Change is Hard

So, we might have to move from our apartments. Our lease is up at the end of this month, and we have to let them know if we’ll sign a new one by the tenth. Currently, we pay $675, and they want to raise it to $760. I really don't think we can do it. Last year they only raised our rent about $35 dollars... so we weren't to happy this time!

We went to the office today to see if we could negotiate. Our friends the Lunds were able to talk them down to $675 from $750 last fall, and we thought we might be able to do the same. But the lady, Katherine, wasn’t in a negotiating mood. She said she’d see what we could do, but she thought we were getting a great deal because the week after we renew, the renewal rate will go up to $800. Supposedly. I think if someone else had been in the office we might have received more sympathy. We argued our case with the example of the Lunds, as well as the crime rate of our area.(We are supposed to live in the one square mile with the highest crime rate in our county!) We have several friends in the ward who've had cars stolen. We mentioned specific apartments we knew that were charging less, as she had cited that everyone in the area would charge just as much if not higher. But when we mentioned those apartments, her attitude was basically like, well, good luck living there.

I realllly don’t want to move. Our’s are the only apartments in the ward that have big areas of grass and trees, and huge windows.

our livingroom window

view from the balcony

Even though its very small (813 square feet) everywhere else I know of has tiny windows and look out onto a parking lot. Plus, I only know of one or two couples in our apartments that have had their cars broken into. There are at least five or more that live in other areas of our ward where it happens even more often.

It will be extra hard to move because we have two trips planned in the next month, to Joseph’s dads and to my parent’s house. Plus, we were probably only going to be here one more year, so its especially inconvenient. Rrrrr.

On to other news…on Tuesday the Seattle Institute Chorale had their final thank you concert..ever. I was in the Chorale for two years and it was great fun; I think I grew a lot there and I made a lot of friends. The director, Brother S, is also in our ward. Their family is moving to Logan, Utah at the end of this month, hence the farewell concert. Brother S. asked me to give a talk at this concert, as they were having several former choir members speak. He wanted me to talk about how I didn’t like choir at first, but tour really strengthened my testimony.

That wasn’t exactly how I remembered it, but I agreed to speak anyway. As Joseph was at work, I was able to ride down with the S family to the show. (So Sister S, their daughters M, C, K, Ch, and son J. Their three older kids have moved out already.

The show was really fun. People spoke on topics like, “What had happened in choir in the last ten years.” given by a guy who had been in choir all those years. Another was about “S-----isms (our teacher's name) and how they affect chorale.” That one was especially funny. The guy who gave it, T, often joined us on tour to play the bass guitar or something. He was dressed in a pink colored suit. He started out by saying we all needed to wish Brother S a happy birthday. But when he had us stand to sing, he started acting like he was Brother S, and we were the choir. (Brother S is a colorful character, somewhat like Brother M from Cedar's choir, but somehow much more sincere, and I think more entertaining.)

He was using all of his catch phrases, like: “the clock is not our friend; no swooping altos!, my tenors sound anemic; where are my basses? The Angel Moroni appeared to me and told me….” Etc. He was even doing his mannerisms, being fidgety, stamping his foot with the timing etc.

Another girl told how when she was in choir, they’d all bought brother S this star that said ‘unity’ while they were on tour. She happened to have found it just that weekend, so during her talk she turned around and said, “here ya go.”

So for every talk, the program had a title for what they were going to talk about. I was a little surprised at what he had titled mine: “Why I hated choir at first and how I loved tour.” So when I got up to speak, I had to explain that I didn’t hate chorale, it just took time to grow on me. Then I talked about the time we all sang on the Whidbey Island ferry, and the time we were learning Oh Holy Night when I first started choir. These stood out in my mind more than tour the next year.. half of us couldn't go on tour that first year because the choir was too big. But since he wanted me to talk about it, I touched on the temple trip and the three hour testimony meeting they have every year. We went to the Portland Temple the time I went.

I felt really nervous and though I spoke well, I was shaking. He wanted me to bear testimony at the end so I did, but I felt weird because everyone else seemed to get emotional at the end of their talks and I didn’t really. But I usually don’t. Anyway, I was really glad I was invited to participate, because I likely would have missed it otherwise.

Since being in chorale, Joseph and I have gone to their end of year concert every spring. But now, the chorale will not be continuing at all. It seems odd to me that such a huge part of my life can just suddenly not exist anymore...and I didn't even move away this time! Its very sad.

Our young womens group is really going to change when they’re gone, as C, M and K make up almost half of the class! They are also some of the best examples in the group, real good girls. I just hope some of the other girls step up and become leaders too. I guess the S family's new house in Logan is huge, thanks to the huge difference in housing prices (as mentioned before!) Their house here is selling for like $450,000! Crazy.

Another change. A few weekends ago, we drove up to Bellingham, Washington to look at the campus of Western Washington University. Joseph is considering going there because they have a good education program. It was a pretty campus but we didn’t look around too long. Joseph had only paid for one hour of parking. When we went back to the car I thought we were just going to go park at another spot and check out the other side of the campus, but we didn’t.

We did drive around the town a bit. I didn’t like it that much, but first impressions are rarely accurate. The waterfront was very industrial. We might stop in Ellensburg on our way home from his dads house too, to look at Central Washington University. I’m more open now to his completing his degree somewhere else, because half of our ward seems to be moving anyway. But we’ll see how things are next summer. Change is hard.

But sometimes it helps us become something better. I guess.