Living alone in LA.

Decorated by David Lynch.

 

I moved into my new apartment and started being a badass adult. Or maybe I’m just a bad ass. I am trying to figure this all out. There are still boxes everywhere and certain things remained unpacked and some walls are bare and it makes me anxious. And there are cords and wires everywhere from connecting various electronic necessities like Internet and television. I know, the horror. The struggle. The sleepless nights.

I don’t have a dining room table. I am okay with this. Do you have a dining room table? I don’t really dine. I eat. I haven’t started cooking yet. I keep threatening to do it, but I don’t. Do you cook? Does anyone out there lead a responsible life and can you tell me how I can do that too?

For now I am living alone and it’s good and it’s bad. I lived alone in college in NYC in a lovely little studio. I loved it, mostly. The great thing about New York is that you walk out of your building and there’s people and there’s people you know and you’re okay, everything is fine. Unless you hate people. Then you’re fucked, little sir. This is what I like about my new neighborhood. On Saturday I ran into the same guy twice. Once in the afternoon and once at night. At night it was in a restaurant (after my performance with Hello Giggles at UCB which I don’t really want to talk about because I am a perfectionist and wished I had done better. But that’s not important right now.) He was on a date and his mom was there. I think maybe it was not the best time to say hi. But I did. I am fearless. His mom and girlfriend are very nice. It’s nice when people are nice. It’s unpleasant when people are fake nice. But sometimes fake nice is better than being outright hostile.

My friend and new manager (yay!) says that my apartment is haunted. That would explain why the rent is good and why my landlord is so nice to me. I haven’t experienced any hauntings aside from when the record player started making noises like an alien spaceship in 1950s movies. I knew there was a logical explanation but I turned it off anyway.

Do you live alone and do you like it? And what does your apartment look like? Be honest with me. If it’s a mess I want to hear about every last beer can and pizza box.

 

This post was sponsored by U Move Free. Moving soon? UMoveFree complaints are few and far between. So, challenge accepted. Kidding.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Share

Follow me on Twitter | Facebook

23 thoughts on “Living alone in LA.

  1. Vanessa

    We could discuss all of the empty pizza boxes and beer bottles in my apartment, but it would take all day and I really doubt you have that kind of time. Suffice to say I truly embrace those aspects of living alone. 😉

  2. mandy

    I live in a kind of dorm, but really it’s just a big apartment with 11 people living in it. Sometimes when I feel lonley I just go out to the kitchen and talk to someone (there’s always a big chance someone is home). And when I don’t feel like talking I just go into my room and stay there. It’s great cus I imagine I would feel quite lonely living in an apartment all alone (although I did for 6 months last year and I was fine, but now that I now the difference I would be too lonely I think). I can’t say the kitchen/bathroom is clean when eleven people are sharing, but then again neither is my room 😉

  3. Project 305

    When you enter my apartment, you’re in the kitchen. I know, it’s weird. Then behind it is a HUUUUUGE studio space that’s my bedroom/living room followed by a tiny tiny bathroom that lacks a proper shower curtain. It also has small windows and is very dimly lit from the outside. Overall, it’s really nice and very private. I enjoy it much 🙂

    1. Almie Rose Post author

      That’s how my NYC studio was, you opened the door and there’s a very brief hallway like 3 feet, but you’re basically in the kitchen.

  4. Lee

    I’ve lived alone since my sophomore year of college, which was 25 years ago, and I’ve hated almost every moment of it. Understand that I’m extremely Extroverted on every personality scale there is. Going home takes every bit of energy I can muster. There’s no one there, and there’s not going to be anyone there. No amount of TV or pets will populate a space.

    Despite teaching cooking at a local community college, I don’t ever do it at home. Add the time to prep, cook, clean, and it’s never worth it. Add a person, and cooking becomes a guilty pleasure.

