What to do before you start anew

To the Class of 2013, first of all, congratulations! Revel in your success for as long as you can because life is about to get a little hectic, if it hasn’t already.

As a 2012 graduate, I moved from Ohio to Texas in June to live with my dad and stepmom until I could find work. In October, I finally broke through and got a sports writer job at a small newspaper in Hugo, Oklahoma. Six months later, I got another job at a larger paper in Paris, Texas. So, for the second time in six months, I have to do everything that moving to another state entails.

I don’t intend to seem like a know-it-all with this list of helpful hints. I just hope to provide some tips that I wish I had when I went through the relocating process.

Make a budget.

•     If you’ve accepted a job, you should know how much money you’re going to be making per year. Look up a chart that breaks down about how much in taxes you’ll be paying in that state, estimate costs for electricity, cable/Internet, car payment, student loans (I feel your pain), renter’s insurance, car insurance, cell phone payment, food and miscellaneous items. Whatever balance you have left over should give you a good idea of your price range for an apartment.
• Just so you have some numbers to draw from, my basic cable and Internet bundled package from Suddenlink is about $93 a month. I haven’t had an electric bill over $30 a month yet. If you don’t know how much your student loan payments will be, I am on the standard plan and its a little over $285 a month.

Find a place to live!

•     No matter how far your next job is from your current location, try and see the place first. Don’t be afraid to ask your co-workers or work contact where good locations are. They’ll be looking out for your best interests and they know the area already.

When you find some places, here are some things to do/look for:

• Drive around the neighborhood. See your proximity to essential places like grocery stores and laundromats (if necessary). I know “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but look at the kinds of cars in the parking lot of where you’re living. It can reflect a lot about the tenants. In the same vein, ask about whether you’re living in/near government assisted housing.
• Don’t let the landlord/owner rush you through place. If they do, there’s probably something they don’t want you to find out about. Take your time.
• Check the locks. Even if you’re living in a decent neighborhood, with the world today (gosh, I sound old) you probably want a deadbolt lock. This should be pretty standard in most properties. There should be locks on the windows too.
• Bring a flashlight. Use it to inspect in hard to see places like the backs of cabinets, behind refrigerators, behind water heating units, inside ovens. Moist, warm places are heaven to all kinds of creatures that you don’t want to be co-habitating with.
• Check the water fixtures. Turn on the faucets and the shower. You don’t want to take that post-moving day shower under a trickle of water. Also, the water may not be a very pretty color in that area. You want to know that too.
• Inspect the fridge and freezer. This is where you’ll be putting your food. It should be clean.
• Seriously consider your space. It’s hard when you don’t have your own furniture (I’ll cover shopping for that later), but think about how much stuff you have. If all you have at the moment is clothes, take a look at the closet space. For many one-bedroom places, the closet is probably going to be your only storage space. You’ll want to be able to fit clothes and anything else, like your folded up moving boxes.
• Listen. Is the road nearby too loud? Are the neighbors loud? Get a feel for what it will be like when you’re relaxing by yourself.
• Take pictures. You may be looking at many properties that day. Sometimes its hard to keep them straight. Plus, your friends and family will want to see what you’re considering too.

 Ask questions like:

What’s the square footage?

How much is the rent?
What’s covered in the rent?
How long is the lease?
Is there a deposit required?
Where should I go for cable/Internet and electricity providers? (also ask about water and gas if necessary)
Is there parking? Assigned spots? Guest parking?
Are there laundry services on site? (if not in your apartment)
What do I do with trash?
Is there a garbage disposal?
Is the stove gas or electric?
Who lived here before?
• The person who lived in my first place before I did lived there for eight years and never cleaned. So I had to deal with the roaches he left behind. You want to know what you might be getting into.
Have the appliances been replaced recently?
• If you know you’ve got a 15-year old refrigerator, be prepared for possible malfunctions.
Is there a maintenance crew?
• Ask what you would do if your sink pipe started gushing water. What is their plan?
Is there a garbage disposal?

All of this effort may seem silly and may be a pain when you’re tired from looking at places all day, but when you’re trying to decide, having all of these details will be a great help.

