Today was one of those days where everything started off ok, but more and more things just kept piling on becoming more and more stressful. Today I officially moved in to the Roosevelt Collection, my new home for the next year (hopefully more). Originally my plan was to get off work, finish up the last bits of paperwork, and start moving in by three in the afternoon. Yeah, that was not going to happen.
In order to move in to the apartments here are the Roosevelt Collection you have to prove that you do in fact earn enough money to allow you to pay the rent - a fair enough expectation. The problem for me arose in that I don’t actually earn enough money to move in here, all of my housing money comes from student loans as well as a monthly housing allowance as part of my post 9/11 GI Bill money.
While I don’t actually have the exact amount of money I get annually from the GI money, I was able to work it out using a calculator through the bill’s website, which I printed and brought along with a letter from the V.A. Office here are Columbia saying that I am in fact going to be getting the money. Logically I assumed the property manager here would be able to put two and two together, however apparently simple math is not something required to become a property manager.
The files I had brought where not enough and I spent the next five, almost six, hours on the phone with various people at my school and the V.A. Office trying to get some form of proof that was acceptable enough to allow me to get my keys. At this point it was around three already - I had abandoned all hope of actually moving and just wanted my keys so I could take a nap because I had actually not slept at all in the last thirty six hours.
Finally, a few hours later I am able to get all of the verification that they needed and got my keys. As soon as I walked in to my apartment I knew it had been worth the wait. I walked out on the balcony and just stared across the river and let the warm summer breeze cool me off, then I decided to take a bath - because you see the bathtubs here are HUGE and I am a pretty tall guy. I have not taken a proper bath probably since I was about fifteen. Today, I took a long and so immensely satisfying bath. I had completely forgotten how a nice bath can just melt all your problems away.
Then just now, I decided to go up to the roof deck and watch the sunset. The view from the roof deck is absolutely breath taking. Standing there staring at the bright red colors of the sun set against the black and grays of the Chicago sky line I finally decided that all of today’s frustration was completely worth it.
Next up, furniture shopping at Ikea, and pictures!
