a whirlwind move into my own apartment sans roommates!

So, I'm still itching and scratching to write about Honduras, and I assure you juicy details and deep insight are soon to come, but I will explain in this entry what is causing the hold up.

I finally moved out of J Street lofts and into my own place in midtown, and for the first time in my entire life, I have no roommates. I have no idea why I didn't do it sooner. Since leaving home at sixteen years of age, I had to budget, and count pennies to scrap by, so my frugal ways just didn't allow for me to pay for a luxury such as living in an apartment all to myself.

But no more. I decided enough is enough, I deserve to pay for liberty and freedom to come home to a place that is all mine and no one else's. I can now prance around in my underwear if I want, and if I have dirty dishes in the sink, I have no one else to blame but myself.

Before I go on and on about how great it is, I'll show you some before and after shots of my little nook. Here is the entrance of the building. It's Spanish-inspired and quaint.



Next, you walk up a flight of stairs and the studio is located on the second story. When you walk in, there is a fair-sized window facing you and a fairly big walk-in closet with french doors to your left. The closet is still not quite big enough to house my insanely huge wardrobe ( more on this later), but it is adequate.

 
 

The small but clean bathroom features a window, which is important to me because I like scalding hot showers and the steam can cause mold if I don't have a window to air it out, and a pedestal sink that adds a unique touch.

 
The kitchen is my favorite part because it has built in bookcases with glass doors. That is pretty much what closed the deal for me. The photo taken here was rushed so I failed to include the archway at the ceiling but that is also a small detail that I appreciate and like most about the kitchen.
 
 

So, I saw the ad on craigslist, and went to see the apartment, literally the night before I left for Honduras. The morning before taking off, I stopped by and submitted an application, the credit check fee, and a list of references. When I got back 13 days later, I had an apartment waiting for me. The day I got back into the country, I had a lease waiting to be signed and a set of keys.

I also had a full week of classes waiting for me, as well as work. Functioning on less than four hours of sleep each night, I plowed through work, classes, homework, packing, and moving the first week I returned to the country from an amazing backpacking trip through the villages and cloud forests of Honduras.

All weekend long with the help of my brother, my parents, and Paul, I managed to get my upright piano to my parents' house, pack all of my wordly belongings, and refused to sleep until every single box was unpacked and thrown into the recycle bins. Now I am all settled in, with most of my law school homework done and loving this new habitat that I've set up for myself. I am longing to catch up on sleep sometime soon, but I have a CASA crab feed and a boatload of more law school homework waiting for me so it is hard to tell when that opportunity will come next. But for now, I am really pleased that I was able to do this.

Go. Go. Go. The craziness just won't stop!

Here is my work in progress:

Ok, so the eliptical machine isn't very fung shui but so what? I use it on rainy days when I don't feel like getting soaked for a workout. 

Below is my closet in progress. The shoes displayed here is not even half of my collection and I haven't color-coordinated them yet. I have two more shoe racks coming. Stay tuned.

 
Actually, as I was organizing the clothes and shoes, I was ashamed of myself. I just got back from a country so poor that some children didn't have shoes on their feet, and here I am huffing and puffing about having too many clothes and shoes. Correction, I was huffing and puffing about not having a closet big enough to house my clothes and shoes. So ridiculous. So I had to take a few big garbage bags and start throwing things in. I had to let go of some of this materiality. Now I have a couple of big fat garbage bags full of designer clothes that still fit me, but don't fit into my closet or dresser. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but my intention is to donate them all to a good cause or a person who really needs it.

 



 
If you can't tell, I decided to take these pictures while in the middle of studying. I needed a break. So please excuse the mess and the beer bottle that is hiding my wonderfully colorful Honduran cloth that I used to decorate my kitchen table.

It's tiny and humble, but this place is my own, and I am satisfied and happy about this move.

Entry on Honduras is soon to follow.