Rachel's Daily Diary where I have lived

On a morning which I clearly don't remember, I was taken home in a stocking from the hospital in which I was born. Having just been born, I fit in the stocking, and having been born in December, the stocking was considered festive. The home to which I was taken was the place where I grew up: Topanga (in the mountains above Malibu). My mother lived there until she sold the house in April 2002, to move to Ojai. The address began with a 2.

When I was around 9, my parents got divorced, and my father moved to a place on the border of Santa Monica and Marvista. The address was 3355 Wade Street, the zip was 90066, and the phone number was (213) 391-1127. I have no idea why I remember that after all these years when I had so much trouble memorizing my calculus equations. We lived right next to the Santa Monica Airport, and when I was in sixth grade a plane crashed into the house two doors down from us.

My dad moved shortly thereafter, to the house he has now. I spent high school going back and forth between my mom's house and my dad's house. For a time it was Mondays at my mom's, Tuesdays at my dad's, Wednesdays at my mom's, Thursdays at my dads, and alternating weekends.

Freshman year of college I lived in a dorm at Berkeley. My mailing address was 2400 Durant Avenue, and my actual address was 2424 Channing Way. As an extension student, I was not guaranteed housing for the year, but I called the housing office nearly every day for a good portion of the summer. I would almost always speak to Bart, who was a friend of my boyfriend at the time, Mike. Later in my time at Berkeley, I would run into Bart when he became friends with Karlyn (who lived in my apartment the summer between my Sophomore and Junior years). My roommate freshman year was Taiwanese and she hung large Taiwanese independence flags from her bedposts. Her name was Joanne, and she did everything in her power to make my life miserable. When I first met her, I was very excited. We both liked rap music. I offered to help her learn how to use her computer and she was going to teach me to wear make-up. Then after two weeks of living together, when we had hardly gotten to know each other at all, she said she wanted me to move out. I, of course, said no, but asked what I had done wrong, so that I could improve. I like to problem solve. She said it wasn't me, it was her, which left me feeling rather helpless. From that point on, she just got mean. She put a barricade down the middle of the room. She wanted to hang a tarp down the middle of our room, but she couldn't because it was a fire hazard. She once reported me because Aurora stood on her side of the room. Most people thought of her as a joke, and most people in the dorm thought she was racist (though I would assume that she probably didn't like me for my personality). Thankfully, she never spent any time in our room; rather she slept every night with a guy down the hall named Harsha. Needless to say, I will be happy to never see Joanne Chang again.

Sophomore year Desirée and I decided to live together. We went to HomeFinders with another pair of girls who wanted to live together. HomeFinders cost $50, which wasn't bad split four ways. Nearly every day during the end of freshman year, one of the four of us would go pick up the new listings and then make a photocopy for the other pair. Both Des and I, and Susie and Mickie, found housing this way. Des and I saw a great deal on a place just one block from campus. They were having an open house at 10 am on Saturday, and Des and I went early, arriving at 9:45. At 9:55 the manager came down, saw us waiting, and took us up to look at the place. I loved it immediately, but Desirée was quite hesitant (I think she wanted to hold out for a place with hardwood floors). We had been looking for a place for a while, and so she caved and said we could take the place. I let the manager know that we were willing to write a check for it right them and there. He said the landlord had already given it to someone else, but that pair hadn't paid the deposit, so it looked good for us. When we went back down to the front of the building, there were a dozen people waiting. I was filled with glee to hear the manager tell the waiting hopefuls that it was taken. In the following weeks I went to talk to the manager every day. He revealed that there were actually two pairs of people to which the apartment had been promised, which caused me considerable frustration. Then one day, the manager said it was ours; he had apparently put in a good word for us with the landlord. I stayed in that apartment until the day I graduated... The address began with a 2. Junior and senior years I lived in the same apartment I had with Desirée. My roommate for both years was Cindy. The two most remarkable things about my first apartment were: 1) There was no room for the fridge in the small kitchen, so when I moved in, it was in the dining room, which was horrible because it blocked one of the walls of bay windows. Since no one had a better suggestion, my idea to put the fridge in the front hall closet was used. 2) One of the cupboards in the kitchen used to be an icebox (yes, the apartment was really old) and still proudly wore a metal sign announcing that it was Cooled By Frigidaire.

After college, I moved my stuff back to Los Angeles and then I took off on a cross country drive to New York to live with my grandfather. Though he was 84, he still got up and went to work every day. I had a wonderful time exploring Manhattan for nearly a year. I returned to Los Angeles before the real chill of winter came.

I took a six month contract in LA and when that ended, I moved back to the Bay Area. With two suitcases, I settled into my boyfriend's house for a few months while we looked for an apartment together.

Now I live in the East Bay in a lovely apartment with my beau. We have a one year lease. We moved in in July 2001 and am hoping to create a virtual tour soon. I am currently working on cataloging my plants.