If there’s a property that really fits all of your parameters, see what you can do to reserve it for a while as you decide. If you find somewhere that you really see yourself living in, then don’t be afraid to take it, especially if you’re running out of time or if there’s limited properties available.

Hooray! Now you found your living space! If you’re like most college grads, it’s probably unfurnished, which means…

Furniture shopping!

Take that graduation money that you hoped to use to buy a new gadget and realize that now you have to spend it on what you need, not what you want. Yay, adulthood!

• If you’re like me and have to move to a small town where there’s not many furniture shopping options available, consider buying your stuff in the nearest city. I did my shopping in the strip mall heaven of Frisco, Texas, where there’s a massive new Ikea to boot, and then loaded that in a truck to bring to Hugo (where there’s WalMart and nothing else).
• Buying furniture is also a good opportunity to build up good credit on your credit card. Charge your items, then pay off your $1,000-$1,500 bill a little at a time. A good credit card rating is worth so much these days when people do not have time for those who don’t pay their bills. Good credit leads to discounts!

**Another thing, if you need to provide a credit score for your landlord or just want to have it for you, go to myfico.com. You get a free trial, but they’ll ask you to put in your credit card info because after 10 days, they’ll charge you for a three-month membership at $14.95 a month. In the confirmation e-mail they send you, there’s a phone number to call to cancel. Just make sure you do it! Canceling takes five minutes, they just make their money when people forget.

• A benefit of shopping in a relatively affluent area is that you can find good bargains on things at the local consignment shop/Goodwill. I bought an awesome three-person couch for $199 at a secondhand store in Frisco. I bought it and they put it on reserve to be picked up the day I moved, when I had the moving van. I bought a nightstand on wheels as a TV stand for $18 in another consignment store.
• My bedroom night stand, which I specifically wanted to have drawers all of the way down, I (finally!) found at a Goodwill in McKinney for $25.
• I bought my kitchen table and chairs at Ikea. They’re just plain unvarnished wood and the set was less than $200, if I remember correctly.
• If there’s one thing you can’t skimp on though, it’s a bed. Our bed is our best friend, a place where humans spend 1/3 of their lives. I knew I was going over my budget, but you can bet I don’t regret for a second spending around $375 for a 10-inch memory foam mattress at Sam’s Club. It cost another $100 or so for the boxspring and another $35 for the bed frame.
• What that experience also taught me was don’t be afraid to look in unusual places. Who knew Sam’s Club would be a great mattress shopping option?
• DO NOT BUY A USED MATTRESS! I don’t care how clean it looks or how cheap it is. With all of the bedbug craziness going around…just don’t. Don’t even think about it.
• For some reason, it was tough for me to find side tables and lamps that I liked.

**Important tip: measure the side of your couch before going side table shopping or vice versa. You don’t want a table that you can’t reach from your couch.

• I also got lucky with getting some hand-me-down furniture. I got a coffee table from my stepmom’s mom and some nice pictures for my walls that people didn’t want anymore. Ask around, especially if you know someone else who is relocating and looking to unload furniture.

Now that you’ve got furniture and a place to live, you may be storing it somewhere until your moving date. While you’re waiting, make sure you’ve figured out these details (especially if you’re moving to a new state):

• Turning on your electric: call the electric company and set up an account and date of activation. They don’t actually need to interact with you, so feel free to pick a date before you actually get there.
• Turning on cable/Internet: For our generation, the Internet is crucial. Depending on what day you move, it may be a bit until you can get it hooked up because the cable companies typically aren’t open on the weekends. Arrange a time around your work schedule and maybe bite the bullet and read a book if you’re not in 4G land anymore til you get set up.

**Note: be prepared to buy a router. In Hugo (pop. 5,000), the modem worked, but the wifi wasn’t being recognized by my Macbook. Unfortunately, all the Suddenlink people could do was suggest I buy a router. It worked, but not without the stress of me worrying I’d be connected to an Ethernet cable indefinitely (first world problems).

• Buy renter’s insurance: This protects you against theft and other disasters like fire, flood, etc. You may be able to get this through your/your parent’s car insurance company, so check that out first. That wasn’t an option for me, so at work, I asked for a recent phone book and looked through possibilities. I called Geico and they had a ridiculous rate (<$190) through Traveler’s Insurance.

