RobertSpuhler.com

Four Walls

Exhausted...and Done.

In 60 hours, I:

• Visited six apartments
• Applied for three
• Got three
• Decided on one
• Moved a lot of stuff
• Drove a 14-foot UHaul
• Went to a great New Year's Eve party (thanks Alisha!)

More when time permits. But I'm safe and moved (and still in my old neighborhood).

The Time I Walked Away

Here’s why a little knowledge can be a bad thing.

The Wire? You're Down To It

(The living room in the foreground, dining room in the background.)

Where It Is

Option 1: Nice apartment. VERY nice apartment. Hardwood floors throughout. Recently renovated. Living room plus dining room plus kitchen big enough to have a kitchen table. New appliances. Off-street parking. Slightly more expensive than I wanted to pay. Koreatown - not in a bad neighborhood, but it will be a 45-minute commute to work in Marina del Rey and to my westside students.

Option 2: Recently renovated apartment in my neighborhood. Single. Size of a closet. Hardwood floors, new appliances. Seriously - size of a closet.

Option 3: TBD.

Lying Liars

After visiting about 15 different apartments in the last four days, I can tell you this: Landlords have earned every negative stereotype given them.

Craig's List: The Lowest Common Denominator

When I first found out that I was going to be homeless on 1/1/08, I knew that there was two ways the story ends:

1) Quickly finding a place on Craig's List that fits my requirements and be moving by the middle of the month, or

2) A protracted search that ends with me eventually either moving to Compton or selling plasma (not the televisions) in order to afford rent.

Well, option one seems right out. And I blame Craig's List.

Fun With Geography

Geography in movies always amuses me, especially when producers take liberties in areas I know. That awful Kevin Bacon flick in DC, as my friend Dave pointed out to me, shows him “driving into the city,” even though he’s driving out to Virginia in the actual shot. 24, of course, is laughable to any who has even a cursory knowledge of Los Angeles.

But I’m starting to think that the housing rentals section of Craig’s List takes the cake for geographical faux pas.

Take, for instance, this ad: “10 minutes from Beverly Hills and 1.4 miles from USC.”

USC is at 3535 Figeuroa Blvd. in Los Angeles. Beverly Hills – at it’s closest to USC – is at Wilshire and San Vicente. That’s 10 miles.

Now, where I grew up, 10 minutes does equal ten miles. But we’re not driving past Rifle or Basalt, Colo. If you can drive up and down La Cienega at 60 miles per hour at ANY time of day, I’d be shocked. To get from USC to Beverly Hills is, at best, a 30 minute drive.

Stupid lying landlords. This is going to be a fun month.

Bad Day

Y'know, it was coming. I had a great trip back east, a fun night in Vegas and an easy, safe drive back to western Colorado.

Then, I find out in the span of an hour that I've been written out of an Internet series I had been cast in (they're moving to "recent high school graduate" from "recent college graduate") and that I have to find a new apartment by the end of December.

So...anyone know someone looking for a roommate?