I've lived in Columbia since August of 2001. I won't leave until May of 2010. That's a long time. And in that time (up to now at least) I have moved into seven places and out of six. Baring any terrible event, I don't plan on moving again until I graduate. (That May of 2010.) I was thinking back last night on the places that I have lived and the pros/cons of them.
1-Schurz Hall-MU campus-Room 210-August 2001-May 2002-I shared a 10'x10' (or was it 12'x12'?) room with a small girl from Canada. Things went well for the most part. I think the most annoying part was that most of the time we also shared the room with her very large black boyfriend, Scorpio. He was there alot for going to school three hours away.
2-Schurz Hall-MU campus-Room 220-August 2002-May 2003-I shared this small space with Martha. I think/know that a lot more yelling went on in this room but there was no black boyfriend to deal with at least. Martha and I were good friends and I think having her as a roommate at one point was great.
3-Holiday House-109 N. Stadium, Apartment 38-August 2003-August 2004-I lived in this apartment with Bizzaro Leslie. Despite being older, the apartment itself was nice. The pool was nice. The halls however always smelled terrible and often had loose children running through them. Children that were under three years old and locked out of their own apartments and would take the chance of going through an unlocked door if available. This place had a ghetto bus that took me into school and was close enough to walk to Hy-Vee even though I drove. This is where I learned that I didn't like having a roommate. The water was always being shut off for one reason or another. Our mail was stolen once. And I was yelled at by our crazy downstairs neighbor, Terry (who I still occasionally see and am terrified of) at 6am one day because my roommate was using the 'exercise machine'. Even though someone was stabbed (to death I think) in the parking lot, it still made a good starter apartment.
4-401 S. College Apartment B-August 2004-August 2005-I lived alone in a studio in an old white house that had been converted into apartments. Upstairs were three guys, next door was a creepy drunk that was deaf and kept odd hours and had OCD tendencies and downstairs was a girl that one night I ran into in the dark in the back yard. I literally wet myself. My studio was always cold but had huge bills! I had a cool front and back door. The back door I had to break into once when I locked my keys in the apartment. There was a closet under the stairs (that went up to the upstairs apartment) in which I could hide if there was a tornado. There was a porch. Misti and Greg were the coolest landlords and helped me out to find another one of their places when I was dumb and didn't resign the lease for this one. I didn't know what was going on. I would later see the downstairs apartment in my quest to find Joe a place. Stars aligned that day and the guy downstairs had lived previously upstairs and then in the 5 place after me too. And he liked Tom Waits. I forget the reason Joe didn't take the place.
5-2400 S. Providence Apartment B-August 2005-August 2006-After foolishly not resigning my lease, Greg and Misti put me up in one side of a duplex. It sat nestled in the woods and no one knew where it was. It was hot in the summer (because I was afraid of the AC unit in the wall) and very cold in the winter. This is where the den of warmth was invented. Occasionally, the kitchen light would fall down. I had a yard and deer frequently visited and scared me. My neighbor wasn't often home but was always pregnant. Unlike the studio, which was cool-y decorated, I didn't really bother to hang much of anything up here as this was supposed to be temporary...which became a year. Frei decorated my front porch one morning for my birthday while I was milking and the gas man came by later to turn back on the gas (a problem that wasn't all that rare) and said it was his birthday too. One 4th of July, I found a dead cat in the driveway.
6-Providence Hill Apartments-2305 S.Providence Apartment J-August 2006-August 2008-This was supposed to be my home for the entirity of vet school. I could have my dog. I had vaulted ceilings and all the AC/heat I could handle. I had a washer/dryer. It was nice even after Riley ate holes in the walls and Roosevelt destroyed the carpet. I think that its a close tie between this place and the studio of which I liked better. This was the only place that I had lived at longer than a year.
7-Providence Hill Apartments-2319 S. Providence Apartment B-August 2008-present-Something must of charmed me about moving in with Joe because here I am. Living across the parking lot from my old place has its advantages. Sharing rent makes it cheaper. I have a covered parking space. I have internet. Still have cable. Still have all of the AC/heat I can handle. The washer and dryer are here but if the washer decides to spin is another story. There are no holes in the walls-giant scratch marks yes. Ruined carpet, yes. I do however have some rather rude neighbors that never know where their parking spot is. Joe and I are always plotting revenge on them for that and for the loud parties/music. I think we plan on staying here until I graduate. Mostly because Joe hates moving.
[EDIT-originally published to Blogger-12/24/11]
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