It’s Like Melrose Place

I’m all moved into my new apartment and I love it .  Luv.  Lub.  Love.

It wasn’t love at first sight, though.  I’d seen pictures, but I’d never been inside (it’s not like searching for a regular apartment since it’s on campus).  My first reaction was that it looked, um, institutional.  A little dorm-ish.  Now that I have all my stuff packed inside, I really like it.  It’s newer than my old apartment.  It’s much brighter inside.  The freezer seems to work decently. The wireless is faster.  I have a nice patio.  It still looks a little dorm-ish, but that’s to be expected.

By the time I finally finished moving everything late last night, my arms and legs felt like noodles.  I don’t think I could bench pressed a pillow.  But I wanted to get everything done in one day.  It’s the way we do it in my family.  We’re expert local movers.  Growing up, I lived in 6 different places and they were probably all within a few miles of each other.  I’ve now lived in 3 different apartments within about 100 ft. of each other.  I have the bruises and sore muscles to prove that despite the short distance, it was still a move.

I got everything put away yesterday.  Clothes in the closet.  Books on the bookshelf.  But, now comes the super fun part of taking my time organizing everything.  For the first time in 3 years, I have a bookshelf big enough to hold almost all of the books I have with me (most of my books are at my parents’ house in WA).  It makes such a difference to be able to see and grab your books.  It’s not the same just to know they’re there in boxes.  My first thought when I put them all up on the shelf was that I should record vlogs in front of my books (a la The Vlog Brothers), so that you can all look at them at think that I’m smart and interesting.

My last apartment was a studio and so is this one.  After living in a studio for so long, I’m probably going to feel like a queen when I can one day upgrade to a one bedroom.  There’s so much strategy involved in living in a studio apartment, because there is just no space.  My biggest concern in moving into this apartment was, where am I going to put my giant suitcase?  What about my vacuum cleaner? I even had a conversation with my step-dad where we discussed hanging my vacuum cleaner up as wall art or wiring it to double as a floor lamp.  I manged to find a place for everything, even if it means my DVDs are now stored in kitchen cabinets.

The most unexpected thing was that when I was moving in, I noticed all these good looking people.  I was like, “did I just move into Melrose Place?”  I’m not new to this community, but I guess I’m used to my old campus (which can be seen from this one) where the age of the average student is like 40 and a lot of people are married with kids already.  Maybe it will be a little like Melrose Place here.  Everyone knows I could use some drama in my life.

Scratch that last bit.  The most unexpected thing is that the hall outside my apartment smells like chamomile.