On Things Happening Fast

Well, yesterday was interesting. Within two hours of waking up I found out I am having surgery on Friday and that I may need to find a new place to live....all less than a month before school starts and everything changes.

So first, the surgery. I have had a ganglion cyst in my right wrist for several years but it doesn't bother me on a daily basis so there wasn't a whole lot of press to get it taken care of. I tried to go to the Orthopedic surgeon about it when I had that fabulous insurance from United Airlines back in San Diego but they couldn't get me in before I moved. So now, with school looming on the horizon, I figured I'd better do something about it since repetitive motions and a lot of use do bother me a lot. Every doctor I talked to previously led me to believe that they should just be able to stick a needle in my wrist and drain it...no biggie. Last week, I went to the ortho, he stuck a big needle in there aaaaand...nothing. All he succeeded in doing was bruising up my wrist and making it hurt. So when I went back today, they told me they could go in and cut it out...on Friday. It's nothing extensive; I'll get sedated and numbed and it's a 20 minute procedure and then I go home and I'm in a brace/splint/cast thing for 2 weeks. It should be healed enough before school to avoid causing any major problems soooo....here's hoping!

All in all, I think I am more stressed about my apartment situation than I am the surgery. So here's the deal: Back in December, I contacted my management company about a number of mantainance issues, the biggest one being the abundance of moisture in the apartment. I mean, we're talking the humidity being so high that if I leave cookies out for more than a couple of hours on the kitchen table, they become soggy and feel water-logged. Any papers in the apartment get soft and warped and there is just a general feeling of stuffiness. I was afraid to turn my heaters on all winter because of the mold growing all around them (they're the kind built into the wall). I mean, if there's that much mold, there has to be a lot of water in the walls, right? What if it shorts out? Everything in the apartment smells musty; if I leave my clothes in the closet for more than a week they really smell bad. Finally, after 2 1/2 months or so of badgering them about it, I got the dehumidifier they had promised me and they said if that didn't work that I could move into another apartment with no fees.

We gave the dehumidifier some time to work and realized that, although it sort of helped the living room area (though not significantly), it didn't even touch the bedrooms. I gave it a couple of weeks and then emailed my contact at the management company again asking about the possibility of moving to the apartment she showed me before (it's also bigger and has a dishwasher). I emailed twice with no response, called on Monday with the same result, and she finally came by the apartment today after coming to the complex on some other errand. She told me that the apartment she showed me before has been listed but that I could move into the one next door to us if I wanted. Then she proceeds to tell me that to do that, I will need to pay a new deposit and clean the other apartment just as if I was moving out at the end of my lease. SO, not only are they not going to do anything about the problem even after I move out, they want me to give them more money to do it. I paid a $650 deposit when I moved in and it is refundable, minus any damages or cleaning costs. So let's say they decide to give me back $450 of my original deposit, I would need to give them an additional $200 deposit for the new place.....this just does not seem right to me. She said that the other option is breaking my lease with no penalty.

At this point, I am not sure what to do. My options basically come down to, break my lease and find a new place to move, move in next door and pay the additional fee, or stay in my current apartment and suffer through the next 6 months hoping that being able to leave the windows open in the summer will help.

The idea of moving somewhere else seems daunting with everything else going on. I would probably just look for a studio or a room for rent, but that would mean getting rid of all my stuff 6 months earlier than I planned and most likely paying more than I would renting my current apartment with someone else. I really want to pay as little as possible considering that I will just be sleeping there.

If I rule that out (which I haven't, yet), I am left with either staying in my current apartment or moving next door. Both seem like a pain in the ass. I'm not sure that moving at all is going to be feasible with my wrist being out of commission for a few weeks and following that, my time crunch. If I stay in my place now though, I will have to see if they are willing to do anything to fix it/give me a discount on the rent/take them to court if I have to. They really haven't been overly helpful or presented me with many acceptable options.

Soooo....what to do, what to do. I don't particularly like any of my options...I just have to figure out which is the lesser of two weevils. I have until Friday to decide...any suggestions?