I will be vacating unit 1703 of The William Oliver Building (Have I told you how much I hate Flash-only websites? Of course I have...) on Thursday May 14, 2003. I'm really going to miss this place, it's really the first real spot of my own that I've had. I lived in a student housing facility (read: converted hotel) for a year and a half after I moved out of "the" house. That really doesn't count though because I lived there for free in exchange for working in the computer lab and providing technical support to students and the main office.

What really makes it not count is that I really didn't have any bills there. At least no more than I had when I was living at home: credit cards, phone, student loans. It wasn't until I moved into the William Oliver that I had to deal with power bills or a rent that took up the lions share of one of my paychecks. Of course the irony of my first few months here was that I was living in a unit on the second floor of the building. It was a very nice unit, high ceilings, large windows, lots of style.

Unfortunately, Marietta Street - which ran right outside of my unit - is a major artery into Atlanta's busiest hospital, which is maybe 4 blocks down the street. This meant that ambulances came roaring down past my window at all times of the day and night. This mandated an extra line or two of prayer before I tried to relax or go to sleep. The other problem was that the power bills were ridiculous. The first power bill that I got in December of 2000 was $275! For a 650 square foot unit that I couldn't even fit a real freaking bed into! It turned out that there is some horribly concocted communal billing system in effect here where the power bill goes to the building and is sub metered to the units not based on how much energy you use, but your share of how much the building uses, as well as how much you use. Yeah don't ask.

Anyhow, I got fed up with the bills that shot up to almost 400 dollars and inquired about moving into another unit. One thing that I didn't like about my unit was that it didn't have hardwood floors and practically every other unit that I had seen in the building had them. I also understood that the crazy power bills were mainly endemic on the second floor. Gary, the manager at the time, tried to work with me and get a hardwood unit that was higher up (away from the sirens). He came up with a compromise, a unit on the top floor that didn't have hardwood that I wanted or the large windows that I had. It did put me far away from the sirens though and it had skylights to compensate for the smaller windows. It was also 200+ square feet larger, so I would be able to get a bed AND have a dining room that sat right beneath a skylight. I took it.

When I first moved into the William Oliver I had no furniture, I bought some tables and a recliner when I was on the second floor but I slept on a futon and outside of my computer furniture that was it. Since I've moved to the 17th floor I've acquired a queen sized bed, a 5 piece dining room set, a 32 inch television set, and numerous other parts. It all fits perfectly.

Everything fits so well and I'm so used to the place that when they announced that this building was turning condo, I was seriously considering the purchase. But you knew this. Anyhow, the ridiculous condo association fees were ultimately what broke the deal. I scoured the budget to see what the heck could have been jacking up the price so much (there are condos that are twice as expensive as mine that have lower association fees) and I came across something interesting: The Internet Service contract.

While it isn't as nefarious as I initially thought, the fact that it was 3 times longer than any other contract and frankly, expensive considering the quality of the Internet connection and the amount of maintenance that would REALLY be required on the units. More disturbing was the fact that the owner of the building happened to own a major stake in the service provider. This is the same cat who let the building get run down, go into default, bought it back for 40% of what he and his now SOL initial investors put into it, and then came at the residents like he was a determined new guy rescuing us from the previously negligent owner. Riiiiight... Anybody with sense would have recognized his unique last name as the one that shows up on the caller ID when a visitor calls a unit from the callbox at the front door. He probably would have told us that he was the old owner if we would have asked but damn, why not just be straight?

I am fully prepared to accept the possibility that this is par for the course in the Real Estate development world, and the whole thing might not be as bad as it reeks to me, maybe knowing these things was a divine way of letting me know that I'm not able to buy anyway. I am seriously preparing for the purchase of a house or condo a year from now though.

Anyhow, I settled on the City Plaza. It's about seven blocks from the job as opposed to two where I'm coming from but hey, it's still walking distance. It looks like I'm getting a 2 bedroom unit (The Georgian) that'll have a washer and dryer built in for less than the price that I was going to pay for a one bedroom loft. A one bedroom loft is fine by me, but extra space is too.

Today I am purging all non-essential papers and whatnot so that I am as lean as can be when I move. I can be a freaking pack rat so this can be an extremely time consuming task. It's cool though because I get a chance to go through and add to my "memory box" which is basically a DSL router box that I put various awards, tickets, cards, and other trinkets that remind me of phases in my life into.

One of the things that I found was the $18,000 bill for my year at Morehouse...

That was in 1995... wow.