06.20.06 - 2:01 am

saddleback apartments.
500 sq foot 1 bedroom apartment. dishwasher. garbage disposal. walk in closet. second story. swimming pool. close to shopping.
$514 a month. water sewer garbage paid.
january 2001 to august 2001.

kings landing apartments.
unknown sq footage 2 bedroom apartment. no dishwasher. no garbage disposal. decent closet space per room. ground level. close to shopping. swimming pool.
$500 a month. water sewer garbage paid. 74 channels extended basic cable.
july 2006 to july 2007.

some five years later i am beside myself with excitement for living on my own again. with two bedrooms this time instead of just one. im not looking forward to the amount of money ill be paying, but if ive done it before on $7.30 an hour, ill do just fine on $10.30 an hour. ashton will have his own room, well, i think his own fish room. ill have two jobs. and eventually, hopefully health insurance for both of us. ill be close to my jobs, within bike riding distance to one of them, and to getting groceries. ill have my upgraded dream fish tanks up and running, hopefully without them causing eviction. being small and specific, i wont have any room for much additions, thus they wont be so goddamn costly, unlike the never ending real estate sponge the 120 gallon was.
according to dan, the kings landing was where he successfully touchdowned thousands of women. i cant say ill share his same success, but perhaps i will garner a taste or two.
my father has offered to furnish the new abode, perhaps even with a television. at this point however, id rather live sans furniture and have enough money to afford the $200 nonrefundable deposit and the $300 refundable deposit.
freshly painted walls. clean carpets. two doors into my new residence. a large living room. excellent kitchen. mediocre bathroom with shower.

ill get to buy my own shower curtain. my own dish scrubber. ill have to take my garbage out to a dumpster again. pick up my mail at a community mail box. do my laundry with coins. live next to sirham the indian from india and the pepsi machine right outside my door. i do look forward to what sort of experiences ill have there.
however, i am depressed remembering, some five years ago, under similar circumstances what i once enjoyed:

every morning i opened my door it was already 82 degrees and sunny. the hot tub late at three in the morning, and those random nameless girls i swam with and joined in their apartment. jose or jesus my neighbor, the man who offered me "coca" and tequila shots and corona at any given moment. the man who said my accent was great for an american. the man who made me feel terribly awkward, but now whose company i would enjoy. the bizarre woman below who knew all the gossip of the entire complex and wouldnt hesitate to tell me. then, having those two girls to come home to: shasta bates and kim....kim who i should have had sex with. thoroughly enjoying dru and kelly and emily and theo, well not theo, coming over to my house every day, late at night to hang out and get away from their parents. chasing that goddamn cat all the fucking time. my turtles always loose somewhere. my piranhas on my computer desk, my cichlids in the kitchen and my rattlesnake in my bedroom. i had a tv, what happpened to it?
remember when christina sent me a whole osu info packet? and julia helped me get in? remember that fucking cat curling up with the turtles? what about that goddamn dog that used to shit everywhere except in its litter box? remember laughing so hard during "heavy weights" that a security guard had to tell us to be quiet? or sitting outside your door during thunderstorms, pretending to pick your banjo? ha, your silly dial up connection and downloading songs at 3.2 kb/s. how did you ever afford that place, and food, and bills, and still fish and such on occasion?

if you did it then, you can do it now.

....so? youll be fine.