Living in Lexington

You know how things can start out seeming so great and then, somehow slowly, they're not? Such is the case for Lexington Apartments. When we first moved in six months ago, I was ecstatic (Michael, Jeremy and Sarah can vouch). It seemed so wonderful to me. Okay, given that it's only the second place that Michael and I have lived since we got married. The first was in Walla Walla, a small little sublet from Whitman College housing. I wish I had taken more pictures of the place because I don't think I'll be able to paint an accurate picture of how small our first home for two months was. You'd walk in and directly to your left was the bedroom with a slanted roof and entry way. I thought it was really kind of neat but Michael had to stoop every time he went in. The bathroom was right next to the kitchen and the door opened out so whenever someone came out they would bump someone else in the kitchen and the kitchen was so small that when the door was open, it blocked the entire entry way. Did I mention that doorknob on the bathroom was lower than normal so Michael would have to bend to open it? Again, totally accessible for me, not so great for him. He would joke and say the apartment was "Emma-sized" That's what happens when you married someone a foot apart in height from you ;)

And then there was our small living room and pantry/closet/place where the refrigerator was? Yeah, it was basically a room where the builders thought, "Oh dang, we forgot to put these things in, lets just stuff everything into one small room."

 Of course, at the time I never thought anything of it because I was just so excited to have my own place with my husband that was just ours. When we first moved here, I was so thrilled because even though to most everybody it would seem small, it seemed so BIG compared to our first place. I mean for goodness sake, Michael didn't have to bend down to open doors, we had a closet in our bedroom and we had a shower AND bathtub! (Not a big deal to most, but a luxury when you've gone without) And I would never trade Lexington to go back to our first place, but its just that...well, let me illustrate:

First of all, we have a very overly-sensitive smoke detector. Basically anytime you cook something in the oven, it goes off. Michael and I have become old-pros at getting it to turn off, its actually rather amusing, but I'm like, "Come on! The neighbors are going to think we burn everything we make!" I'm not that bad of a cook, (except for one time, but that's a story for another day ;])

Second, the only bathroom in our apartment is in our bedroom. Not a big deal, right? Convenient, right? Okay, maybe convenient for us but we are kind of like the 'Rexburg Rest Stop.' We have had so many people stay at our place which I LOVE because it's so much fun, but I feel like our apartment setup is such an inconvenience to them. Like if they need to use the bathroom they feel weird going in through our room especially if we are already going to sleep. So either we're getting woken up in the middle of the night or they are holding their pee for eight hours. (I hope no one actually did that...)

Oh, and then there's our neighbors.To be fair, I guess I can't actually blame that on Lexington because crazy people can live anywhere, right? Luckily we are on the end of the floor so we have the least amount of neighbors possible, but we still have them on one side and under us. First there's the ones on our side. They are (for lack of a better word) weird. Should I be generous and say 'good weird'? Maybe. Is there such a thing as being overly friendly? Like before we even know each other trying to be part of every aspect of our lives. You might think that I'm talking about the wife, but I'm talking about the husband. He will randomly pop by with some excuse and then invite himself to stay and do whatever we are doing. He says it always sounds like the party is at our apartment. To this day we still don't know his name.

But we'll take whats's-his-name over our downstairs neighbors. We have friends over quite a bit and one day out of the blue our on-site apartment manager popped by saying that she'd received a complaint call from our downstairs neighbors about us. Luckily, the manager was very nice about the whole situation(it is Rexburg, after all). However, I was so irritated! I mean, given, sometimes we can get loud when we're playing games, but to not even say a word to us before calling up the manager? So, against Michael's protests I marched on down to their apartment and confronted them about it. I said if they had a problem they should've come to us first. And instead of discussing the issue, they completely pansied out saying that they had no problem with us and we were totally fine. Which should make me happy, I guess, but I hate it when people are nice to your face but mean behind your back. They haven't complained about us since.

So, could I have a worse living situation? Very much so, yes. And I am extremely blessed to have the home that I have with my wonderful husband. I love having all these experiences that come with being a newlywed. Will I look back on this in 5 years and laugh? Definitely. In fact, I'm laughing right now :)