Living Situation

This morning as I was driving to work I started reminiscing about my old apartment. What spurred this sudden look back was the fact that my house seems a bit in shambles right now. Even though, in reality, my old place was always in shambles, for some reason I wanted the comfortable feeling of being in a well known "home". I've only been at my current apartment for 9 months. I lived at my old place for 5 years. There's not the history here yet nor the lived in feeling of putting down roots somewhere.

When I moved into my old apartment everything was new. I was fresh out of college and about to start my first real job. By contrast, necessity drove me to move to my new place (multiple break-ins, one in my own building, and too much stuff for only 900 square feet). Work was the same old same old though I was contemplating a change (last fall was when I first started thinking about leaving my teaching gig). Everything else about my life was pretty well established. I even had a fairly serious boyfriend at the time (long since gone).

After the move I had to jump right back into the teaching scene and, as is typical, there were things that have gone undone since then. The office is probably the worst off with clutter abounding in every corner, most noticeably in this pile of old crafting supplies and pictures and an unused storage unit:

There are also half unpacked boxes all over. Stashed between the couch and the chair:

Behind the "dead cat":

And more in the office closet (which is actually ok because it's out of sight, out of mind). The bedroom is little more than a bed with sheets on it and massive piles of laundry (the original plan was to buy new bedroom furniture this fall but with me leaving my steady job I don't think that's in the cards any more). But that's not to say that I don't love the new apartment. The size alone is a major seller. It's got the second bedroom/office (great for yarn storage) and second bathroom which is nice for when I have visitors (don't have to clean the master bath!). The kitchen is big enough for "three butts" and I actually have a dining area. And while I miss looking out my office window to see this:

I get to enjoy this:

Which I plan on using even more once I have a little time to actually relax for more than 10 minutes.

So, while I had a little reflection this morning I'm even more inspired to start turning this new apartment into a home: hanging curtains, unpacking boxes, painting a wall or two.