Memory Log: Save For Later

I just wanted to get some things down that I want to remember about my apartment and my time here.
The joys and sorrows of having to care for five cats is the biggest memory that I don't want to forget, now that I am going to have to leave all my boys in the care of someone else.
Oden's bathroom kisses, his joyful hopping up on his cat perch, and insisting upon eating his food on the perch, too. Oden's "peek-a-boo" around the partition of the kitchen near the stairs, and his meowing when he wanted to go outside on the balcony.
Kai's jumping on the counter to get his treats, his leg rubbing when he thought he might get a treat, and how all the other cats showed up as soon as the catnip came out.
Tribble's wondrous purr as I pet his head, his rolling around on the catnip on the balcony, his playful abandon and joy.
Zap's night-time rubbing sessions, always just when I was so tired that I only wanted to go to sleep, and his insistence on getting that perfect scratching from top to bottom and then one more time! before allowing me to go to sleep.
Rianne's wonderful couch sessions, kissing and licking me and laying on my lap for hours, her station in the kitchen, right by the food...her stealing of ice cream and continual bright-eyed seach for the perfect meal.

Now to the other things:
The balcony, where I allowed the cats to get their outside time, the catnip plant, Kai chewing on every other plant, until finally chewing the catnip plant till it didn't look like it'd ever recover!
My morning glories, zinnias, grape tomato plants, and petunias, always needing continual hourly sessions of dead-heading until my fingers were covered in sticky sap.
The thunderstorms, where I could look out my window to see the police radio tower getting struck by lightning, and the feeling of safety due to that tower- it being the absolutely tallest thing in the vicinity made it obvious that the building would never get struck. Watching the lightning hit the tower, seeing the rain blow the pine trees outside, watching other people through the windows and wondering what they were up to.
The pines outside were so wonderful in winter, swishing and swaying and whispering in the breeze, drowning out the car noises and lulling me to sleep.

My own bathroom - sanctuary, quiet, my own bathtub, ever clean, ever quiet. Reading "Star Trek Movie Memories" and sipping a beer and smoking a cigg, incense burning, candles lit...all my pictures, and my soaps and shampoos.

My giant bed, with the space-age mattress, the one that I will never be able to live without again - from now on, when I have the money for one, I will always buy one. It is like sleeping in air, on clouds...the way Oden and Zap would make little nests on it, warming it for me in winter. How it held the heat, even during the worst winter storm, and how I slept better than I have in years on it.

My little kitchen, stuffed with cooking implements, the dishwasher, the cabinets, all perfectly organized, all in sinc with my cooking. The freezer with the velcro on it to keep it closed, the pictures on it, the feeling of family that I got every time I looked at it. My stupid glass octagonal table that never quite fit there. The silly brass chairs that rusted as soon as the cats threw up on them, and tore the caning from the backs, and stained the seat covers. We rarely ate on it except for real meals like steak, Dean leaning over to watch the TV in the living room as he ate.

The couches, the larger of which was so comfortable - me parted on it with Rianne or Zap, or even occasionally, Kai.

The horrible stairs, that we could barely get the groceries up, and that we could never get the furniture up, or down. I leave this reminder to myself - never take an apartment upstairs unless the stairs are straight and aren't more than a few feet high!

The plentiful dumpsters, always giving up exactly what I needed. The last thing I found was a Pyrex measuring cup - the very night that I threw out my old cracked plastic one.

My computer desk, that I typed my reviews of Tolkien on, and composed many a great post on the Star Trek bboard, or made a great blog for a friend to read.

So many memories, and I will forget them in a season, I'm sure. That's why I wrote this. I don't want to forget that I liked this place, and that I really didn't want to move. Stupid landlords and their high rents. For your info, the rent on the two bedroom apt here was $1600, and going up to approach $1700. What a lot of wasted money - ten years of that. We could have been living in the smaller apt that we had for $875. When it went up to $950 we decided to move to the bigger apt for the money. Back then it was $1100. Now the one bedrooms are $1100. Silly.

It's raining really hard out right now. I had a little stare out the window when the thunderstorm went by. It was kind of nice. Very peaceful, watching the pines' dark shadows against the sky, wheeling and blowing occasionally as the lightning flashed once in a while.

I'll miss this place. I'll miss my boys, who love me dearly and who will no doubt be lonely when I'm not there for them. Truthfully, I don't want to leave. We were quite comfortable here. This sucks.