The New Apartment
We went over to look at the new apartment the other day...
it looked pretty awful, actually...it needs a lot of spruce-ing up...
Steady Eddie didn't seem too happy with things, and I started to think that maybe I shouldn't leave the ultra-cheap apartment I have...
even though it's a place where, if there were mice, they'd be hunchbacked...
but I've had enough.
When you're hearing hookers fighting with their pimps outside your front window at 11:30 at night, and you watch the pimp fall off his bicycle (yes, bicycle) it becomes real bleeding obvious, more bleeding obvious than the idiots dealing pot out of their car right on the curb in front of the apartment, or your boyfriend's car getting totalled by an addict leaving a two-person party, that it's time to leave...
But I couldn't help but to get hysterical the other day--"I've made a bad choice again!" I cried (literally.)
Making a choice about where I'm going to live is a big thing for me. It's one of those things, like getting married, that I never was all that good at.
And even though he was crying with me, Steady Eddie stopped for a moment and asked me, "but how do you feel about the new place in Easthampton? what do you think of it?"
"Well, I think it's a good place," I answered, "I think I can go out during the day, for walks and stuff, without being afraid of who and what I'll come in contact with...."
I worry about this a lot these days, esp. since I watched the sex offender announcements, and was appaled at the number that live within a five-block radius of my current apartment in Chicopee.
At first blush it doesn't look like a bad neighborhood...it's only when you've been here awhile, and all day, that you figure it out...
"I'm concerned though..."Steady Eddie said...
"well, what are you concerned about?"
"I'm concerned that you're in this apartment all day, that you can't go out, that there's no place for you to walk..."
"well, I'm concerned about those things too...why do you think I want to move?
"You think you can do that in this neighborhood?"
"Yes, I do..."
So we went to the store and picked out some paint. Bought all that stuff and started to change the colors in some of the rooms. The majority of the apartment is blue, and I *hate* blue.
The bedroom was something that was probably, at one time, called "mushroom" or something equally fungal
and, with the curved walls and single window made it look like a cave...
So, we started painting.
That night, we walked down to Nini's Italian Restaurant, and Steady Eddie got to see the great shops that are on my block--the needlecraft shop, and the bakery, and the record store, and contemporary furniture stores, and instrument store, and the instrument store/record studio that's two doors down and Mt. Tom's Homemade Ice Cream and candy store that's right below my apartment...
Two of my friends stopped over this afternoon to say hi and see what I was doing. One friend is dating the ice cream man, and he told her that we were upstairs painting (we took an ice cream break today), so they stopped up. The ice cream guy actually lives on the other side of the building...
This is a different place indeed...
it looked pretty awful, actually...it needs a lot of spruce-ing up...Steady Eddie didn't seem too happy with things, and I started to think that maybe I shouldn't leave the ultra-cheap apartment I have...
even though it's a place where, if there were mice, they'd be hunchbacked...
but I've had enough.
When you're hearing hookers fighting with their pimps outside your front window at 11:30 at night, and you watch the pimp fall off his bicycle (yes, bicycle) it becomes real bleeding obvious, more bleeding obvious than the idiots dealing pot out of their car right on the curb in front of the apartment, or your boyfriend's car getting totalled by an addict leaving a two-person party, that it's time to leave...
But I couldn't help but to get hysterical the other day--"I've made a bad choice again!" I cried (literally.)
Making a choice about where I'm going to live is a big thing for me. It's one of those things, like getting married, that I never was all that good at.
And even though he was crying with me, Steady Eddie stopped for a moment and asked me, "but how do you feel about the new place in Easthampton? what do you think of it?"
"Well, I think it's a good place," I answered, "I think I can go out during the day, for walks and stuff, without being afraid of who and what I'll come in contact with...."
I worry about this a lot these days, esp. since I watched the sex offender announcements, and was appaled at the number that live within a five-block radius of my current apartment in Chicopee.
At first blush it doesn't look like a bad neighborhood...it's only when you've been here awhile, and all day, that you figure it out...
"I'm concerned though..."Steady Eddie said...
"well, what are you concerned about?"
"I'm concerned that you're in this apartment all day, that you can't go out, that there's no place for you to walk..."
"well, I'm concerned about those things too...why do you think I want to move?
"You think you can do that in this neighborhood?"
"Yes, I do..."
So we went to the store and picked out some paint. Bought all that stuff and started to change the colors in some of the rooms. The majority of the apartment is blue, and I *hate* blue.
The bedroom was something that was probably, at one time, called "mushroom" or something equally fungal
and, with the curved walls and single window made it look like a cave...So, we started painting.
That night, we walked down to Nini's Italian Restaurant, and Steady Eddie got to see the great shops that are on my block--the needlecraft shop, and the bakery, and the record store, and contemporary furniture stores, and instrument store, and the instrument store/record studio that's two doors down and Mt. Tom's Homemade Ice Cream and candy store that's right below my apartment...
Two of my friends stopped over this afternoon to say hi and see what I was doing. One friend is dating the ice cream man, and he told her that we were upstairs painting (we took an ice cream break today), so they stopped up. The ice cream guy actually lives on the other side of the building...
This is a different place indeed...
posted by Tish Grier at 1:17 AM
3 Comments:
Apartment remorse is normal. They all make you feel like that when you walk into them and see them completely empty. Paint, cleaning and furniture will make you feel much better. I promise.
Hey girl,
The pictures of the new place look pretty decent! The paint really helped!!! Looks cute! And the shops close by sound fun. I think you're gonna be OK.
A safer area is so much better.
I've really been enjoying the whole painting thing--sore muscles and all. It's really giving me a sense of "nesting"--that I'm creating a place for the next phase of things.
I've been a bit worried, though, because I'm missing some great conferences this week, but I think the apartment is more important at the moment.
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