The San Diego Nomad

Welp...I moved again.

Yes, gone is the amazing pool, therapeutic hot-tub, aerobics studio, gym, movie theater, and yoga classes that were at my old apartment complex...well sort of. I actually kept the "amenities key" because I (*cough*) "lost" it awhile ago. It was only a $25 dollar fee, and well worth the future hot tub use that I plan :)

Although I'm kind of losing all of these great amenities, the place I moved to actually has a tennis court! Plus, I'm now living in a condo and don't have to worry about all of the typical apartment hassles. I also have a garage now which is awesome! The only problem is, my friend Darren is occupying my room for another week before moving out, which means my temporary room is the Garage.

Yes, I'm living in style...at least for a week.

Unlike last October's Move of Mayhem I learned my lesson and actually packed ahead of time! The challenge now was ridding myself of the "inner pack-rat." I have this tendency...everything I look at, I see some potential use and don't want to throw it away. As a result, I have a lot of crap.

I get it from my Mom. She keeps everything including receipts. I NEVER hold onto receipts unless its a considerably expensive item, or there's a good chance I could be returning something. Even if there is an error in the charge, credit card companies are great about issuing refunds right away.

Anyways, I used this move as therapy to throw out stuff that during my last move, seemed wise to hold on to, but in the eight months since, have sat around unused, taking up space.

Old cracked tennis racket that has been sitting around for the one day when I feel like beating the hell out of it? Gone

Electric guitar and Amp that doesn't stay in tune and was given to me for free two years ago that I've played twice? Given away.

Glass vase that I found (maybe it was Jeff's before he left?)? I was about to keep it thinking I could find some use, when Danny intervened: "Arun! YOU DON'T NEED THAT GODDAMN THING! Dig deep within yourself! Destroy the pack-rat within you! Trash it!" Trashed.

So we managed to empty out the apartment in record time! Our deposit however may not be following us. Why is this? It all goes back to my good buddy (and occasional dimwit) Jeff!

When we first moved in, Jeff agreed to sublease a room for a month. Jeff, being a fan of finely pressed clothing makes frequent use of a great invention known as the iron. Since he uses the iron so often, Jeff reasoned that it would be smart to plug it into the electrical outlet that is controlled by a light switch at the entrance of his room.

Obviously no one would accidentally hit the switch.

Fast forward a day or two, and by some freak accident of divine probability, the light switch is flipped. What are the CHANCES of this happening? It's still in question as to whether Jeff, or his friend that was hanging out, hit the switch, but Jeff vehemently denies it. "My light-switch-ironing system had no flaws in it until it was disrupted by external stimulus!"

Anyways, Jeff is lying in bed when all of a sudden, a little smoke tickles his nose. He opens his eyes, his eyes are greeted with a little cloud of smoke from the face down iron in the carpet! Apparently Jeff also miscalculated the hazard of leaving a plugged-in iron face down.

Jeff quickly removed the iron from the melted carpet and assessed the damage! Iron? Ruined with melted carpet. Carpet? Apparently NOT ruined...yet.

So now there was this nice brown iron shaped spot smack in the middle of the room, on the white carpet. Jeff further exercised his commanding brilliance by deducing that bleach not only eliminates stains, but also remedies chemical color changes from burning, right?

Not exactly.

Though the bleach DID have some effect! After thorough scrubbing and bleaching, the brown iron shaped spot became orange, and was now surrounded by a huge orange halo from all the scrubbing that made the carpet look like an orange tie-dyed t-shirt.

Goodbye deposit.

At least if the engineering thing ever goes south for Jeff, he can always fall back on Modeling or inventing the never-before-sold IRON-tied-dyed t-shirts!