Sunday, August 30, 2009

New Apartment

Yesterday, I made the journey to Northfield to sign the lease of my new apartment. I am renting a two bedroom with my friend Sokun. We signed the lease, then went to move some of his stuff in. We live in number 100, on the 3rd floor. Luckily we have a wide stairwell, so we were able to carry things up easily. We also found a couch in our garage, but apparently it's janky, so Sokun didn't want to bring it up. WM is taking it away unless another resident wants it.

Our fridge is short, but spacious. Our toilet is broken, but being fixed tomorrow. Our range hood needs fixing, but will also be fixed tomorrow. Our carpet squares aren't glued down (but that's not really a problem). Other than that, it's a really nice place. Oh, also, both of our names are spelled wrong on the lease. It's still legally binding, though. Just funny. My last name is Jorden (Jordan) and his name is Sokum (Sokun).

I'm very excited to move in on Wednesday. : )

However, the journey back from St. Olaf was fraught with mild inconveniences. Sokun dropped me off at MOA for the light rail, and I went downstairs to the transit station, intending to put money on my Go-To card. Apparently there was a Twins game that night, because there was a line about 20 people long waiting to buy tickets. Good lord. So I waited in line for about 5 minutes when I remembered the morning bus driver accidentally charged me for disability, only 50 cents instead of $2.25. So I still had 50 cents left on my card! Joy! (With the Go-To card, if you have any money on it, it'll just go into the negative when you charge the ride, and you pay it off when you put more money on your card). So I went to the Go-To pole, and a Metro Transit officer was leaning on it. Ugh... I just politely asked him to get off the pad, scanned my card and got on the very crowded train.

Luckily I found a seat. Unluckily, the train was really crowded. The woman sitting next to me kept staring at me in the reflection on the glass that was in front of us. The bike rack area was full of standing Twins fans, so bikers had to hold their bikes upright because there was no room for them to put them up, or even to let them sit with both wheels on the ground. (BTW, don't stand in the bike rack area. Just move down the aisle. it's really rude). Anyway, I eventually made it back downtown, where I put money on my card for the transfer home.

It was also really cold outside. Earlier in the day, it had been nice and sunny, if a bit breezy. By the time I was heading home, it was cold and cloudy and windy. I took refuge in the Central library, where I decided to go to the bathroom. Out of the 6 stalls, one was occupied, 3 had piss on the seats and 1 had crap on the seat. As I was walking back to the empty one, someone else took it. So I waited for the person in the occupied stall to finish (she left pee on the seat...), and carefully went potty (after wiping the seat down thoroughly).

Then I went to Dunn bros, and bought a chai latte and picked up a Lavender magazine. The chai was a little cold, but warmer than I was at the moment, so I didn't complain. I walked to the bus stop, balanced my chai on the railing, hopped up myself, and started to read. About halfway through my chai, it fell off the railing. That's more my fault than anything (I really should have been holding on to it), but it was still aggravating. Then not one, not two, but three other people waiting for the bus pulled out cigarettes and started smoking. They were both a respectful distance away, so it'd be rude of me to tell them to stand elsewhere, but like I said, it was windy. So I walked further away, and then something good happened: I ran into Nik, a friend of mine from high school, who was also waiting for the bus. We chatted pleasantly on the bus.

And that was the end of the mildly inconvenienced journey home.

1 comment:

  1. I have really only had bad experience with the Minneapolis bus system... and it sucks because I LOVE the idea of a good public transit system. After spending most of last week in Chicago I am in love with their subway system. It is SO easy to use and incredibly convenient. :-D

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