Slice of Life - First Apartment

Welcome to Slice of Life Sunday -
a meme dedicated to preserving the accounts of events cut out of the lives of average people just like you from all over the word.

Wikipedia defines a slice of life story as “a category for a story that portrays a “cut-out” sequence of events in a character’s life.” It has also been defined as an “episode of actual experience represented realistically and with little alteration in a dramatic, fictional, or journalistic work.” (cp. Answers.com).

This week's theme: Your first apartment.

"Uh, yeah, Diane. Kathy is moving out in November, and we were wondering if you knew anyone who would like to rent the flat."

The flat in question was the lower unit of a bungalow-style duplex, two bedrooms, eat-in kitchen, formal dining room and fairly large living room. What's more, the unit had honey oak crown moldings, built in bookcases dividing the living and dining rooms and a built-in china cabinet. Both the bookcases and the china cabinet had the original leaded glass doors.

I knew so much about the flat because I'd seen it; the landlords were friends of mine, and had introduced me to their tenant, Kathy, as she and I had a number of things in common. We had dinner a few times, including one at the flat. She had mentioned she was considering moving up north to be closer to family.

Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. Kathy willingly sold me most of the existing window treatments, her kitchen table and the mammoth washer and dryer in the basement. I moved in with little more...a bedroom set, an old desk, a steamer trunk, a small tv and a set of plastic shelves. The small set of dishes, bath towels and cooking implements from college came out of storage.

I moved in three days before Christmas, managing to scrounge a small artificial Christmas tree to put up. The sum total of its decoration was a long string of lights, a few ornaments that had been family gifts and a sheet wound around the stand. But it was my first solo tree.

It's been seventeen years now, and I'm still here, albeit with considerably more furniture and a bigger Christmas tree. The rent is still more than reasonable, the utilities predictable and the neighborhood decent. While I'm contemplating a condo purchase, I'm taking a long time to consider it - it will be hard to leave this place.