Apartment Hunting.

I've lately been on an apartment hunting binge despite the fact that I don't have any money to my name right now or because I have the balls to tell my parents that I'm not moving back home with them once I graduate from college this June but after that successful Job Fair this past Tuesday I think it's safe to say I may have a really good chance to have a job lined up for me for the summer. Even though it isn't a dream job of mine, my goal is to just stay here in the summer and I'm looking for any type of way to make money. Although my dream is to land an internship for writing or journalism, I wouldn't mind making some money just so I can pay for an apartment up in NorCal.

 It's so weird...at the Job fair, I found a table that had a camp site looking for paid internships or just a summer job...it was with this summer camp/tutoring children's program in the Northern California area, specifically the Silicon Valley part and it sounded so much fun. They were looking for swim instructors, lifeguards, etc. and I told them how I coached for 2 seasons at my old high school and that I was a competitive swimmer for 19 years. Then the lady in charge of the aquatics program at the summer camp came up to me and gave me her card. I recognized her name and asked her if she swam for the UCSC swim team with Coach Kim Musch. She replied with the affirmative and I told her I heard so much about her and her husband who was an alumnus of the swim team as well. It's so crazy. That's just how sports teams work...we may not have a strong Greek life presence at our university but that's how sports teams can flourish...it's all about networking. Such a small world!

Anyway as I digress. (Sorry this post isn't really so much about the Job Fair but more so about my current obsession with apartment hunting.)

I don't know what it is, but every time I visit different friends' apartments who live off campus, I love it. I pore over every square inch of space. I can't stand it. I wish so much that I just took over Chelsea's apartment instead of living in a house. Apartments are so much neater for one, and it's so much more quiet I feel like. Not that I don't like living in a house with 6 close friends as I did this year, but I really like the idea of apartments. I feel so much more grown up, if that makes sense. I always imagined that once I have my life figured out I'd be making a killer merchandising off some writing or some bullshit, and be living in a penthouse suite apartment or some shit. I guess that's where the whole 20 year old Gina's dream of being like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City comes from. A single writer living in the city in her own cute little apartment.

Actually scratch that, I don't see myself living anywhere fancy. Just a plain apartment would do it. As much as I like the idea of spreading out and having lots of empty open space, I just feel so much more at ease if I lived in a studio or a 2 bedroom apartment or something. I think what I look forward to the most (if I end up staying in NorCal and not moving back down to SoCal while I work and make money) is to buy a nice 1 bedroom apartment as my own place, and just decorate the shit out of it. I think I want most to decorate it...that might be my obsession with getting an apartment. It's just so much cuter and easier to keep. I guess the crazy decorative side may come from my mother...she's always watching HGTV on channels with interior decorating or the Style channel, etc.

Either way, even though I don't know how my summer will fare, (my dreams of being able to find my own place up here probably won't fare as well and the possibility of it is dwindling down more and more each day with every phone call I'm NOT getting for jobs I'm applying to except for the ones I found at the Job Fair) it's still fun to draw and sketch out dreams that I have. It makes me strive more towards making it come true.

Some cute ones I've found while perusing over the Internet that will give me some inspiration. (Of course none of the apartments that I'll probably ever end up with will ever be as nice as these ones. They don't have to be fancy.)