New Digs

With the New Year came a new lease on life. Also a new lease on an apartment. Next weekend I'll be moving out of 26 Myrtle, and though I feel ready for a change, there's also much I'll miss about the apartment I've lived in for over 2 years now. I'll miss the charming slant in the ceiling and the gentle slope of the floor, which causes the rug to slide slowly from one wall to the other over the course of a few days. I'll miss the crazy cat lady who lives next door and has a sign posted in her entryway reading "NO BUGS!!". I won't miss the way mail sometimes gets stolen, or how the shower won't get warm in the morning. I won't miss the way the windows rattle in the wind, like someone's violently shaking them, trying to get in, and I won't miss the leaky roof or the guy who cooks delicious smelling meals in the middle of the night just to taunt me.

Apartment 16 has served me well, though. It's cozy in the winter, and bright and sunny in the summer. Beacon Hill has more of a neighborhood feel than any other place I've ever lived. The market next door once let me take bags and bags of groceries home even though I had no cash on me. I scrawled an IOU and they trusted me to come back the next day. At Primo's, they noticed when I got sick and hadn't been by in a while, asking when I returned if I'd been on vacation and complimenting my haircut. Weeks worth of calzones lay abandoned. Just kidding.

I've also loved having visitors here. Guests have slept on my kitchen floor and once under my dining room table. I never would have guessed that a fully inflated air mattress would fit in the narrow hallway.

When I first moved in, the apartment felt nothing like home. My mom found a realtor listed in the newspaper (who knew) and we did a one-day, whirlwind tour of apartments in Boston, finally choosing this one because, well, why not this one? The day I moved in, I built my bookshelf backwards. I didn't have a bed for a solid 5 months. My first guests were Sam and Matt, and I had to have them stand patiently while I rolled my pullout bed back into a couch. My clothes were folded in piles on the floor. For a year.

Since then I seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff, though, and I'm glad it'll be coming with me. Having my books around me, and my photos, and my rocking chair, and oh, these scented candles I just love, will make my new apartment feel like home. Of course the Bob - O - Pedic will also be making the trip.