Victory Soap v. 2.0

I was able to get a look at the new place today. I can't wait to move in. Why is it still only Wednesday? Stupid linear time!

Anyway, since I am too scatterbrained to write about anything of substance, I'll tell you about the new place. It is much smaller than my current apartment. However, despite the size of the place I live in now -- 800 square feet -- and the big dining room/living room combo, I always feel somewhat closed in, and often claustrophobic, here. The fact that there is only one window opening onto the living room from the patio, and one window in the bedroom have a lot to do with it. I usually keep the windows closed for privacy -- and also the bedroom window is right above the HVAC system for the four apartments on my side, which is a thrilling view, and also they are ancient machines that make a racket. And the view out of both windows, of the scabby grass and the brick wall of the apartment building across from me -- is not exactly preposessing.

The new apartment has windows only along one side too, but there are a lot of windows -- three long ones in the living room taking up most of one wall, and the sliding glass door in the bedroom that opens onto the balcony, and the side door that opens onto the balcony from the living room is also glassed in. So despite the fact that the place I'm moving into is shaded by huge old oaks, I still get a lot of light. Also I'm on the second floor instead of the ground floor, so I get lots of air, and a view. I don't look directly onto the playground that I noticed when I went there on Saturday.

As for trees: the annoying behavior and ideas of contemporary environuts aside, I am one of them when it comes to trees. I need trees about me, the more the better. One reason is the sun in Florida is punishing; another is probably due to my growing up in an old Miami house shaded by a gigantic tree known as a pongam. Apparently they don't usually grow that big, but this one was a giant of its size. It covered the entire front yard, and had a trunk as thick as a full-grown elephant. I haven't seen any pongams in Orlando -- I don't think they do well this far north. But I've always preferred the tree, and the forest is even better. This apartment is for all practical purposes in a wood.

Despite the woodland setting, it is quite close to several major intersections, so I'll also get the traffic noises I also remember from my childhood (my neighborhood was in old Miami, which is heavily urbanized). But I'll still be sheltered, as the complex is back from the busy main streets. I think I've already pointed out that I am now on two bus lines, one a very convenient one that not only gets me to work in ten minutes but has a much better route when it comes to job searching.

Back to the apartment. They put in a new carpet -- a nice light brown berber-type one, not the ghastly cream-colored thing they had in the model. (I had one of those in an apartment I lived in a few years ago, you can't keep them clean for anything.) The manager was with me and the coworker who brought me during lunch hour, so we got to point out some dings they still need to fix, and she noticed some on her own. They were still cleaning up -- they had the stove out and were cleaning behind it. Unlike my current place, which is better for a couple just starting out, who don't really like to cook (the cramped, narrow galley kitchen isn't exactly welcoming), but do like to give parties (that big dining room that I never ended up using), the new place is a true single person's apartment. It's ideally situated, and sized, for someone who lives alone. When I moved into the place I'm in now I thought I'd throw dinner parties and such, but that never happened -- my friends are all too busy and scattered to be able to gather all together at the same time, and I'm not all that sociable anyway. I spend most of the time on the computer, not at the stove cooking up elaborate meals for six. The balcony is private, not the open patio that I now share with my neighbor. And of course there is the closet for the stacked washer and dryer (I will call the rental company as soon as I get the keys -- I can't wait to be able to do my washing in the comfort of my own apartment). The bathroom opens off the bedroom -- and it's bigger than the one I have now, and has a real tile shower not the plastic inset thing that all the other places I've lived in had. Also, it has a linen closet, so I can actually keep my towels and things in the bathroom.

Well, by this time day after tomorrow (if the dsl is set up properly) I'll be writing from my new place. Or maybe I'll be collapsed in a coma -- the second person who was going to help me had to call it off, so I am down to one coworker (fortunately, the one with the truck). That's all I can think of for now -- I've already figured out where I want my furniture. Time to give the old cat her medicine. Later...