  5. brittany

    i live with one other roommate, but we each have our own rooms and are so busy that when one of us IS home, it’s like living on our own. our apartment is surprisingly pretty messy for two newly graduated college grads who majored in — accounting. the demise of our apartment is positively correlated with how much fun we each have in our lives. we started noticing that as our lives become more filled with bizarre nights, the reoccurring dating scene, etc, the more blankets, random jackets, and take out boxes get piled up in the living sitting area.

  6. Nick

    I have a dining room table, but I don’t use it. I want to sell it on craigslist and replace it with a pinball machine.

  7. Diary of Why

    I live by myself and I love it, though I’ve recently come to the conclusion that I maybe can’t, ahem, afford it, so much. But after the wonderful freedom of living alone, I can’t stomach the thought of living with random roommates again.

    When people come over they usually ask if I’ve just cleaned. See, people assume I like to clean but actually, I don’t, so I just try to avoid making messes. Which is why living with roommates kinda killed me, ’cause clearly we did not share that mentality. Don’t even get me started on cleaning other people’s messes. Ugh.

  8. Rachel

    Hey! I was at that HelloGiggles show, and I thought you did GREAT. Just thought you should know. Not that it’ll make you feel any better, because I, too, am a perfectionist, so I totally understand that no matter what anyone else says about how awesome something you did is, you’ll need to be convinced of it yourself before you’ll believe it. But. You did a great job. So there’s that. =]

  9. krista

    this is my first month of living alone, ever. my roommate moved out a month early to move in with her boyfriend, and my new roommate doesn’t move in for another month. the old roommate took our dining room table with her, so i have been eating in my bed each night, watching tv-on-dvd. i told my boyfriend that i couldn’t wait to get a table so i don’t hafta eat in my bed anymore and he made fun of me for that comment because even when i had the table i ate in my bed almost always. i like to call them crumb parties. i do cook my own food, though. healthy food. so that’s something.

  10. Vanessa

    I have lived alone for around 6 years, in different places. Seriously, the next person I live with will probably be whoever I marry because I love living by myself! Though I am an extrovert I need space to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Sometimes there are piles of dishes in the sink for weeks. Almost always my bedroom is a disaster area. The rest of my house is very tidy, comfortable, sunny, lovely. I have a lot of plants (and am considering a cat). I have a dining room table but usually it’s covered in mail or random papers (I’m in grad school and work full time). I bought the dining room table because the dining room seemed a little…empty. I use it as a desk! Also I stuck a vintage lamp on it. That helped.

    On haunted apartments: the last place I lived was haunted…or something. It was built in the 30’s and had the most adorable teensy kitchenette. ANYWAY. Pictures would fly off the wall. I had a lamp that would turn itself off as I reached towards it to turn it off. Super eerie. I chose to not acknowledge it. The place I currently live is also haunted, maybe? It was built in the 20’s. Mostly what happens around here is just annoying. The lights will flicker without reason and doors will open themselves. Not Cool. Once when I was on a deadline the lights would not stop with the intense flickering and it was getting worse. Maintaining my cool and ignoring it wore thin until finally I looked straight up across the room and said in my sharpest voice, “You need to stop that right now. I mean it!” And. It. Stopped. So. Maybe try that?

  11. Adria

    I don’t live alone, technically, but my boyfriend has been away for a month, so close enough. Also, we live in the same area so maybe we should be friends. Just saying. I need more cheeky brunettes in my life.

