Ah, the many joys of apartment living...

We just moved into a really great apartment in a quiet neighborhood in a Portland suburb. While I am generally pretty much opposed to living in 'the 'burbs' , I liked this community and it puts us within 2 miles of my boyfriend's job. Of course, it's been a while since I lived in an apartment, and there were a few things I had forgotten about.

1.) Maintenance happens. Including the groundskeeping service mowing the lawn at 8am. And the sprinklers going off at midnight. And waiting a week to have anything fixed.

2.) Other people have small children. And different parenting styles than you do. The best way to deal with this is to hold your tongue when you see or hear something you don't agree with, even if you literally need to bite your tongue to prevent yourself from saying something you may regret later.

3.) The pool isn't just for you and your family. The entire community is entitled to its use, even when that means the other children are doing things you didn't want your children to ever see outside of a TV show that runs a disclaimer like this: "These stunts are performed by professionals. Do not attempt at home."

4.) Not everyone has the same taste in music as you do. There may be times when the downstairs neighbor and the neighbor on the north side are playing two different kinds of music and you hate them both. This is probably also the right time to remember that not everyone wants to hear you practice your trumpet. At 6am.

5.) If you can hear your neighbors next door having sex, they can hear you too. It's a natural part of living in a place where bedrooms share walls. If you don't look at them funny, they won't look at you funny. (It's worth noting here that I have never heard our next door neighbors on either side do anything at all, much less that.)

6.) If you have a party, the least you can do is inform your neighbors. If you have nice neighbors (like I do) and everybody gets along okay, go ahead and invite them.


That all being said, I really love living here. And I'm getting used to it pretty well, I think. I'm thinking we might have to invite the neighbors over once we finally get some furniture and get everything all settled. It's nice living in a community where on our first day here, the downstairs neighbors invited us to play volleyball and bingo with them. They're such nice people, and they aren't the only ones around here that are. They liked my blue hair, and I have a feeling that once I get good enough to actually play my guitar around other people, they may not mind that. As long as I'm polite and don't practice too early in the morning or too late at night.