Who you gonna call?

Recently I was fairly panicked. I had delayed for quite some time on finding an apartment in Champaign, which will be my city of residence for grad school. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, moving to a new city I'd just check out the apartment options and rent one. So what. Well, I had never lived in a "college town" before. Apparently the thing to do is sign your lease at the point you're born, so that when you get to college you have an arranged living situation. Maybe I'm exaggerating slightly. But my girl-fr... (damn, I said I wouldn't talk about her for a week and a half), that is to say a person that I like a good deal, was already signing her lease for next year. And she hasn't even lived in this year's apartment.

So I was a little worried. Fortunately Meg was there to help out and guide me to some realtors. The first we visited was, without doubt , the most self important individual I have ever had the bemusement to meet in my life. On the way to the (vastly overpriced) apartments she drove us to, she made no less than five phone calls to shout at underlings about trivial things. "Hello? Hello? Tim? Tim can you hear me, this is Miriam Booth. Why is the thin dry wall on the porch still? I'm driving past.. I'm DRIVING PAST and I can see thin dry wall." "We have a sprinkler situation at 508 E. Green, we need to get someone on that." Etc.

When we got to the apartments she double parked and we got out as she was yelling at the maintence guy for those particular apartments. I looked down at the back of her little red Volvo and noticed somebody had carved "LEARN TO PARK BITCH" into the trunk. I had to bite my tounge very hard to keep from doubling over in laughter at that point. Also fun was that she decided I was from Chicago and only down for the day (although I never said any of this) and proceeded to talk to me that way. "So how was the Ryan Adams? Isn't that construction terrible?" she asked. "Oh yeah. I don't know what's going on there." I truthfully replied. "Doesn't it just drive you crazy?" "Well, I just bring my iPod, play some songs, and wait it out." "How much longer until they finish it?" "I guess they'll keep working until it's done."

And so on. Needless to say I didn't decide to live there. The next day we saw several apartments, three of which were up for consideration. They were:

• The Den.
  So named because it looked like somebody's hunting lodge. Thick wooden paneled walls, shag carpeting. A very warm, glow oozed from the thrice varnished walls. It was, by far, the most ridiculous apartment we looked at, and as a result I very nearly rented it. It was shockingly inexpensive for the area. It was decided that to properly live here I would have needed to have a few animal heads mounted on the walls. Other attractive features were a shower you stepped down into, as it was dug deeper into the ground than the rest of the below ground apartment, and a closet so huge that I decided it would be my computer room. Seriously, I would have done it. It was almost like a batcave; through a tiny overlooked door in a corner you slide the wood panel over and enter a 6 foot square room. Very cool.
  
  
• The U.
  So named because the apartment was shaped like a giant U. However I didn't realize that it had a second side at first. It would have been a completely acceptable apartment with just half of the space. When I found that door and the apartment suddenly doubled in size I was fairly blown away. Sure the shower was a little ratty, but a secret home doubling door? That's pretty cool. Unfortunately the hallway was too narrow to move my furniture in. I noticed that everyone had futons because you can't actually get a couch in there. Also there wasn't any laundry service in the area. It lost some points for that.
  
  
• The Georgian.
  So named because... well because of this: "Constructed in 1925, the Georgian apartment building is located at 1005 South 6th Street in the heart of the University of Illinois campus, and was recently designated an historical landmark by the City of Champaign. The building provides 27 apartments with three stories and an English-style basement. The Georgian is an impressive example of Georgian Revival style architecture, one of the very few remaining early twentieth-century apartment buildings near the university."
  
  When I went inside the word dominating my vocabulary was "sweet". I had seen about 24-25 apartments that day. All of them were drably drywalled cubes at best, cestpools of the filth of college housing at worst. But this one? Not so. Clean. Hardwood floors. Plaster walls. A shower I could actually stand up in. Those cool olde style light switches with the on and off buttons. A wall of doors that can be slid away to open into another room. It's a corner apartment. There's a dumb waiter, the remnants of an old timey intercom system, and a very cool kitchen. So it was decided that while the U and the Den would have been fun, I was definitely going to live in the Georgian.
  

An added bonus: It reminds me of the Ghostbusters Firehouse.

If you're interested/jealous of my sweet corner apartment you can check out Preserve the Georgian (yes, my building has a website) and some random girl's Flickr Photostream. Feel free to visit, now you know where to go.

- Scott