Apartment Life

Last night I went to sleep to the neighbors’ argument, and this morning I woke up to the neighbors’ baby.

Why do they call them apartments, when all you really are is very, very close together?

The longer I live here, the more I dislike it.  There’s construction right across the street.  The room that contains my desk has extremes of temperature: cold in winter, hot in summer.  There’s a ragtag band of six to ten children who play around our building (read: scream and run around our building).  The parking situation is intolerable because a) we’re never assured of a space and b) we have to make sure our friends’ cars don’t get towed.  And, if we ever wanted to buy furniture, we’d have to put it in the kitchen, because our two bedrooms and living/dining area keep getting smaller.

AND the gym is only open from 9:45 AM, which means I can’t exercise in the morning, until 6:oo PM, which means I can’t exercise in the evening.  Pardon my French, but what the hell?  Who thought those hours were a good idea?

After having lived here for what will be two years in July, I’ve had plenty of time to discover what all the imperfections are.

My new mantra: I can’t wait to move, I can’t wait to move.

Still Sick

Today I went to work with a note from my doctor’s office, to the effect that I have to stay home for a week.  As I was standing by the information desk talking to one of my coworkers, a customer came up to the computer.  Like the polite, well-trained employee that she is, my coworker asked, “Is there something I can help you find?”

Customer:  Well, maybe you can tell me the author of, I think it’s called, Pillars of the Earth?

Coworker:  Uh.

Me (without thinking):  Ken Follett.  Fiction.

Coworker (to me):  Oh man.  We’re really going to miss you.

Happy as I am to have a week off, it was still nice to hear.  I am seriously and with delight contemplating a Firefly marathon.

I’m Back.

I suppose I’m not so much ‘back,’ as finally here, the place I’ve been anticipating for so long.  My apartment in Texas with Philip, and it’s a very nice apartment indeed.  The books are mostly unpacked, which is most of the work, and we’ve already started putting things up on the walls.  We live on the third floor; therefore on move-in day, we decided, “Let’s live here forever.”

My honeymoon in Portland was lovely.  The hotel (Marriott Waterfront) was exceptional, and we had the concierge floor so it was exceptionally exceptional.  We had a view of the Willamette River, and we were in walking distance of Powell’s City of Books.  We went twice.  Also, the weather was amazing, a cool seventy.  Pictures forthcoming.  I also promise pictures of the apartment, when it is a little more assembled.

I went jogging for a very short while this morning.  There’s a public track that runs right by our apartment complex, and I followed it across the street to Serenity Park.  It was indeed serene: I was the only person in sight as I crossed the shaded wooden bridge over the gully with a trickle of water.  And then the path dead-ended and I turned around and did it all again.