..four things that suck about living in an apartment...and four things that don't..

Sooo... For the most part, I LOVE my new apartment. But I had lived in a house for a year so some things are taking some adjusting to. Here is the gripe list:

1) Laundry Facilities. The apartments at my complex aren't big enough to house a washer and dryer (not that I have one to house even if it were). I've lived with Robbie for the last year or so and he has everything. So when he bought a new washer/dryer? I had a new washer/dryer! Yayyyy. So... the up side is that at least my apartment complex has laundry facilities ON SITE. And it's pretty large. But really the only time I have time to do laundry is on Sundays. Well... apparently that is the only the time WHOLE DAMN APARTMENT COMPLEX has time to do laundry too. Which is fine. I can wait. What I HATE is that people will put their laundry in and then not come move it from washer to dryer or from dryer to their hamper. So it just sits there taking up space and my ONE load of laundry ends up taking 5 hours to do because I am waiting for a washer or a dryer to be available. Plus I have to pay for it and no one likes paying to do chores.

2) Gym Time. So you've all been reading my previous blogs about getting in shape. Well.. I was planning on using my gym at my apartment. Free! Yay! So the first couple days I lived there I went in and there were quite a few people in there, but there were still a couple machines to use. Well... Every.Single.Day that I've gone back, the army of "terrorists" (yes, I realize this is racial profiling. No, I don't care) have confiscated the ENTIRE gym and all of its machines. They all go in together and while one of them is running, the other one sits and talks to them. Then they switch. I've tried waiting. I've tried going back later. They are ALWAYS there. So I have taken to doing Turbo Jam in my (tiny) living room.

3) Quiet Time. "Quiet Time" is between the hours of 10PM and 6AM. Which isn't BAD, I mean, I tend to go to bed pretty early during the week anyway. But there are some days when I have people over, and as a group... we tend to be pretty loud. I've been avoiding having any sort of housewarming party or anything because *cough* sometimesthereisalcoholinvolved *cough* and *cough* sometimessomeofmyfriendsareunderage *cough* and I don't want the po-po showing up on my doorstep. It was much easier to conceal this in a house (except when certain "roommates" would threaten to call the cops on us because he is bat shit crazy... that's all I'm saying).

4) Proximity. This will be on my "good" and "bad" list. The bad part of it is everytime someone is vacuuming their apartment at 7:30 on a Saturday morning, I can hear it. When the people behind me slam their kitchen cupboard doors shut (which they do ALL.NIGHT.LONG.), I hear it. Also, I'm pretty sure that they probably think I'm being abused because on the nights that Josh stays over, we have a tendancy to hit/kick/bite/punch each other and scream and knock each other off the bed. Into walls. So they either think we are abusing each other or that we have a very... active?... love life. *cough* Either way, no bueno.

So... that is the gripes list. Now the things that are WONDERFUL about living in an apartment (especially an apartment that is just yours and no one elses... except for your gay boyfriend who keeps his toothbrush and deoderant in your bathroom):

1) Covered Parking. OMG. LOOVVE covered parking. I don't care much about it in the summer. But in the winter, or even when it's just cold, I LOVE IT. No more scraping off my car. No more trudging (and more than likely, falling) down while trying to scrape off my car. And my apartment complex doesn't have ASSIGNED covered parking, so I don't end up with one that is clear down the road from my apartment. I love that. Plus they really don't monitor it very well so even though they tell you that guests shouldn't park under the covered stuff, how will they know REALLY?

2) Maintenence Men. I can take care of a lot of things myself. I pride myself on being (at least a little) independent and grown up. But from living in our house I saw how much more work it was than an apartment. We (read: Robbie) would have to take care of things like broken heaters and flooded basements and clogged sinks and shit. We had a landlord, but he was a douche and Robbie ended up fixing everything instead of waiting on the deadbeat landlord to fix it. In my apartment, if any of those things go wrong, I just fill out a little form online and its magically taken care of when I get home from work. Yay!

3) Proximity. I'm kind of a baby. I'm paranoid and I always feel like someone is going to break in and murder me in the middle of the night. Whenever I would have to stay at my house by myself, I would sleep with the tv and the light on (yes, I am 12, thank you for asking) and would pray for daylight to come. The nice thing about my apartment is that I KNOW there are people around and that's comforting to me. Even if I'm alone in my apartment, there are 150 other units within walking distance of me. This also makes me feel like it's quite good odds that if someone WERE to go on a crazy killing spree, it would be less likely that they would choose my apartment. That's safety.

4) Small Space/Small Furniture. Maybe you wouldn't think of this as a "perk", but since I am the moving queen of the universe, that also means that when I move around, I have to pack. I hate packing. I LOATHE packing. Sooooo... having a smaller apartment means that I don't have to have much furniture in order to keep it furnished. Ergo - that means I also don't have much to move when I move around. Yay! This also means it's cheaper to furnish and I like that story.

So yeah. That is how I feel. Go me!