The Old Apartment

I'm listening to this song by the Barenaked Ladies and thinking about all of the domiciles that I have called mine, for any period of time. Let's take that trip down memory lane, shall we?

1987-2002: The house on Lake Village Blvd. What a great house. Blue with white columns, the hedges in the back that we used to run through and pretend we were winning the marathon. The finished attic with the staircase and the patched hole in the garage ceiling where my dad put his foot through. So many memories in that house - birthday parties, dinners with boyfriends meeting the folks, Miss Jean telling the boys to just put one more piece in the puzzle - what a shrewd one she was - and then inviting half the neighborhood in for sweet tea. Breakups, confrontations, and infinite mischief. That's the house that will always be home.

1995-1997: Lived in the girls' dorm at LSMSA. Caddo was not what one would call the dream experience. I had a series of roommates starting with Randee who wore sequined thong underwear and hung it everywhere around the room, Ginger who would go through my drawers and hand over my journal to the ex-girlfriend of my boyfriend, Joni the cowgirl who was ultra cool but then went home, and finally, Amy the neurotic overachiever who was so pissed that I got the same score on the ACT as she did. Not a terrible two years, only got suspended once (in-house suspension and yes, the Icee was totally worth it) and managed to escape relatively unscathed.

1997-98: Elam Arms dorm at USM. Co-ed honors dorm with a pool in the middle that everyone was afraid to swim in. Cafeteria downstairs with fried chicken on Fridays and a television that always seemed to be playing 'A Baby Story' on TLC. Frightening. Lived with Catherine, the sweet girl from the BSU who played old skool Nintendo and listened to Steve Miller Band, the only real downside of this relationship was coming home from late rehearsals and finding large study groups on my bed. Security in the building was lax, spent many hours watching pointless television and learning to play Mortal Kombat in Alex's room on the boys' side of the building.

Summer 1998: Prudhomme Hall at ADVANCE. Lived with Sheralyn (by the way Sher, the pictures are gorgeous!), possibly the nicest girl I have ever known, who put up with my shenannigans. And all I could think about was, "During the year, this dorm is filled with 150+ teenage boys. Should I carry Lysol with me everywhere? Am I going to get the plague from this doorknob?"

1998-99: Mississippi Hall at USM. All girls dorm, three-room suites with separate entrances and a common room. I remember very fondly living at the front of the building so people could knock on my window from the front porch. Lived with Stephanie, a senior photojournalist whose boyfriend lived off campus. Ostensibly lived alone for the first half of the year. Stephanie moved out, and Selena moved in. Selena was the college roommate I never knew I always wanted. She was messy, she wore my clothes, she brought home chinese food at 2am, and she might have been the best roommate ever. We actually named the invisible monster under her bed (Herman) and while we never saw him, it was pretty obvious that something was living under all that crap. Selena drove the "Flaming Honda" which featured prominently into our late-night drives that involved getting vanilla cokes from Sonic and singing very loudly with the radio. The only person I've ever lived with where the mess really didn't matter to me at all.

1999-2000: Margaret Newman dorm at University of Victoria (BC). A spacious room that I shared with a girl named Ung. I think I saw her four times. Hall bathrooms, next door neighbor named Jess who was fabulous. Boys floor was downstairs, much to my chagrin. Had the unfortunate experience of witnessing my downstairs neighbors' saturday morning "festivity" on my way to breakfast. For crying out loud, just shut the door! No one wants to see your hiney in the air, especially before they've had any coffee!

2000-01: Mississippi Hall at USM, again. Ended up with an invisible roommate again, never actually saw her face. She left me a note on day 1 that said, "have to keep an on-campus address, if you need to get in touch with me, here's my phone number." Shared the 3-room suite with officers of the BSU who frequently left reading material in the loo that I'm pretty sure was directed toward me. I think it was because I kept beer in my fridge. Catherine from freshman year was in the third room, oddly enough. Still didn't approve of the boyfriends, still wouldn't say anything, just throw disapproving looks. I remember pulling my boyfriend into the room, slamming the door and turning on Carmina Burana really loudly while we ate dinner, just so I could relish the shocked looks we would get when we emerged. In retrospect, I'm sure they thought they were trying to save me from myself, but it was just too much fun to let them think I was up to no good.

2001-02: James Owen Court on Sidwell Street, University of Exeter. One very small room with a very small bed, desk, and bathroom. The kind of bathroom where you have to shut the door in order to open the shower door, and you have to shut the shower door and the bathroom door in order to get to the toilet. And it took me three days to figure out that I had to turn on the water heater. Claustrophobic but charming. Shared this flat with seven other people: three women from China, two guys from Turkey, a girl from Libya and one other American. The kitchen was a hodgepodge of Chinese cooking, Turkish coffee, and whatever we got from the take-aways across the street. My MA in Musicology was made possible by Paradise Tandoori's Butter Chicken recipe.

2002: First real apartment in Hattiesburg. Oh Foxgate. How I loved my little one-bedroom apartment. No real furniture to speak of, just me and my bed and my piano. A false fireplace and no noisy neighbors and a little patio where I would sit and read. It was a short-lived affair, I hate to say. Broke the lease early to move in with best friend at the time, who ausgeflipped shortly thereafter. In my heart, I still pine for Foxgate.

2003: Duplex on Hunter Lane in Hattiesburg. Possibly the best apartment ever. Middle of nowhere, cows and horses out back, lots of space for the dog to run, and a front porch on which I could put my porch swing. Lived at Hunter Lane for nine months of bliss. Ceiling fans and walk-in closets and a kitchen big enough for ballroom dancing. Not to mention the company of my fellow grad students right across the street. Never a dull moment, not when there's a West Wing marathon on Memorial Day and there are two crock pots between two houses. Minor snafu involving two mice, two women who were too afraid to use inhumane traps, and the Baptist church down the road. Sometimes it's best to just ignore the mice and go about your life.

Summer of 2004: Lived for two months with the Roberts women. It was sort of like a neverending girl movie. Lots of toenail painting, hair fanging, late-night movie watching, and plenty of good old fashioned Southern cooking. Can we say fried okra?

I miss bunking with the girls, my little sisters Marge and Katie, and the houseful of dogs with Penny and Sam chasing each other around the deck. But since then, it's been life with boyfriend/fiancee/now husband and the dog. We're looking at a new apartment tonight and I'm not sure what to think. It's waaaay less expensive than where we live right now, but it's not close to husband's work, and there is no T stop nearby, just commuter rail, so our transportation options would be limited. But to save $350 a month, off the bat, just by moving across town? Who knows....we'll see what transpires tonight when we see the place.

I hate moving almost as much as I hate people who sing flat. But sometimes, you just have to deal. Let's hope this is an easy 'yes or no' decision and we can go on with our lives. In the meantime, a big yell of victory over to Ace and his fantastic parents. He'll be camping and hiking (but he'll be doing it with someone other than Stacey and myself) but most of all, he'll be sleeping at home with his momma and daddy in no time flat!