about five days to reach Los Angeles. Hopefully, there won't be any unexpected delays on the road like a tornado in Kansas, which is a legitimate fear of mine from all the stories I've heard about the Panhandle. We're hoping to make it Memphis, TN by the first night; it's about 700 miles from where we're leaving in NC, and it'll be a chance for Cameron to see some of his good friends. Cameron has a small pit stop at the Grand Canyon once we hit Arizona, so I'm sure it'll be a great opportunity to stretch our legs and enjoy an afternoon. I've been there once before several years ago, so I'm trying to remember the cool parts to visit on a truncated time table.

The rental truck was loaded up on Saturday so Cameron could spend a few days with his family at the beach. In the wee hours of Friday morning, I became convinced that I was bringing entirely too much stuff and spent several hours repacking and sorting my things into three piles: definitely take, would like to take, and I can send for it later. My parents helped us load the truck (they've had lots of experience with this type of thing moving me out of college apartments and the like). I'm happy to report that we were able to fit everything with some creative organization into the 16' truck. Now, it's just a matter of whether or not the apartment has space for all our things.

Now, that leads me to the apartment we've got set up in Los Angeles. Trying to find an apartment in a different city can be a hassle. But that takes on a whole new meaning when trying to find an apartment 2500 miles away. We spent about two months searching almost everyday for a place to call home. We both knew that it would be a challenge because of the doggie. But good grief. Los Angeles is really the land of the chihuahua. We would find apartments that claimed they were pet friendly...for 25lbs or less. There were places that would say pet friendly, but only took dogs less than 10lbs! My family's dog is a regular sized dachshund; he's by no means overweight and still weighs about 20lbs. That makes me wonder exactly how small those 10lbs or less dogs are! So when our apartment building said they took large dogs, we jumped at the chance and got it!

Another challenge for us was finding a place that was moderately close for me to commute to UCLA. The neighborhood UCLA is in is called Westwood and definitely on the pricier side of LA neighborhoods. We looked at neighborhoods close to Westwood like Mar Vista, Palms, and West Hollywood (which is called WeHo), but for our budget and with a big dog, it just wasn't looking promising. For a while, we expanded our search to the Valley (San Fernando Valley) looking in neighborhoods like Van Nuys, Encino, and even as far north as Northridge, but still no luck. Our apartment is technically in Hollywood and about 10 miles from campus. While that doesn't sound like a lot of mileage, in LA driving it's going to take planning on my part to make sure I don't get stuck in heavy traffic. When we went to LA back in March for me to visit UCLA, we stayed in Hollywood about 9.5 miles from campus. Google maps said it would take about 45 minutes to get to campus. Try an hour and fifteen minutes. Granted, it was a Friday and in the middle of morning rush hour traffic, but that is not a commute I want to have everyday. We planned our move to the West Coast with almost a week to spare before my courses begin in August so I can have a few mornings to figure out when is the optimum time to leave and get to campus in time for class/work.

Over the past few months, Cameron and I have been getting really excited about all the things we can experience in LA. Not going to lie, I love Disneyland and wouldn't mind getting a season pass, but Cameron doesn't quite share my enthusiasm. However, we both have ever expanding lists of restaurants and food trucks to try, shows and artists we would like to see, and several trips we'd like to take-- San Diego will probably be the first one over a long weekend so Cameron can see a Chargers' game and we can go to the San Diego Zoo.

Now that the move is actually here, it feels rather surreal. There will be more posts in the days to come about the drive out west and once we get settled in Los Angeles. Stay tuned!