My stuff isn’t worth all that much (see previous paragraphs), so I got the $20,000 coverage because it cost the same as the $15,000 coverage. A low deductible is good for someone like me (small bank account) because a deductible is what you will pay out of pocket before the insurance starts paying. With Geico, I have a $500 deductible. I wouldn’t go higher than a $1,000.
Also, ask around. In Hugo, there weren’t national options, but my co-worker’s husband was an insurance agent, so I got lucky in that sense.

• Buy car insurance: If you’re moving to a different state, even if you have a national company, you will probably have to update your policy. I have Esurance and when I went to update my address from Oklahoma to Texas, it turned out I had to cancel my OK policy and buy a TX policy. Took a half hour on the phone, but at least I know it’s updated for when I get my new plates & driver’s license (see below).

• Update license plates: This is a time-sensitive matter. In Texas, you have 30 days to register. When you go to get your registration sticker and plates, you will likely need: insurance card and proof of vehicle ownership, such as the registration or title from a previous state.

**I’ve only done this once and in a small town, but you may want to have cash because the tag office didn’t take plastic and this stuff is pricey. In Texas, the base registration fee is $52.75, but they add other fees on top of that. If I remember correctly, my total for everything in Oklahoma was about $130, but I also had to pay to get the title in my name. Luckily there was an ATM in the Tag Office (somehow they thought of everything).

• Update driver’s license: Another time-sensitive matter. In Texas, it’s 90 days. Again, this varies from state-to-state, but to be safe, you should bring your old license, original Social Security card, original birth certificate and proof of residency (a bill sent to your address).

**At least in Texas and Oklahoma, you need proof of car insurance in that state in order to register your car. I didn’t know that when I moved to OK, so I went back and forth to the Tag Office about a zillion times slowly checking off every requirement as I went. Insurance first, license second.
**Have cash on you (again) when you get your license because there are fees. It will probably be somewhere around $25. Get used to that feeling of your wallet being emptied quickly.

• Change address on anything else: Go to the US Postal Service website and make sure to have your mail forwarded permanently. It costs $1. Also, call up your bank and have the billing address changed on any debit/credit cards. I would make sure all previous debits clear before you do so because you don’t want any checks or payments to be invalid. Update magazine subscriptions, medical bills, student loan bills, former renter’s/car insurance policies. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Hey, guess what? You just grew up a little bit. Now you have useful knowledge you can pass on to those younger than you! Wisdom rocks. You should be proud of yourself 🙂 I know I am proud of myself because this stuff is tiring! Now take a seat on your new-used couch, treat yourself with some fast food and enjoy your first nights at your new pad! You can worry about grocery shopping tomorrow.

Oh, and if you have any further questions, call home (not my home, your home.) Have a safe trip!

My Very Belated, Concise Reaction to Ohio’s Win Over Penn State

Clock 0:00

Score: Ohio – 24, Penn State – 14

Me (on the outside, gets up from chair, says to dad): Well, that was a good game. I always thought they had it in them.

Me (on the inside, heart racing, palms sweaty): WOOOOOOO! HOLY CRAP WE JUST BEAT PENN STATE! I KNEW WE WERE GONNA KICK THEIR *butts*. THIS YEAR JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER. GO BOBCATS BABY! YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! MACTION IN YO FACE PENN STATE! 12 AND 0! TYLER TETTLETON FOR HEISMAN *bleep* YOU MATT BARKLEY. I LOVE THIS TEAM!

I’m happier about this win than a panda bear on a rocking horse.

My Journey to a Gridiron Palace

This was what news of a new $60 million high school stadium did to me. I felt like I was going to a pro game, knowing I was going to see something that I would be telling people about the next day. Even though it’s a high school game, and a scrimmage at that, I was thrilled to cover this scrimmage between the Allen Eagles and the Arlington Martin Warriors as live scoring practice for my freelance gig with the Dallas Morning News.

