Haha, how's that for a title? I mean, it definitely sets the mood right away, no? Well, you know, I don't want this blog to become one bitch session after another... but at the same time, I also don't want to sugarcoat anything or hold back.

So here we go...

MI - Day 1 - FFS

When we last left our hero he had just arrived at the UoM-DB campus (ie. in Dearborn, Michigan), taken a quick selfie, and began his search...

Sitting in my comfy apartment in downtown Seattle, I had spent some time looking at apartments in Dearborn and surrounding areas. I wasn't sure how far to go before it became too much of a commute, but I pushed out a little bit.

I identified a handful of reasonable looking apartments and used their monthly rent prices for estimated my cost of attendance for two years here. I also created a short list of good candidate properties. Day 1, I simply wanted to drive around and get a feel for each apartment campus and surrounding neighborhoods.

By the end of the day I had driven by all of the places I wanted to look at.

How do I describe how I was feeling by the end of that first day? I wouldn't say it was panic, it's wasn't quite that bad, but sincere dread? Yeah, I think that's a fair adjective.

I'll just get straight to it, there's a lot of rough neighborhoods out here. And here's the thing, it's not like I chose the cheapest apartments I could find. Quite the opposite, I focused on apartments that looked modern and reasonably upscale.

Now, to be fair, on this day I only drove passed the various apartment complexes, and didn't tour any. But, like I said, they all felt rough. I mean, a few were "If I have to" sort of OK, but nothing was exciting me at all.

I ended the day every so slightly shitting my pants. I had spent the previous night a nearby rest area and decided to head back in that direction and do it again.

On my second day, I would look around more and get a better feel for things. I couldn't believe there weren't nicer places out here. I mean, there has to be some soft ass white-collar folks who are looking for "nicer"... doesn't there?

Maybe not though.

Anyway, back to the rest area... with a cold, tiny rock in my stomach.

MI Day 2 - Target Hopping

I spent my second day in Michigan, August 8th, driving further out. Clearly I still had (have) a way to go to get my bearings, but if I could at least cover some distance today and check out some places beyond the previous day's scouting mission.

As I planned and plotted from Seattle, I focused on 3 neighborhoods: Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Inkster. Beyond that I worried it would be a too far a commute. Having landed here and driven around, I did realize a few things pretty quickly: 1) these towns/cities/whatever are actually really, really close to each other and 2) the roads and traffic here are insanely better than Seattle.

I was feeling comfortable pushing further out from campus, and was desperate enough to find something nice. I wasn't sure where to go, so I figured... I could probably look for nearby Targets, and go to each one. If a neighborhood is too poor for a Target, it's an automatic out, so that's a good start. On top of that, you can walk around the inside of a Target and get a reasonable first-impression of the neighborhood you're in.

So that's what I did. I drove around to different Targets. I was starting to feel better midway through the day. I found some places that looked like they'd be pretty OK. I collected apartment names and neighborhood names as I drove around that day.

In the evening I found a Starbucks and began researching and planning Day 3. I probably should've pushed a little further that night. Gotten to an actual go-to list of apartments for the next day. But truthfully, I was really feeling the week's push.

It was dark out already. I looked up nearby hotels. I started reading a couple of reviews, but then decided to just go to the rest area and sleep in my car for the whatever night in a row. 😐 I was just too tired, still a little frustrated, and maybe even had some intuition about the day to come.

MI Day 3 - Less Go, More Sno(re)

I slept really, really well that night. Like I said, I think the previous week's push out of Seattle and across the country caught up with me. Not only did I sleep well, but I slept late too. I have a sleep mask that I normally use on plane trips, but is now my sleeping-in-your-car champion. As the Sun rose and lit the day, I snored away.

I got up late, and I don't know, I just didn't get going. I hung out at the rest area for a bit, even grabbing a book and reading a bit on one of the park benches. Eventually I got going, but I dunno, I didn't go look at apartments. I drove around for a while. Further out than yesterday. It's pretty clear that the further you get from Detroit, the nicer things get.

And Dearborn is directly adjacent to Detroit.

I drove to Dave & Busters and played dumb games and won some tickets.

After D&B's, I went to IKEA to eat meatballs & chocolate cake and get on my laptop to plan out the next day. Between the last couple of days I had figured out a few places that may work out after all.

That night I grabbed a hotel room, so I could shower up and not smell like 5 days of road-ass when I went looking at apartments. Tomorrow was Saturday, and I fully planned to get myself leased. I was feeling as good as I've felt since getting here... not great... not yet... but I was definitely feeling some hope.

I would be pushing out into places like Livonia and Westland, where things felt a little more upscale. It was a longer commute than I wanted when I had envisioned walking/biking to school, but I'm also realizing that walking/biking to school just wasn't ever going to be an option. UofM-DB is a commuter school... I would be commuting.

With several hours left before bedtime, I figured I'd celebrate a little early. I headed out to the theater and watched the new Deadpool movie.

Prior to leaving Seattle, I had considered going to see it. A matinee adult ticket was $25. After tax it was $28. I never made it out to the theater, so it was nice to get the chance to catch it now. The ticket was $10.50. OK... so, let's try and focus on the positives, right?

Tomorrow I'd get an apartment, and the last road block would be cleared. The exodus would be over, the move-in would be (almost) done, and the focus can fully shift to grad school.

The Adventure Continues...

It's getting late as I sit in an Arby's at a local truck stop. It's Sunday, August 11th. I'm tired and I need to find a place to call it a night, so that's as far as this post gets. I could wait to finish it and publish it in one go, but I feel like pushing this out before I konk out for the night.

So you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about Day 4, 5 and any others that will have been crossed off the calendar before my next update. If you want a little spoiler though... I can say this... things continue to go as expected... mother. fucking. up. hill.

For today though, that's enough.

I'm getting my ass kicked. But I've been hit harder.

😐

good night friends.