30 Day Notice to Move Out and a Sushi Lunch

View of the sunset from our patio

Our bedroom when we first moved in 3 years ago

Today I gave my 30 Day Notice to vacate my apartment. When we first moved into our apartment complex almost three years ago, it was a local outfit ran by a local asset management company. About a year after we moved in, they were sold to a bigger corporation and things started to go downhill. While the upkeep of the property and houses is still phenomenal, the one-on-one personal attention is mildly frustrating to say the least.

Once, they wouldn't let residents renew their lease for one year increments. The reason? They didn't want everyone's lease to come up for renewal at the same time. What?! So I went to the leasing office and raised Cain. The fear of getting forced into a month-to-month lease is that they can raise the rent on you anytime they feel like it as you are not "locked" into a price. So, at the leasing office (after I went berserk), they agreed to renew my lease for one year AND give me a $700 discount on the next month's rent. Not to mention every time I go into the leasing office they are horribly understaffed.

Today was no exception to the lack of personal attention. The waiting room at the leasing office was standing room only and there was only one gal attending to everyone. She took my notice of move out and my military orders and said she'd call me later. You can imagine why I'm nervous as I don't want this to turn into a situation where they claim I never gave them notice. So, I'll try to follow up with a call later today.

Also the Notice means we will be leaving our lease early (yes, the lease I fought so hard to renew for one year). As part of the Service Member Relief Act, servicemembers are allowed to break apartment and vehicle leases for certain reasons without incurring a penalty. Some morons out there think that just because you're active duty military it gives you the right to break your lease whenever you please without penalty. False. It only lets you break your lease IF you have permeant change of station (PCS) orders lasting longer than 90 days, which we do. So hopefully, the apartment complex is read up on their laws and knows about this. I'm crossing my fingers.

Today for lunch John and I had sushi. Good American sushi (influenced by the Japanese). Traditional Japanese sushi has the nori (seaweed) wrapped on the outside. When sushi was introduced in the west, they thought Westerners would find that unappealing, so they put rice on the outside. It was a decent lunch, but I should probably lay off this kind of food for awhile as I'm sure after a few months in Japan I'll be begging for a Lunchable.