As I drove down Rivercrest Boulevard, past quaint suburbian houses and eventually the high school, I kept craning my neck to get my first glimpse at this behemoth, this gleaming trophy symbolizing Texas’ obsession with high school football. Then, there it was. First, I see the top of the press box, then the words ‘Eagle Stadium’ big and bright in navy blue (Allen’s colors are navy blue and red). When I entered the driveway, after making sure there was no one behind me, I had to stop and snap a picture.

So fresh, so clean! (Personal photo)

My first thought when I saw it actually was “there she is”, like I was referring to a mighty ship, a beautiful car, or my (future) newborn daughter. This place probably feels like a baby to the school district and the city of Allen, whose taxpayers voted to pay for this brick-walled beauty as part of a $119 million bond. Except this isn’t any bundle of joy, this is like William and Kate’s first child (okay, let’s be honest, first boy). The stadium has been covered by the likes of Forbes and the New York Times.  It’s got a brief video on ABC News’ website and is first on MaxPreps.com’s 10 high school football stadiums to see before you die (listed in no particular order). Plus, if you look soon after this is published, every possible story angle is front and center on the Dallas Morning News SportsDayHS webpage. It’s the pride of the town, just born and waiting to make its first memories.

Back of the scoreboard (Personal Photo)

I was surprised to walk in and find ticket checkers, no security, no one to ask me if I had a press pass on my way up to the press box. It’s like they left the White House unlocked, but it was liberating to feel that pre-9/11 trust in society again. However, I’m pretty sure security will be on hand for the opener next week. In fact, I couldn’t find anyone to direct me to said press box, so I trudged up the stands to the Photo Deck, which has a big, covered space for people to set up their cameras and tripods. Then, I realized there is an elevator to the press box, which has two levels. I’ve only ever taken an elevator to a press box at Coors Field, Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the Horseshoe and Peden Stadium. Note: those are all pro/FBS college venues. Craziness.

A video producer’s best friend. (Personal photo)

The press box area that I saw was gorgeous. It’s air conditioned (muy importante in Texas), with two flat screen TV’s showing the gameplay along with the date/time, and current weather conditions. There’s speakers that pipe in noise from a referee mic, a crowd noise mic, and the PA announcer. A red and white Eagle logo is sewed into all of the blue padded chairs. They also boast a kitchen area with dark-stained cabinets with silver handles. There are stainless steel appliances: a fridge, a trash compactor/compost thingy, a dishwasher, a coffee maker, a microwave and a sink. This is nicer than most living places at Ohio University. They even put a few rows of tile down in case something spills. What struck me most was that they put up a backsplash of tiny rectangular grey/silver tiles. Such detail! Unfortunately, this kitchen would serve no starving (media) artists tonight, so I went to scope out the concession stands…

Can I just cover games here for the rest of my life? (Personal photo)

So comfortable and so school spirited. (Personal photo)

Press box view of the field (Personal photo)

…which of course looked a lot like the ones at Cowboys Stadium. Especially because they have flat screen TV’s that show the menu. However, Jerry World has separate ones with game video. Tsk tsk, Allen. They even have reasonable prices. I got a cheeseburger (with fresh tomatoes and lettuce and pickles) and a regular soda for $4.50. They sold Chik-Fil-A sandwiches for $4 and even little containers of  fresh fruit and cheese. Trés chic.

Looked good and my cheeseburger tasted good! (Personal photo)

I was glad that the teams scrimmaged for two 12-minute quarters and two 10-minute quarters so I could really enjoy this palace. Also, I wasn’t even jealous that I didn’t get to go to high school here until I saw the kid in braces holding this beautiful HD camera that projects the game footage onto the $1.2 million scoreboard with a 38′ X 23′ HD screen. Right now, doing video production for them brings technology experience on par, or probably better than, a D3 football team and some lower market stations. But, Allen High School AV Club Kid gets that opportunity. What a lucky so-and-so.

(Personal photo)

Eagle Stadium takes its first steps August 31 in the first game of the regular season, which is versus last year’s 5A-1 state champion Southlake Carroll. If Allen can beat this team in the opener, it will be huge. To bring back the baby simile: it’s like you’re playing blocks as a baby and Albert Einstein watched you and said “Hey, that kid’s pretty smart.” It’s tough to pull off, but if you do it, you have eternal glory.

