The walls are the color of post-it notes

i moved in to the new place on saturday. again it's on NW 21st & Lovejoy in the Nob Hill neighborhood of portland. I have a starbucks and a vintage store next door. across the street is an indian restaurant (which incidentally is delicious and could prove to be detrimental to my wallet). catty corner is a chinese restaurant and a bike shop. so...yeah. bikes and kung pao. nothing better. the streetcar also goes right in front of my building. so all i have to do is cross the street, jump on and i'm off to work. it's technically outside of the fareless square free ride zone, but i've only seen someone checking for tickets once. and that was over a year ago. thanks tri-met for the honor system method!

the apartment is not too bad. the walls are the color of post-it notes. which will either make me happy in the graying winter or cause me to go crazy due to the sheer cheeriness of it all. my friend holly suggested that i paint the walls white, and if the landlords ever come by i can just slap a ton of post-it notes on the wall and they will be none-the-wiser. the place overall is a nice size. 700sq.ft; which i think is a good size for portland. our place in the pearl was 750sq.ft and was about twice the cost, so this is not bad at all. it's a one bedroom so i have plenty of space in the main room for a couch, coffee table, tv stand, computer desk, side tables, etc. I think i'm going to be on the hunt for an area rug though. something needs to go in there. there are several vintage and second hand stores around that will likely have something that can be used. maybe they will have one of a lion. or a unicorn.

the kitchen is a good size with a little nook area that i can put a table and some chairs in. it has a large amount of built-ins in the kitchen which will help with cabinet space. though most of them are currently empty as i've yet to go grocery shopping or shopping for any of the usual necessities. most of the cabinet doors don't fully close either. the complex is pretty old and it looks as though they've slapped about 10 coats of paint over them throughout the years. I'm thinking about sanding down the edges so that they will be able to close, though i'll need a mask so that i do not inhale any lead paint that is surely underneath. i purchased one yesterday. i'm also constantly cleaning up paint chips that fall off the cabinets. but whatever. it adds "charm". i think they actually advertised the space as 'charming'. which usually means something around 300 sq.ft. maybe lead paint is charming.

the bedroom is down "the hall"; said hall being about 5-6 feet long. hardly a hall but that's what i call it. the bedroom is also cheery and post-it note yellow. the only caveat is that the apartment is on the ground floor and the streetcar goes rumbling past starting at 5am. which is now my new "alarm clock". the blinds also seem to be broken and i can't get them to close all the way so people can look in on me while i sleep. which is eerie and voyeuristic. so there will be drapes. it also has a separate entrance to the outside which is nice. i have two doors i can come and go through.

there are also hardwood floors.

right now the place is a mess. boxes of books and the like are currently in corners needing a place to go. i may just sell them to Powell's though. sometimes you just need to get rid of stuff instead of moving around 6-8 boxes full of heavy books every few years. not sure my back wants to take that abuse anymore. it'll come together slowly but surely. i always forget all the little things that go into moving into a new place and all the things you need from the store. paper towels, cleaning products, etc etc.

i also do not have internet and cable yet. so there isn't much going on there. i think that i'm going to refrain from getting cable tv this time around as it seems to be a time waster anyway. though i did love my high-definition DVR 400+ channel tv package, i figure it might be a good time to "unplug" for awhile. plus it saves money. if i really want to watch tv i can walk two blocks over to my friend ryan's house and con them into letting me babysit their 9 month old just so i can turn on the tube (i'm watching him on sunday incidentally, so maybe i can catch sunday night football then. it'll be just me and mateo watching some football. eating doritos and pureed peas. yum). anyway. they won't mind i'm sure. no internet is proving difficult though. not sure that i want to unplug from the world wide web at this point. so that being said, i have no internet access and thus no email except for what i can look at at work. so phone calls and texts are the only way to communicate over the weekends. nights and weekends that is.

there is a brand new safeway about 6 blocks away, dozens of bars and restaurants within that same radius and the best bagels portland can offer about 3 blocks away. mmmm...chewy and thick white rye bagel topped with cream cheese, onion, lox and capers with a large coffee and the morning paper. i believe that will be my new weekend morning routine. plus the girls that work there are super cute and friendly, so that's always a bonus.

there's also great new places to take photos around and there's even a good photolab just a few blocks away that i can get some film developed. since we are all aware that polaroid is ending sooner rather than later i'm going to be making the jump to both 35mm film, 120film and even digital. I've been eyeing the Nikon D90 camera for awhile and have started to save up for it. it's a pretty piece of photography genius.

so i just realized that i have written a small novel here and you all are probably quite bored with this so i will let you take your leave.


ps. it's supposed to be one of those cold weeks again starting..well today. they are saying that we are about to get a bunch of snow in the next couple days and then again on tuesday or wednesday. so THAT will be fun. yay snow days!