With that said and done, I would like to move on and explain what exactly I am trying to accomplish here. The point of this blog is to express my opinions about culture, celebrity, news and daily life. I also would like to point out that I think this blog is appropriately titled "I Know You Didn't Ask But..." because it means just that. You did not ask to hear my opinion, but I am airing it anyway. Take it or leave it; it is out there.
That last paragraph was very blunt, but on a recent trip to my parent's home, my father and I agreed that maybe I have become more cynical. I told him that maybe I was not so much cynical as I was opinionated. Plus, a lot of things bug me. However, before we get into the things I dislike, maybe I should tell you about things I do like:
1) SHOES!!!- If I won the lottery, I would buy shoes and then do everything else like travel and build a home. There is good logic behind this way of doing things because I need to know how big of a house to build to fit all of my shoes.
2) Books- Did you notice the background of this page? Yeah, it is a stack of books. I enjoy reading Fiction the most, but sometimes I like reading Biographies or "How To.." books. It is always a good idea to get a book about the area of your next vacation so you can plan a really great trip, so I enjoy reading those as well.
3) Cooking- I love cooking. Plain and simple. I like trying new recipes and when I go out, I like to try new foods. For instance, my husband and I went out this past April for his birthday at this amazing little place here in Manhattan, KS called Four Olives. I tried the Lobster Ravioli with Crab Meat sauce and it was probably the best meal I have ever had.
4) Husband, Family and Friends- They support me in everything I do. I hope I do not embarrass them with this blog.
So those are just a few things I enjoy. I do enjoy more in life, but you only have so much time in your day to read this blog, so I will leave it at my top 4.
Lets move on.
So this first blog is about something that happened to me just yesterday. I went up north of Manhattan for a job interview since Bryan and I will be moving very soon. The interview went very very well and hopefully I will be hearing tomorrow if I got the job or not. So on the way home I was thinking about all the possibilities that could arise from me getting this job. Bryan and I had already decided that if one of us were to get a job before the other, that person would go ahead and move until our lease was up at our current apartment, and then the other would follow. So I was thinking to myself (all the while thinking about how to get home without using the GPS!) that maybe now would be a good time to pick up the task of finding a place to live.
If I have never met you before, or you did not know, finding a place to rent gives me severe anxiety. Just five minutes into looking at places, my stomach started to hurt, as well as my head and dizziness settled in. It is so frustrating to put in the search engine of a renters site that you want a two bedroom townhouse for such and such a price, and when you hit "Search", it brings up apartment listings. Why even put up a tab that says "Houses/Condos/Townhomes" if that is what I asked for, but that is not what you are showing me? I even checked the box that said Condos and the box that said Townhomes as well. Was that not specific enough for you?
Not only did I have a problem with the fact that they were not giving me the information I requested, but the pictures they put on the site are absolutely HORRENDOUS! We are looking for a bigger apartment then we currently have, so square footage is something that I take into consideration. When they say that an apartment (because apparently when you say Townhome what you really mean is apartment) is 900 square feet, I want to see what all can fit into 900 square feet. One way to do that is to look at the pictures. A lot of places that are trying to lease apartments have pictures of model homes so you can kind of get an idea of what all can fit into that room. We have walked through quite a few and I have looked at a lot online, and they all seem to have one thing in common: tacky decorating.
The model apartments we have walked through all seem to have the theme that a giant must live there. Usually they have an over-sized love seat and couch that is sitting diagonally in the room facing a fireplace. Why would you put so many big things in one room to make it look spacious? I don't think that anyone who lives in an apartment is going to go out and buy over-sized furniture to make their house feel more cozy. Currently, we have a couch that could fit four and two rocking chairs and a small entertainment center plus a coffee table in the middle of the room that you can walk around without grazing your leg on any other furniture. Why trade six living room items for two large chairs so you can look at a fireplace? Also, usually the model homes will have some kind of cabinet entertainment center in them to show you that you have room for a large cabinet. First off, that makes it feel like a hotel room, and second, you would not be able to open the cabinet because of the giant furniture. There was one picture in particular that really made me queezy. Not only did they have a large cabinet to put your television in, but next to the cabinet, they had an adobe looking ladder leaning up against the wall for decoration. Who does that in an apartment or any place that is not a ranch? Clearly you cannot use that ladder for home repair purposes, so why not free up the space and make the room look a little larger by getting rid of the unnecessary ladder? Then the home decoration that made me want to scream was all of the fake plants they put everywhere. They had fake plants coming over the ledge of the mantel piece (with huge blue metal stars leaning up against the wall behind the plants) and some in the corners of the rooms. Unless the giant, who I am not sure lives in the apartment now, grew up in the forest, those plants are very impractical when trying to show how roomy an apartment can be.
Leasing places spend so much time focusing on the living rooms that they forget about the rest of the house. This same apartment had folding tables and chairs for the kitchen table with a fishbowl and bamboo as the centerpiece. Then in the bedroom, they had a bed coming out of the corner into the middle of the room (I don't understand that either) with what can only be called a hotel bed comforter thrown on the bed. Maybe they should put the distracting ladder in the living room into the bed room so you don't focus on how ugly the bedspread is. Splurge of a nice comforter so I don't feel like I am looking at renting a hotel bedroom.
Finally, in the kitchens of most of these properties, they have not had an update since avocado refrigerators were in style. I know that they are coming back, but do you really want an ugly fridge, exposed brick walls and wood paneled cabinets as your kitchen decorations? I would be so confused if I lived in this apartment. It would feel like I was on vacation with the Brady Bunch. Like maybe they moved their kitchen to their ranch style hotel room. It's just too weird.
Bryan has now taken on the responsibility of finding us a place to live. After this fiasco, I went to bed at 10:00 until he came home at 10:20 because I was so exhausted. I am almost tempted to let him just pick it out without any of my help because he knows what I want and I trust that he can find something that fits us.
So that is my first grumble for this blog. Look for more on a semi, maybe not so regular, basis. I also enjoy feedback.
Until next time...
Avocado isn't so bad, Dusti. I'm sure I have some old kitchen items packed away here that would match perfectly! Hmmm, now where is that 3-foot ceramic spoon & fork decor set we got for a wedding gift during the avocado days? That furry flower plant of G&G's would look nice as a centerpiece as well. Think of how much money you could save if you let us decorate your place! ;)
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