living by myself

I have been living in my apartment in St. Pete's for about three weeks. On the 10th of November it'll be one month since my lease began. However, I only started sleeping here on the 16th because that was the day my bed was delivered, so I've been staying here overnight only about 11 days. and since then I've spent at least 3 nights staying over at someone else's house due to very late baseball games. In some sense I already feel like I've lived here a long time, but sometimes at night I feel like I'm sleeping somewhere unfamiliar. I have never lived alone before now; I have always had a roomate since I left for college, or I lived with a family. I feel very safe living here, because I'm on the second floor and have two locks for my door - no need for an alarm anymore.

In the evening I don't feel isolated because the tennis courts, which are half a block from my apartment, are lit up so that a few players can hit around. It's so close I can hear the sound of the tennis ball hitting the rackets and the murmur of players or spectators talking to each other. I can't make out their words, but I can hear their voices. I can sit at my living room windows and watch the tennis game. It's kind of nice to have them out there to keep me company.

I love my new place... the hardwood floors, the wide molding around windows and doors, the fussy old crank out windows, the breeze off the bay that flows through my windows. It's still a work in progress; I have a stack of about 25 cardboard boxes waiting to be picked up tomorrow morning by someone from freecycle. It's funny how progress in setting up my apartment is so linear. First get all the stuff out of the boxes... then get all the boxes off of couch #1 by posting boxes on freecycle. have a couple of offers that never work out so post boxes on freecycle a second time and hope this person shows. once the boxes are gone, then reattach the feet on coach #1 so that it can be listed on craig's list. list couch on craig's list so that the tv stand can be moved into the corner. once the tv stand is in the corner, then another bookcase can join the household. once another bookcase is here, then there'll be space for a writing desk.

I only like buying things that I know I need... that I know will fit some corner or shelf or purpose in my apartment. I like buying slowly, gradually, sequentially, so that I can be sure that each purchase is necessary and fitting. Well, that's how I operate most of the time. Other days I throw caution to the wind and end up at the store with no particular purchase in mind and get whatever jumps off the shelf as something I would possibly have put on a list, if I had made a list beforehand. I especially like the Dollar Store or Big Lots for these kinds of shopping trips... because you know you're almost always getting a good deal. I really like browsing by myself. sometimes I like it browsing better than buying, because you can just let your imagination go instead of thinking about whether or not it'll really work or whether it costs too much or whether there is anything else better out there. Today I browsed at Target and ended up with a new floor lamp for the youth room at church and some frozen dinners for dinner. Now I'm home and night has fallen, but those tennis players are just getting warmed up.