Ok, now that I'm semi-settled into my new place, I'm really enjoying it. First of all, being able to do laundry in the middle of the night is downright wonderful. Same thing with banging around in the kitchen. No roommates to disturb, no dogs barking or wandering around underfoot. I love having my own place again.
Not only that, but it's nice and quiet here. For the last few months that Rob and I lived together, we had some sort of complete asshat living upstairs from us who seemed to spend his time either playing basketball on his kitchen floor, or playing video games on his home theater set-up with the volume cranked up to eleven. An inconsiderate douchenozzle if there ever was one. My new upstairs neighbor, on the other hand, a 95-lb Asian girl who walks on her tiptoes, is a much better tenant. I've only heard her making noise once, and I'm pretty sure it was because she was spending the afternoon cleaning. Otherwise, I don't hear a thing.
Another thing I noticed is that while I live in a *huge* apartment complex, the buildings are designed and situated in such a way that nobody's front doors face each other. Seriously--I must be able to see about 24 other units from my entryway, but not one of them has a line of sight to my front door. It seems much more private this way. And even though school is out for summer, I don't hear or see kids outside playing anywhere near my place. So far, I'm lovin' it.
Oh, and the maintenance guy finally showed up yesterday like a tattooed Santa Claus with a golf-cart full of goodies. I finally have doors on my laundry closet (although now, I'm kinda realizing that having no doors was much easier), and there is a new exhaust fan in my range hood, so now I'm free to cook without setting off smoke alarms when I'm deglazing a pan. Oh hell, who am I kidding? The only thing I've cooked so far was breakfast yesterday and then last night I boiled some water to cook a couple of Hebrew Nationals.
But right now, I'm drinking my first cup of coffee from my new kitchen, and it tastes a helluva lot better now that I've found my Britta pitcher and it's stash of filters. For the past year, the water had been coming from the tap in the bathroom. And yesterday, I made my first hot breakfast in this place, and I think I'll wait until Sunday to make my first 'real' dinner. Ever since I signed the papers on this place, I've been craving a huge pot of my almost-famous kitchen-sink spaghetti, and that seemingly endless row of colorful and tasty-looking vegetables at the WalMart SuperCenter has been tempting me to open the wallet like a smoking-hot stripper whose rent is due in the morning.
I mentioned before that I've only been living here for about a week, but I've already gone to the grocery store three times. I'm stocking up--my pantry and freezer are filling up, but my fridge seems ironically empty. Right now, I've got a door full of basic condiments, but the fruit and veggies are suspiciously absent. The middle shelf is half-full of only drinks--a couple of beers, a gallon of milk, a carton of orange juice, a pitcher of Crystal Lite lemonade, a few cans of DCWL, and the previously-mentioned Britta water pitcher. On the top shelf, a package of beer brats, two kinds of lunchmeat, cheese slices, and some maple-flavored sausage links. That's about it. I need to start cooking and get some leftovers in there.
I need to hit the store and get some mushrooms, onions, peppers, apples, oranges, blueberries, strawberries, bagged salad mix, more limes, garlic cloves, potatoes, and maybe some fresh herbs, too. I've got a freezer full of chicken breasts, but nothing to go with them right now. And if you can believe it, I don't have any bacon yet, either. I know--it's almost like blasphemy!
Part of the reason that I still haven't really cooked anything substantial yet is that just last night I finally found the storage tote that had the rest of the kitchen stuff in it--you know, things like plates, bowls, utensils, and the crock pot. Up until now, I've been eating off of paper plates and re-using the same plastic Miller Lite cup I got at the Hilton sports book two years ago when Doc Al was in town. Adding to the bachelor vibe is the fact that I'm still eating my meals in the living room, sitting in a camp chair, using a Coleman cooler as a tray table, while my TV sits on the floor, angled upward to a viewing angle by a couple of books crammed underneath the front of it.
But things are coming together. Instead of spending a bundle of money on a new flat-screen TV or a new couch, like I was tempted to do, I sent the money off to the bankers who still own my truck. And one of my gals called me last night to see if I wanted to go out and play some cards, but I took the responsible route and stayed home, saving money and slowly moving things around to their proper place. I'm kind of dragging it out, only because I know that once it gets done, that big empty living room will look rather dorky and I'll be tempted to spend some money on a cheapass used couch that I really won't like very much, instead of waiting to save up a few more bucks and getting something nice. Yep, I've been scouring Craigslist all week, but nothing really turns my crank (I'm looking for the exact same furniture my sister Amy has, but sadly, nobody ever sells that--it's too nice and too comfortable). It seems that everyone is selling ugly furniture, and yeah, I know slipcovers are available, but I'd really just rather have a new set of decent-looking furniture that I can call my own and not have to worry what kind of strange bodily fluids might still be lurking just beneath the surface. This is Vegas after all, and all kinds of freaky shiat goes on in this town.
Anyhow, that's where I'm at in the process--almost done, but delaying the finish as for long as possible. Well, at least until I get some decent furniture. Luckily for me, I've picked up a couple extra shifts this week, so that outta get the ball rolling. In fact, I've got to go in and work a day shift in a few hours. It won't be much fun, but it'll put a few bucks in my pocket.
Mikey
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