Apartment Searching...

Now that we both know we're heading to Pittsburgh, we stumble upon the hard part... finding a place to live!  Pittsburgh is an interesting city of neigborhoods, each with there own unique personality.  I have been talking back and forth with some of the students out there to get a feel of the different spots to live, and I think we have it narrowed down to either Squirrel Hill or Shadyside.  Oakland is the neighboorhood that the Universities are located in and the hospitals are in.  Fortunately, Paul will have a parking pass and will be able to park at the hospital each day, but I will not have that ability.  My classes are going to start around 8AM, where Paul will most likely have to be into the ERs around 6AM.  Perhaps I'll become an early bird and do some early morning studying, but most likely, I will end up bussing back and forth from class.

At the moment I am trying my hardest to look for apartments in Pittsburgh from my small computer in Wisconsin.  It's been a difficult and time consuming task, but it needs to be done.  Our schedule is so packed for the next few months with our Europe vacation, that I really want to get the apartment signed before we go abroad.  I start work June 1st, and we will get back from Europe in late April.  I think I might even head out to Pittsburgh during the second look weekend to meet with faculty, which pushes my return home even closer to my start date.  It would be nice to be have a lease signed before we have to move so all of the June 1st contracts aren't gone already.  So, in order to do that, I've been spending a lot of time in the search, and I am going to fly out to Pittsburgh next weekend to see the places I've been looking at.  Fortunately, I will be able to stay with a current student, Emily, who said I could use her apartment's spare room.  I cannot even explain how much money that is going to save me!!  I owe her so much! She's such a sweetheart!  I'm going to fly out of Madison and back for a really reasonable fare.  Paul is in Mexico right now spending time with Kathy and his brothers. He had quite a time getting down there because his flight from Madison was delayed and he missed his connection on Detroit, this is after he fought with the airline company about his return flight.  Paul booked his flight with frequent flier miles, so they've been putting him through a lot of hoops and shifting his return flight around like crazy!  He sent me a picture which I thought was adorable from mexico, UPMC!

My plan is to take a bunch of pictures and videos of the different apartments I see while in Pittsburgh next weekend and then when he gets back, we'll have to make our decision of where we want to sign for next year.  It would be so nice if we can get a June lease rather than something that starts August 1st, which are far more common!!

This weekend I was able to come back to Seymour to spend time with family, and Grandma and Grandpa VB.  Mom and I had a great time with Grandma VB on Saturday, we watched the residents go bowling which was really entertaining, then we watched Man vs. Food on the travel channel.  Grandma was being really funny, after she saw the 6lb chili cheese dog, she said "I don't know if he should eat it, or throw it out..."  One time the resident really missed all of the pins bowling, she leaned over and said "Well, at least they don't have to pick up any pins..."  Hahah, it was really fun to spend time with her, she was in a great mood.  Tonight we went out to Jackson Point with Uncle Ray, Bonnie, and the Koeppel's.  It was so nice to see everyone and visit.  Uncle buck met us out there too. 

Tomorrow I have to head to Madison for work.  I work tomorrow over the noon hour, Tuesday and Thursday I babysit and Friday I jump on the plane!  This next month is going to get away on me... a lot is happening all at once!  I also make a promise with Paul that if I would loose three pounds he would gain 3 lbs.  It's hard for him to eat enough food to keep up with all of his running.  I'm going to have to excercise a lot this week to keep up with him!  Tomorrow I'm going to head to anytime fitness and when I'm hanging with Drew I'm going to do workout videos like I used to...  it will be good for Europe!  I got some new clothes for Europe this week and I'm excited to start packing!  Ahhh, so much to do!