It’s something I will never forget and if you are in Dallas during football season, try to check it out. If you can get a seat.

Concourse view of field (Personal photo)

Another concourse view (Personal photo)

Concourse view of press box (Personal photo)

Teams getting directions before the scrimmage (Personal photo)

Field view of press box (Personal photo)

Field view (Personal photo)

What I’ve Learned in Texas

It’s been a while since I wrote, but I’ve been plenty busy in that time. I gathered my (many, many) belongings and moved from Athens, Ohio to Prosper, Texas to live with my dad, stepmom and three younger siblings while I try to find a full-time job. (Side note: I feel like college students looking for work they’re adequately qualified for in their field while facing mountains of student loans is the real 99%.) Anyway, I’m happy to be with my family, especially in a new place where there’s lots of sports to be covered, all kinds, from young kids up to the Dallas pro teams. There are some things I’ve noted in the couple of weeks that I’ve been here that I wanted to share with people in case they ever decide to visit the Lone Star State.

• Big bugs (and I cannot lie). I am no longer afraid of small, non-threatening bugs because I’ve seen three black widows, a banana spider (look it up, they’re huge), big grasshoppers, a few crickets and had many other small ants and spiders crawl near me. So, good news for my boyfriend, I won’t squeal and make you kill bugs anymore. I’m hardened to them now. Oh and flies! Tons of flies, there’s always at least one or two in the house.
• If you’re outside, look before you sit. This is a branch off of the above category. One of the black widows was under a table at the community pool and there was a grasshopper on the back of a chair in our garage that scared me half to death. Now, if I don’t check, I can’t relax. A lot of people I’ve met who have lived here are quite the bug experts from experience. I’ve heard about tarantulas in the undeveloped areas.
• Wear sneakers in the grass. Another bug thing, and also a snake thing. My stepmom grew up in Texas and moved back after ten years. She says she realizes why she can’t be barefoot, probably because she always had to wear sneakers in the grass. On the news the other day, there was a warning about chiggers that like to live in grass, even in your yard, not just long grass. Chiggers bury under your skin and lay eggs and stuff, real pleasant. In terms of long grass, such as fields and near ravines, that’s where you could run into snakes. Copperheads, rattlesnakes, rat snakes, and the like. I haven’t seen any snakes yet, but when I do, you might hear me scream wherever you are in the country.
• To sell more of anything down here, come out with a Texas/Lone Star Edition. This mostly applies to cars, especially trucks. There’s so many with the silver decal that says Texas edition, usually with a big star. The car company probably charges another grand for that little thing and they make their money’s worth.

I can’t decide if it’s the real Texans or the people who’ve moved here who have these.

