Love thy neighbor. Ha!

Can I just say that I am tired of living in an apartment?

When we first moved in, things were great. The apartment below us was empty. The one across from us had a couple with a baby and a cool dog. They smoked but they properly disposed of their cigarettes. The other downstairs apartment had a couple in their late fifties and the guy's mom. They were all very nice. After about a month, though, these two college-aged guys moved in downstairs. We rarely saw them but we had a lot of trouble with them at first. They were extremely loud. One morning they played loud music from two in the morning til about five. They hung things on their walls (using a hammer) in the middle of the night. It was super annoying. But after several complaint letters they finally took the hint and settled down.

Then the older couple moved out. That apartment stayed empty for a while, until "army girl", as I call her, moved in. Army girl is not very old- maybe my age, maybe a little younger. She is married. I know this because she has about seventeen bumper stickers on her mini van saying that she is an army wife. She and her husband have a baby. For some reason, when army girl moved in, she decided to park in our half of the parking lot, rather than in the spaces right in front of her own home. Many times she had as many as four additional cars parked in our small lot (which is so obviously against the rules). She smokes, as do all the other adults who visit her apartment. They would leave cigarette butts on the ground outside their door. Then this escalated to leaving plastic drinking cups full of brown liquid and cigarette butts at the bottom of our stairs. Seriously, the fact that she smokes is gross enough (who smokes anymore?) but leaving brown cups full of crap in the stairwell? Where other people live? It was ridiculous. She still does it sometimes, but not as often as she used to.

We did get a new neighbor directly beneath our apartment, and she's all right. She has a weird name but she's friendly.

Then there's the apartment across from ours, on the second floor. The nice family that lived there moved out about a month ago and the apartment was shown several times before this new mystery family moved in. I have never actually seen anyone who lives there but they are always going up and down the stairs. They have several cars. We think they have more than they are allowed. Last night when Brandon came home, he couldn't even park in our parking lot. I have no idea where he parked. I also think these newest neighbors are perpetually drunk because the female of the group is always giggling and talking loudly as she stumbles up the steps.

In short, I am tired of apartment life. It was all right for the first year, but I am so ready to have a house. I am ready to have a yard and to decorate. I am ready to get a dog. I look forward to the day when I can take my groceries home without having to walk up a flight of stairs. I also look forward to having my own driveway, and not grumbling when someone is parked in my spot. I don't think I liked having neighbors so close to me. Maybe next year we will be living in a house instead of the apartment. And before I jinx myself, I mean living in our own house, rather than losing our jobs and having to move back in with our parents or something.