The New Place Post

So I’m here in my new apartment. The weekend has been kinda crazy getting everything up and running, and heading out to buy this-and-that to make this place livable. I’m pretty much there, and with the exception of there being nothing at all in the living room besides a router and fan, the place is coming together. 1^st major gripe: No warm water. I’ve had two unpleasantly frozen showers this weekend, and I don’t look forward to getting up for work tomorrow in fear of the third. Maintenance isn’t available during the weekend, so tomorrow I’ll have to raise some hell to get noticed. Bedsides that the place is in good nick; no screen door onto the balcony (everyone else has them), and some paint bubbles here and there, but all-in-all; pretty nice.

The whole apartment complex is pretty cool, and on a higher caliber than I’d expect for the price. Turns out the reason for that is that I’m less than a block away from one of Orlando’s many rough areas. Driving back the other day with my mattress was pretty scary, being that I didn’t want it flying off the roof of my car, I took non-highway roads on my way back, which unfortunately resulted in slow driving through undesirable territory. I saw lots of homeless people, was asked for change at pretty much every stop-light (who asks a guy with a bed on his roof for money?), and saw my first Orlando-hookers. This coming back from talking to the mattress salesman about where I was heading (for his take on the best way to get back without hitting the highway), and being told that he was mugged along the street he was sending me down. I think I’ve figured out the nasty parts and the best way to avoid them though, for the most part I feel pretty safe here in the apartment though.

Got pretty homesick for a while, one wave of many I’m sure. It’s a big change for me, and while I think I’m dealing with it all pretty well, I occasionally get hit with a substantial longing for familiar territory and being around family and friends.