Apartment Living

In keeping with my current theme of trying to be more positive than negative about all that is going on in our lives right now (cause let's face it, things could be so much worse! As Mithrandir's friends who still work at his old company keep reminding us.) we'll start with the things that are better about apartment life.

First of all it is so much easier to keep clean. The space is smaller and SO MANY of our possessions are in storage that cleaning is a cinch. The kids can nearly do it all on their own. The space I have to sweep is microscopic compared to the VERY LARGE amount of tile in our house. I say OUR because delightfully we still own it :}. HOUSE because it is no longer a home that we cherish and love and live in, but a mere shell of past joys, memories that will fade with the passing years. A beautiful life left decaying in the smoldering ashes of hopes, dreams, and loves never to be fully enjoyed again. It stands as a charmingly haunting monument to the life wished for, the life abandoned. But I digress. Pardon the melodramatic tangent. I was being positive! So good things about the apartment . . . yep that's all I got.

Now let's see what else we have learned to Love while adjusting to apartment living. I already mentioned the small fridge and cupboard space, but did I mention how the fridge is on it's last leg. I wonder how bad it has to get before I call the maintenance people. Currently the temperature fluctuates so dramatically that I never know if I will find soft butter or frozen milk when I open it up. Eating meat is always a gamble here. Salmonella anyone? But not to worry I can always tell when the fridge is actively cooling our food. There is a high pitched whining noise that pierces our eardrums as it runs. When it shuts off their is a very loud "Thunk!" followed by a bazaar rattling in the sink that I haven't quite figured out yet. So at least it's entertaining. It's my new game to see how long it will go until it completely stops working, and a great puzzle as I struggle to understand the connection between the sink and the handicapped fridge. I'm totally baffled.

Speaking of fun noises and puzzles. Who can tell me how to balance a small top loading washing machine with only four towels in it? Cause I've tried EVERYTHING. My latest solution was to simply turn the thing off and let the towels sit there until they turn to mildewy piles of goo. Great plan? I thought so! I also debated hauling my lovely top loader and large capacity dryer up the narrow apartment stair case, hooking them up where the overly small stack able unit currently is, which would leave them standing in the too narrow, to long, taking up too much of the very limited square footage allotted each tiny dwelling, hall so no one could walk past. But I would be able to enjoy the convenience of washing more than three towels or three pairs of jeans at a time. The best part of the off balance washing machine is the Delightful noise it makes. It starts out sounding like a fire alarm and then gains volume till you are sure there is a fire engine driving through the living room. And the great part is that it doesn't matter how soon you catch it and turn the thing off, it continues to get louder as it slows down to stop spinning! It's great! So not only do you have to listen to it for the full two minutes it takes the thing to come to a COMPLETE stop, but you get to worry about how the neighbors are planning to draw an quarter you when they discover which of their incompetent associates doesn't know how to use the washing machine. Since no one seemed a fan of hauling our washer and dryer up here, or leaving towels in the crap washing machine until the whole apartment smelled of mildew and rot, I decided to just throw the whole load into the dryer un-spun and see how long it takes to dry them. My vote is at least a week. Which would be a problem since I have to do laundry daily to get it all done with in these ridiculously small loads.

Neighborly noise brings us to our next morsels of joy. So there is the 50 lb Labrador that lives down stairs and barks intermittently during the day. Also goes nuts if anyone walks past his first floor sliding door, cause lets face it apartment living is just too confusing for the defensive nature of a dog to sort out, so they revert to just FREAKING at everything they can. Also there is the guy next door that snores so loud I can hear him when my pregnant body wakes me up in the night to pee, or be uncomfortable, or just for kicks. I am so tempted, but have yet to try slamming the bathroom door loud enough to disturb his sleep in the hopes of it interrupting his snoring long enough for me to get back to sleep. I'm really not sure how long I'll be able to hold off trying that one. Then there is the rhinoceros that passes themselves off as our up stairs neighbor. Have you ever been in the presence of a very HARD LOUD walker? You know the kind that rattles the china cabinet every time their foot hits the floor? That's right, now live below that. Good fun right? I certainly enjoy the multiple migraines it gives me a day as my teeth rattle clean out of my head every time they stampede from their living room to bathroom.

Despite all of those delights the hardest adjustments for me have been with the daily living things. For example the kitchen is just plain to small to fix a big meal in. Rolls are a challenge. Anything that takes more than one step causes me to run out of counter space. You can NOT have two people in the kitchen at once for ANY reason. There is no where I can go that I can't hear the kids noise. They can't even go outside on their own, which means no breaks for me from their normal childhood energy that reaches explosive levels when confined to a small apartment space.

So with all of that good fun you must be asking yourself how long we will pleasure ourselves with this delightful living situation. At this point your guess is as good as mine, but I'm willing to bet things get a lot more exciting in another month and a half when we add a baby to the mix :). Won't that be fun!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sooooo excited!