the ups and downs of apartment living, not necessarily in that order

In case you haven’t heard, we’re back to apartment living. Our landlady filed for bankruptcy in April and we had to start worrying about where to live (wonderful fodder to add to the mental/emotional breakdown I was experiencing) We decided to move back to apartment life. Some advised us to rent another house, but I didn’t want to have the same thing happen a few months down the road. I love to move*, but I’d rather not do it more than once a year.

We returned to the complex we lived in before we moved to the house. It’s been a bit over a week now. I kept having doubts and feelings of inadequacy and selfish moments of I-want-to-buy-a-house-now (which is just not possible for so many reasons). It’s an adjustment, definitely, but we’re getting along.

Pic has a huge bedroom (both of the bedrooms have full baths – with tubs – but ours has the linen closet and Pic’s has the walk-in closet). This morning, she asked Papi, “Do you want to see the band-aid in my big, big bedroom?”

We haven’t used the air conditioning yet. Just having it, though, is a HUGE improvement over last summer. The house had no a/c, which meant it was 94 degrees most summer days (I often suspected that that was just how high the thermostat read and that it was actually much hotter). We’d always be stuck at home during the hottest part of the day so that Pic could nap and I could boil in the living room. How she ever slept was beyond me. We finally broke down and bought a window unit, although we had less than no money last summer, and the living room, at least, was cooler.

Our neighbors seem incapable of closing any door in their apartment like normal human beings (maybe they aren’t?). Thirty million times a day, there’s a tremendous crash! as someone enters or exits a room. And Thursday was a particularly special day, when, from 10-11p, there was an even more excessive amount of slamming. Added to this was yelling and thumping and much throwing of trash outside. Fun times. Our neighbors’ apartment seems to be a get-together spot for every young teen within a ten-mile radius (and that’s a lot of teens). We’ll see how this goes.

On a much more positive note, there’re two pools here. In my horrible self-consciousness, I have a hard time getting into a bathing suit (says the girl who was on the swim team in high school…but that was different, I swear) and I often get caught up on this terrifying event and forget just how much I love being in the water. When Pic woke up from her nap today, I told Cardo we should head over to the pool. At first the water was chilly, inviting us to sit on the side of the pool and gaze at it lapping the concrete. I persevered, though, and quickly warmed up. I swam some laps while Ali cheered me on and Cardo tried to keep me from smashing into anything (I don’t know where my goggles are, so I didn’t wear my contacts, so I was pretty screwed in the sight department). I swam more laps than I thought I could, although I didn’t push myself until I was exhausted. Oh, I miss the water and I’m considering membership to the Y or a gym that has a pool so that I can regularly swim after our pools here are emptied. We’ll see.

All in all, I think these next thirteen months (the length of our lease) are doable.

In other non-news, in case anyone’s in the market for a Prius: they are once again on a six-month back-order.

[* I like the newness of places, I just don't like packing/unpacking all of my junk.]

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Currently watching: Hannah and Her Sisters

Currently listening to: Mercedes Benz

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Finally: Happy Birthday, Ms J! I hope the surprise dinner was fabulous and the movie was fun.