The experiences and exploits of a college grad trying to make it in the "real world:" leaving school and friends in New England, moving south, and living with her boyfriend. Watch as I pretend to be an adult.
It's raining here in Raleigh, in the sort of bipolar, manic way that happens every summer in the south. The weather gods will rage for fifteen or twenty minutes, throwing lightening and clashing thunder while water comes down as thick as a curtain. Then, just as suddenly as it began, it will slack off, easing into a soft, gentle patter of drops. Just as this tricks you into thinking you can leave the safety of your house everything switches back to the torrential deluge again. This pattern has been repeating itself all day. Everything except a coffee table and a couple chairs is finally in the apartment. The chairs are living in the suburban until the rain slacks off a bit more. The living room is looking quite promising, the office upstairs is about 60% put together and put away, and our bedroom- well, I'm trying not to think about that right now. As we settle in, we're learning the quirks and peculiarities of the apartment. Things like how hold a loose bracket under the counter while you close the door of the ancient dishwasher. The trick is to hold it at a bit of an angle, so that when the springloaded door snaps the last couple inches into place you don't loose a nail. Things like how to use the toilet in the incredibly small downstairs bathroom. Due to an unfortunate juxtaposition of sink and toilet, you must first lower yourself down partway (think "chair pose" in yoga), and then sidestep while steadying yourself against the wall and sitting down the rest of the way. This allows you to insert your legs under the sink- and, naturally, getting back up requires a reversal of these steps. The apartment is a bit old and worn, but it has character. It reminds me a bit of a crochety old woman who's had a face lift, actually. The carpets are brand new, and the walls are just dry from a fresh coat of paint...but new facade only makes the old appliances and fixtures more apparent. The pipes shudder a bit when you first turn them on, and the doors stick so badly that I doubt we'll ever be closing the bedroom or bathroom doors unless we have guests. The space is allotted rather strangely- we have absolute heaps of closet space, but trying to navigate our kitchen reminds me of the scene in Alice in Wonderland after she's eaten the cake. But all in all I'm quite happy with our little apartment. It suits our needs quite nicely- I'll try to take and post some pictures this week.
After 22 posted at 10:12 AM
