Our Little Sh*tbox on the Sea

Its run-down, wall-to-wall carpeted, quite small and VERY expensive, but now its ours. We've rented a place in Santa Cruz. On the plus side its got a great view over downtown, really nice light (especially during sunset) and is only 4 blocks from the beach. Its centrally located such that we can leave the car in our one tiny parking spot offered to us. If you send us an email, we will send you our address...

We were here for a total of five days searching. The cats were lodged in a kitty hotel just out of town (and, by all reports, loved it far more than they loved dehydrating on I-5 in our packed mini-van) and we moved from place to place each night - a night in a hotel, a night camping, two nights with different sets of friends. The decision came down to one between a caretaker position which would have offered free rent BUT at the expense of considerable freedom to leave the site of the marine lab we would have been living in (not to mention it wasn't available until the end of the month AND we wouldn't have known if we would be asked to do it until the end of next week) and this place - an apartment whose previous tenant was also a grad student and which was essentially saved for us by her. So, very eager to get in a place before the end of the month and end the uncertainty of searching, we took the apartment.

Now that that is over maybe we can start having a bit of fun here...