pseydtonne | High-class suburb crept up on me

Some of you know that my cousin Nancy is having me apartment-sit for her in Lexington starting "some time soon." She got a log-term contracting gig as a consultant down in Virginia and she wants to hang onto this amazing apartment she has up here. It turns out she found a place in Richmond and signed the papers Friday. This means the place is basically mine as of Wednesday.

I had been assuming I'd get shafted somehow or that I'd have several weeks to kill before I could move. After all, I'm about the opposite of packed as I could get: the apartment is a mess as usual. Now I have to figure out what to move to the couple roms I'll have in her place and how much space I'll need for storage in a locker somewhere north of town. In fact, her landlady (whom I know and like) would like the place to remain feeling "lived-in" as much as possible during the transition. My theory on that would be to get a truck this weekend and get my bed over there. Heck, as soon as I'm sleeping there, I start having a five-minute commute.

I've been thinking I would simply pay my present landlady for all of November and consider December my last month. That way I wouldn't shaft her with a mere 30 days' notice. However, I really doubt I'll need sixty days (maybe 45 but I may only need part of November) and it would be nice to save the money. She's running on the assumption of a full month's rent from me and may have already blown her budget accordingly. She's losing money on having a couple empty joints as it is (in fact, only three apartments of the six in this building are currently occupied) and she never really treated me poorly so I don't want to rip her off. Maybe I'll give her November's rent and let her have the place open for prospects early on. Maybe I'll use December to polish the scratch marks on the dining floor. Maybe I'm thinking way too hard about this and need direction.

Anyway, I could use some help either this coming weekend or next to pack and get stuff into storage. Have any of you rented lockers in metro Boston? I know one of you has and I would rather not go there. In fact, I could save a bunch of money and store my crap in New Hampshire. Any companies not worth touching?

-491 words, only one spelling error I had to fix, Dante

P.S.: She's really my eighth cousin once removed: we only found out we were cousins when I was in high school. It's easier to say "my cousin Nancy" than "my anti-godmother Nancy" since I'm lapsed atheist (more like a religious sociopath -- I can deal with any religion at all but deep down I only believe in the Open Source Movement).