My 1st Apartment (Pt 1)

As soon as I was graduated from high school the very next thing I wanted to do was move out!

I had discovered catalog sales through the company Fingerhut and I bought a dishes set.

It sat in my room collecting dust for a whole year as I worked and saved up.

I ran away once and I spent the night of my 18^th birthday at my boy friends house but that is not what I told my parents. I needed to be out on my own.

A semi new coworker of mine was grown but stuck living at home too. She was coming off a failed roommate situation or maybe a break up.

Together and separately we combed segments of the city for new places to live. She was deeply opposed to the idea of the two of us getting a place together. 

I wanted space and she wanted amenities. We settled into two very different locations. She lived in an apartment complex that has a flowing duck pond that winds through the walk ways between the units.

I had an older one bedroom and she was paying double my rent for a newer swankier studio.

The complex also has and had a workout room and video rental program. Things I had not even imagined considering I moved out not even having a television.

I had only my bedroom furniture so part of it lived in my living area and the other half in the bedroom.

I was so young and a tad naïve. I grew up feeling middle class. I had all of my needs and many of my wants. My parents had always worked. I am a military BRAT which means they both served during my childhood. 

My mother got out after my younger brother was born but eventually ran a day care in our home. When my brother went to school she volunteered so much there that the principal hired her. 

At the interview like meeting with my first landlord the woman asked me “Do you have a job?” I could not even fathom apartment hunting without one.

The landlord was trying to improve the neighborhood by renting to more people like myself. 

My apartment was up stairs and over looked the pool. I worked graves and I do recall at least one time where the co worker came over to swim in it and I slept either poolside or upstairs in my unit.

A friend of my moms was giving away a kitchen table with a glass inlay.

I had never encountered anything like that. I thought it had a glass top and the whole thing was more secured. (They should have warned me or taped it.)

Can you guess what happened? To get it up the stairs me and whoever was helping me turned it on its side and…the glass fell to the ground shattering.

Along with the table came the chairs so at least I had those.

I realized after I moved in that I really wanted a dishwasher.

To be continued...