Things I will miss...

and things I will NOT miss about living in the apartment I lived in until last week and/or apartment life in general.

Things I will miss:

• my roommate (10 months and no arguments or fights!)
• the short walk to school
• the large semi-walk-in closet in my room
• my roommate's cats
• the large hallway closets
  

Things I will NOT miss:

• my roommate's cats' fur and litter box
  
• not being able to paint the walls or make any other "major" changes to the place
• the tiny bathroom
• the turquoise tiles in the bathroom
• the lack of counter space in the kitchen
• the lack of ample kitchen cabinetry
• the fruit flies that came with my indoor gardening
• the gas stove with a giant food-devouring hole around each burner
  
• the extra short toilet
• the smell of cigarette smoke downstairs and in the elevator
• the maintenance men walking in 2 seconds after knocking on the door without waiting to see if anybody was home
  
• the elevator door that regularly jammed into my (insert appendage or body part here)
• having to drag my bike up and down the stairs from the basement
• paying $1 for laundry and $0.75 for the dryer
• paying another $0.75 for the dryer because the first round didn't actually dry anything
• having permanent stains on my clothes because the washers were so old and inefficient
• having to wait 3 hours to do laundry because everyone else was also doing laundry
• finding my freshly washed and mostly dried clothes on the nasty couch next to the washers
  
• being scolded by the ladies in the landlord's office for changing my own light bulbs
• handing half my monthly pay over to the landlord
  
• dead bugs in the cheap-o light fixtures
• the lack of dishwasher
• the nails that stuck up from the hardwood floor and ruined almost every pair of socks I have, and one pair of long pants!
  
• waiting 5 minutes for the hot water to come on
• the lack of a fan in the bathroom and the subsequent mold/mildew
  
• the lack of control over the heating system (I wore shorts around the apartment ALL winter long, even when it was below zero outside)
• the fear of never seeing my security deposit (two months' rent) again (the lady in the office assured me yesterday that I'd be getting it all back, most likely... I'll believe it when I see it)
  
• getting mail addressed to every person who has lived in the apartment over the past 20 years or so
• having someone over only to hear them say "these two weird girls lived here last year, they had the same couch you guys have, and ya, they were strange".
  
• the constant feeling of impermanence and lack of a true home.

I can honestly say that I don't have any true regrets about quitting life in an apartment. When I have to mow the lawn after a 10-hour day at school/work, or the water heater mysteriously stops working, or the power goes out, I'll be sure to think of all the things I don't miss about living in apartment.