The joys of apartment living

The last few weeks have been a bit of a strain for not only myself, but for Dan as well. While waiting for our flight from Denver back to Philadelphia after Christmas, we got the call that there was no more work for me and I basically needed to pack my crap and go back to Colorado. Not only was I not happy about the prospect of not having a job and income anymore, I was equally unthrilled with the prospect of the torturous drive from northeastern Pennsylvania back to Denver. Have you ever driven through Kansas? Booor-rring! So I made arrangements to stay with some good friends (bless them) and arrived after 3 days of endless gas stations and signs for the World's Largest Prairie Dog. (I so wanted to stop and see but was too tired of staring at the same flat landscape to prolong my journey anymore.)

I've been back about a month and am having a hard time finding employment. This is not the best time to be looking for a job, needless to say. While the original plan was for me to find a good job and Dan would be joining me soon thereafter, we all know plans change. The economy wasn't good to his job either and he was out in Denver a couple weeks after me. We stayed with another good friend of ours and while we were beyond thankful for the gesture, we were dying to get into a space of our own. Living in motel rooms for the last 7 months (longer for him) makes you a little wacko at the possibility of having a HOME of your own that doesn't have someone knocking on your door every morning yelling, "Housekeeping!"

So I found a nice apartment complex for us: decent neighborhood, accepted pets (I finally get Finley back!), very affordable and in-unit washer and dryer! This was especially thrilling for me as I'd been doing my laundry in coin-operated junk for several months so this was going to be a serious luxury.

The apartment people made a minor error (actually pretty big and seriously annoying) in our living arrangements. I was originally slated to move into our 2 bedroom spread the last weekend in January. 2 days before move-in, they call with the words no one wants to hear, "we have a problem." The current tenant was staying an extra 3 weeks which no place for Mandy and her belongings to live. They offered the solutions of a temporary 1-bedroom til ours was ready or their biggest 2 bedroom unit for an additional $200 a month. No thanks. We decided to go with temporary housing so that we could at least stop couch surfing and have our own space.

While we haven't really unpacked anything, it is nice to be somewhat domestic again. The apartment complex is pretty quiet and our apartment is treating us well. Except for one thing: the neighbor above us. It was bound to happen. Irritating neighbors and apartments go hand in hand. But this one takes the cake.

While doing the move-in checklist the office gave me, I noticed some large stains on the concrete patio. I noted them and moved on, not thinking much of it. That night, I hear someone doing the Mattress Mambo above me and I'm certainly not happy about it as I had to deal with a previous neighbor's "activities" in the past and was hoping this wasn't a repeat. Finally falling back to sleep, I'm awakened by the sound of neighbor's dog walking on the balcony above the window. I sleep with the window open because I like a slightly arctic temperature to sleep and the city sounds don't bother me. Soon, I hear what sounds suspiciously like doggy neighbor peeing on the balcony...onto my patio below. Awesome. Just what I want to hear. Over the next couple days, I hear this a few more times and also notice pieces of 'doo on the patio as well. Guess where they came from? It now smells like a stock yard on the patio. Being a fellow dog owner, I'm fastidious about cleaning up after my dog wherever she goes because I do not like to step in a steaming pile someone left behind because they were too lazy to pick it up. That's a huge pet peeve of mine: you own a dog, you clean up after it...period.

While we'll only be in this apartment for another couple weeks, it wasn't a huge deal for us but I made sure the office knew that the stains and piles were not from us but from the lazy reject above us. No way am I going to clean up that mess. Needless to say, they were not happy and said they'd take care of it. But wouldn't you know, I'm now seeing lazy reject neighbor take his dog outside on a leash! Not trying to stereotype, but he (and his equally sketchy-looking dog) looks like the type who thinks it's cool to let Fido crap onto his neighbors below. Taking your dog outside to go to the bathroom: what a novel idea!

Posted by Mandy at 10:59 PM