Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A fond farewell

I've lived in my apartment for roughly five years longer than I was planning on staying when I first moved in. It was supposed to be a stop-gap -- and now, six years later, I am finally leaving.

I remember going to look at the apartment with my mom, and how blown away we were at the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. Of course, it was mid-May, so we had no clue about how cold it would be to sit near those same windows in the winter, or how stifling the apartment would get from the western exposure during the summer.

We also loved the giant walk-in closet in between the bedroom to the bathroom. At the time, my mother had no idea how bad my shopping habit was becoming -- and that it would eventually end in a closet calamity.

I moved into the apartment on July 27, 2002. I was pretty much completely moved-in within a week -- once the desk and bookcases got delivered -- because I got tired of tripping over boxes -- and let's be honest, apart from clothing, shoes, books, and CDs, I really don't have all that much stuff. And then I bought a little bit of furniture -- a coffee table, a kitchen table, and eventually, a new frame for the futon that serves as my sofa -- which were the first pieces of "grown-up" furniture that I owned. Somehow it all managed to fit in the neat little 750 square feet, although more often than not, I wished for more room -- a guest room, more closet space, a pantry.

In just over one week, I will be closing on the new condo -- which will have all of the things that I wanted, and then some -- HELLO, second bathroom, linen closet, and sunroom! And, in some weird synchronicity, it will be almost six years to the day since I moved into the apartment.

I will miss this apartment.

  • I will miss the fun times that I've spent here. (I will not miss the Midori stains in the carpet.)


  • I will miss my very short commute and easy access to the airport. (I will not miss walking through the mall every day, especially during the Christmas and Cherry Blossom seasons.)


  • I will miss having the Harris Teeter and Noodles & Company downstairs, and the DSW next door. (I will not miss how I could not possibly fit ONE MORE ITEM of clothing in the closet.)


  • I will miss the baseball players living down the hallway. (Too bad they play for the Nationals, but that's a whole other post. . . .)



4 comments:

Ryane said...

Dara, congratulations!

dara said...

Thanks -- although, to be clear, anything can happen between now and my closing date.

Paige Jennifer said...

I had the same experience, hunkering down for 7 years when I was only supposed to linger for two. And then, when I finally lost all patience for the leaky roof and when a mouse scurried across my living room before ducking behind my oven, I bought a condo. It was scary and exciting all at the same time. Congrats on the big leap, one I swore I'd never do again solo (which, based on current prospects, means I'm never moving).

dara said...

I'm not really scared about it -- I mostly wonder why it took me so long to do it. I mean, I've been saying that I need to move since I started this blog in Feb. '06 -- actually in one of my first substantive posts -- and to my friends for years before that.

And actually, it's not true that I'm not scared. I'm generally scared that this is going to be a very expensive bad decision. But I feel that way about just about everything I do, so it is correct to say that I'm no more scared than usual.