An Ode to My Apartment

As we draw nearer and nearer to saying a final goodbye to our first apartment in Chicago I can't help but reminisce about  how adorable and fun this apartment was. As many a romantic novelist has said "There's no love like the first" (Nicholas Sparks). And I would like to amend that and say "There is no apartment like the first" (Emily Forest). I mean you never ever really forget that first crappy, cheap little apartment that you found and financed all by yourself. And regardless of how truly terrible it is you still feel a sense of pride when you think about how you found it and how you worked hard at your minimum wage job to afford it. Saying goodbye to your first adult apartment is one of those bitter sweet moments in life, inevitable and for the better.

So here is an ode to my terrible, crappy, and charming first apartment in the city.

Wasn't it fun for the first two weeks we lived here when there was no hot water to shower or to do the dishes? Nothing says "congratulations your an adult" like not having hot water.

That charming way the smoke alarm in the kitchen goes off when it's just too hot, no smoke needed. Nope sorry you can't turn on the oven or boil water on the stove, if its over 80° outside you don't want to wake the irrational smoke alarm. 

Wasn't it cute how the neighbors dog killed all the grass so the front yard consisted of mud in varying stages of puddle form. 

And how in the winter your vast cavernous rooms were impossible to keep warm, so I spent the series of polar vortexes wrapped in blankets and sweatshirts never venturing farther than a few feet from a space heater. 

And while we are on the subject of cold weather. Remember how the back door froze shut so we had to carry the trash all the way through the house and then risk our lives walking across the alley of ice to the trash cans. 

Remember when you thought it would be funny and cute to short circuit the ceiling fan and cause half the apartment to be without electricity for 3 days. There is nothing quite like peeing by battery-operated-LED-lamp light. 

How I will miss the repetitive and mind melting music of the ice cream truck, providing us with the soundtrack for our summer

Oh the adventures you took us on! 

And to you Mr. Raccoon living in the roof, I commend you for finding a rent free home for the cold cold chicago winter. 

Will I be sad to see our little apartment go? A little bit. Will my new apartment have "charming," "eccentric" and "vintage" characteristics that might drive me up a wall? Probably. 

But for right now all my energy is focused on being excited about moving to a nicer and closer apartment. 

Stoop Kids never leave the stoop!