Welcome to Wednesday. We’re halfway to the weekend!
Like many of you, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my house. I live alone, which I used to really value when I saw people more often, but now it’s pretty lonely. I’m realizing that a lot of things I like about my apartment, I actually like about what’s outside it—the neighborhood, my proximity to my friends—and when I’m stuck with the apartment itself instead of what it helps me do, there’s lots of things that drive me pretty crazy.
My apartment is small (it’s 15 feet from the couch in one room to the bed in the other, which I measured while entertaining the somewhat insane idea of trying to run a 5k indoors), but that usually doesn’t bug me, since I often say I can only be in one room at a time anyway. The kitchen is barely a kitchen, which has always disappointed me, but I can make do by dragging my little Ikea end tables over for extra prep space while I cook. The toilet often breaks, and sometimes the ceiling leaks, and sometimes those horrible giant roaches wander in and scare the shit out of me. A friend once called my apartment a “shithole,” and while I don’t think that’s true, there’s no denying it could be better, especially now that I have a lot of time to dissect its flaws.
But! I live alone, which is pretty unheard of in New York (it involved some connections, as well as having to live above a noisy bar). Sometimes I just reorganize my fridge while delighting in the fact that I don’t have to share it with roommates. I have a fire escape to hang out on, and a tub big enough to take baths in. Even though I’d do unspeakable things for one more closet or some actual counter space, I can do everything I like to do inside my house while only feeling a little cramped. It’s a good place, and I’m grateful to have it, and to have a home at all these days, even if I have to deal with the occasional ceiling roach.
How’s the place you’re holing up? What bugs you about it? What do you love? How’s it going?