• Southern hospitality isn’t a myth. I’m writing sports for the local paper, the Prosper Press (their website is non-existent, so don’t bother looking), and I’ve been to a football scrimmage and a basketball camp. I need to get a lay of the land in terms of how the local teams have been to help with my reporting and everyone is more than happy to give me information. None of the “Whaddya lookin’ at?” or “Fuhgeddaboutit!” that I’m used to in Jersey and even Ohio.
• Drive fast or don’t drive at all. After living in Athens, Ohio for the past four years where the main drag is 25 mph, being in Texas is nice and a little scary. Nice because I don’t have to follow those ridiculous signs, but scary because speed limits here are crazy high. The stretch of road that the housing development I live in is off of is called 308. The speed limit is 65. It’s not a highway either, so I’ll turn out of the development, have to get up to 65 and then slow down to stop at a red light about a half a mile up the road. Lots of gunning and breaking down here! Here’s a story: one day I was driving in the right lane of a four-lane road (308) and people were slowing down because of a tractor in the right lane (country & city meshing). As soon as I got in the left lane, I see this idiot move into the right lane and speed up because there’s another car in front of him so he doesn’t see the tractor yet. The car in front of him moves to the left. The idiot is driving so fast that he has to swerve right and drive on the shoulder of the road to avoid the tractor. Luckily, I haven’t seen  a lot of that kind of idiocy. I also had to laugh because the main road through the development (that doesn’t have any driveways branching onto it) is 40. 40 through a residential area! That’s not what I learned in Ohio’s driver’s ed!
• If you drive the speed limit, you’re a tourist/a loser/old. Yes, so about the speed limits already being high, people down here drive at least five-ten miles above that. Not sure why, that’s just how it is.
• You have to have two kinds of lip balm. This one’s more for the ladies. I went to the pool the other day and brought my cherry ChapStick (and no, I didn’t kiss any girls). Anyway, it melted in the 100 degree heat. So, a neighbor friend of my stepmom’s said I need to get the balm in the tube for outside and then the normal ChapStick twist balm for the house.
• Whatever lip balm you do have, always have it with you. I lost my melted ChapStick, so I went about three days in this dry heat without any lip protection. It took me two-three days to heal all of the cracks and dry skin once I finally picked some up.
• You’re expected to know where you’re going. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been to a few doctor’s offices and to an FC Dallas game. For one of the doctor’s visits, you could park in a parking garage. But, once you parked there were no signs as to which way to go for the elevators, for the building, nothing. Then, once in the building, there’s no sign with ‘Rooms 100-120 —>, Rooms 120-150 <—–“, so you have to wander around and find your room. Also, they’re into the whole “have a bunch of different offices in one building, but have no indication as to what’s in there where anyone can see from the road.” The buildings have big numbers on them, but you have to drive around and find the tiny words that assure you that you found the right place. Now for the sporting event. It was the same story. Walk into the stadium, no sign “Sections 100-128 <—–, Sections 129-150 —–>”, so again, just had to pick a side and hope it was correct.
• If you’re not tan by the middle of June, you’re new here. I have naturally pale skin, so I stuck out like a sore thumb when I first got here because people have been going to the pool for at least a month already. So, one of my first goals was to get a little color.
• People love their sports. There are so many outlets for kids to be in sports here, it’s crazy. Also, every facility is new with the best equipment. Naturally, pro sports is key here too. I cracked up when I was listening to a top-40 station that had a news update with news and celebrity gossip and then they followed it up with news that Josh Hamilton was coming back that night from an injury. Of course, football is king and some high school stadiums have bigger stands than Peden Stadium at Ohio University (24,000 people).
• In the middle of the day in the summer, it’s a dead zone unless you’re by a pool. Unlike in Ohio or Jersey, in the middle of the day in Texas, no one is outside. Kids aren’t running around, people aren’t walking their dogs or taking a stroll. It’s just so darn hot that everyone stays in the AC (unless you’re at the pool). I was talking to a neighbor, who is a Texas native, around ten in the morning and it must have already been at least 90 degrees. I walked out and said “It’s a nice day today.” She responded with “You think this is a nice day? It’s so hot out already!” That was the Northerner in me because in Ohio and Jersey, sunny usually equals nice (especially in the rainy spring). But here, it’s no-clouds-in-the-sky sunny (meaning super hot) practically every day. So, I have to relearn what a nice day is in Texas.
• Josh Hamilton and Dirk Nowitski are the sports gods (at least until football season rolls around) When Hamilton was coming back from his injury, he’d only been out a couple of games, but it was like he was returning from ACL surgery or something. He’s one of the top five players in the majors right know, so I don’t blame people. Thanks to him and some other key pieces, the Rangers are like the Yankees of the south, a big-spending, selling-out, winning team. I noticed that Dirk is uber-important when the news showed him commenting on the Mavericks draft picks. I asked my dad “Is Dirk the team representative?” and he said that basically he is. It’s like a quote from Dirk is better than a quote from a coach or front-office personnel and he’s the best player on the team, so he knows what’s good for them. He’s transcendent down here, like Derek Jeter is with the Yankees. Whatever Derek Jeter has to say on the issue, it’s going to be quoted more than whatever anyone else says because he’s The Captain and basically the most important person in that organization. The Cowboys haven’t started doing anything for their upcoming season yet, so I don’t know who their number one guy is (probably Jerry Jones/Tony Romo), but Dallas is obviously a football city like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Denver, etc. I hope to be in that atmosphere when it arrives.

That’s all I can think of about now. I’ve been processing so much that I could probably write all night and still not cover it all! Thanks for reading!