It's been 11 months, time to get on the move

People typically talk about internal clocks in terms of biology: "It was an OK date, but I could just hear her clock ticking," or, "My clock just wakes me up after five and a half hours, I'm used to it," etc.

For me, the internal ticking has mostly to do with real estate: I've lived at my present address for eleven months. About three weeks ago, my internal alarm clock started ringing, and earlier today, I decided I could push "snooze" no longer. Besides, someone spilled beer on my white carpet during Saturday's parade party; it's time to move--otherwise I'd have to clean the carpet.

Just about every year since graduating college (and during college, of course) I've packed my shit into bags and boxes, bribed friends with large vehicles and schlepped across town or the Mid Atlantic. My various moves have been pretty well documented here, of course. What I haven't really written about is why I've spent so much time bouncing between locales.

Usually, it's been about necessity: I moved from my first apartment in Saratoga across town when I broke up with my live-in girlfriend, and could no longer afford the rent. A little more than a year later, I moved out of a modest two-bedroom in a great neighborhood when I broke up with a wonderful room mate, who was moving across the country, and couldn't bear the pain of trying to find someone else to take up her half of the rent. Downsizing seemed prudent.

Then, of course, came the move to Emmaus, for my job. Again, as much as I would have liked to stay in Saratoga while working in Pennsylvania, commuting four hours each way to work would REALLY have cut into my riding time.

I was pretty lucky to find a nice apartment overlooking the triangle in Emmaus, where I can keep an eye on the burgeoning Occupy Emmaus movement, and track folks going in and out of both the Golden Trigger and the ice cream parlor. It's pretty sweet. But, I've always hated the aforementioned white carpet, and my pathetic attempt to obscure part of it with an area rug has proven futile. More importantly, the huge, lovely windows that sold me on the place when I first saw it (so much light!) don't keep the cold out very well, or keep the heat in. In other words, this is not really an affordable place for me to live, especially in the winter.

I've been looking around a bit, and will need to kick the search into high gear in the next few weeks. Just today, I saw two apartments a block away, in the same building as Armetta's and South Mountain Cycles -- a major plus! But, one would leave my bikes in the living room (a major flaw!), and had no laundry. The other would be a great place -- if I could afford it on my own. With a room mate, the bikes would again be taking up precious couch space. And, again both have those white carpets. Why do land lords think we want that ugly crap?

So, the search continues. I'm a bit hamstrung by two factors: My paltry housing budget and my insistence on being able to ride to work in less than 10 minutes. Finding the right place is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, but if you see anything for rent in or near to Emmaus, please let me know!

Oh, and by the way, the next place I live? I'm hoping to stay a while. I mean, I've said it before, but I mean it this time--I'll just have to figure out some other reason to go through all my crap and throwing all everything I don't use next year, a process usually mandated by moving.