  12. K

    The closest I came to living alone was when my boyfriend went on tour for a month. Based on that experience, I’d say that I’d probably be okay with living alone, if I lived closer to my family and friends so I could choose to have company when I wanted it. Right now I live far away from them, and have found it difficult to make new friends. So if I lived alone HERE I might be unbearably lonely. As a live-in girlfriend, I’ve thoroughly embraced a housewife role. I do all the laundry and cleaning, plus most of the grocery shopping and cooking as well. I hate cleaning, but I love having a clean living space. Like another commenter mentioned, I try to avoid making a mess so I don’t have to clean it up. I’m thoroughly convinced that my boyfriend never had to clean up a mess in his life, so a.) he doesn’t think twice about making a mess, and b.) he doesn’t know the first thing about how to clean one up. So I’m constantly cleaning up after him. The nicest thing about living alone for that one month was that I never had to cook, and it was far less work cleaning up after only myself. I also got to watch whatever I wanted (which happened to be Sailor Moon), and listen to whatever music I wanted, at any time, without worrying that I was bothering someone. Oh, and since there was all this extra space in the bed, our two cats slept with me all night every night. There isn’t room for them to sleep on the bed when there are two humans in it. But despite having to clean up someone else’s messes all the time, I think I’d prefer living with my boyfriend to living alone. It’s nice to have someone greeting me when I come home from work, someone who makes coffee for me in the morning, and who willingly warms up my cold feet in bed.

    We don’t have a dining room table, either. We eat the most delicious food, curled up on our couch together, watching television. Or occasionally we eat separately at our computers. Clearly we like to be entertained while we eat. But not with conversation, because that would mean opening our mouths for something other than food, which is not an option during dinner.

  13. Grace

    Currently my apartment looks like Vegas threw up in it, which is basically what happened. I’ve been instructed not to clean and do homework but so far I’ve just not cleaned and read blogs instead. I may be moving to a new and cuter apartment soon though. Mine is tiny.

  14. Daniel

    On May 12 apartment number 9 on East William Street in San Jose was invaded by two new ethnic parasites. I’m unsure how our new host feels about the situation but we’re both satisfied with the new living arrangement. Our apartment is getting up there in years and I’m sure it assumed it would spend its golden years housing a nice quiet couple who enjoy watching Woody Allen movies, reading Ian McEwan novels and who understand the importance of cleanliness. What it got instead was a pair of 20 something year olds who stay up all night watching will Farrell movies and playing guitar. We use are sink under the assumption that it’s bad luck if we use it too much or too long. But to our credit we have built up quite a respectable graveyard of empty rum and beer bottles, I don’t think that impresses our host too much though. I always love the first few weeks of moving into a new place, meeting new places and seeing new people. One of the upsides to moving is that it will leave you broke for one to two weeks. Why is that an upside?! Because there is nothing like being broke that will force you to catch up on all that reading you’ve been putting off, which is what I need. Being broke also forces you to watch certain TV shows that you’ve neglected in the past. Like Hoarders. Do you watch that show? I can’t stop watching that show, mostly because I can’t find my remote under all the piles of garbage and dead cats.

  15. CJ

    After a series of unfortunate living situations, I’ve been living on my own for the last 8+ years and love it! I live in a duplex upstairs from my landlords, who are an elderly couple. They’re very sweet. They let me use their washer and dryer. Sometimes they invite me down to dinner. Last week the wife hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, and said that I remind her of her daughters.

    But it’s a tiny place and I’m a total slob, which doesn’t work very well. Currently, all of my sweaters are piled in a heap on the floor because I’m not sure where to put them. My laundry basket in the corner of my living room has been overflowing with clean clothes for weeks. And I always have a mountain of dishes. Oh, and there’s indoor/outdoor carpeting in my kitchen (WTF, right?) But the rent is super cheap, I can park in the garage, I have A/C, so I’m more than happy. I’m lucky that my boyfriend doesn’t mind coming over. He says, “As long as we have a place to sit, I’m okay.” I think I’m gonna keep him…

  16. Lee

    @CJ: You’ve got an elderly couple that talks with you, and occasionally cooks for you. And you’ve got a significant other that spends the night.

    That is *not* living alone.

    1. CJ

      @Lee: I should clarify. I eat dinner with my landlords once every few months, and that’s if they have a lot leftover. Otherwise, we leave each other be. We don’t interact too often, except if we’re both on our way out the door or if something needs repairing. My dude spends the night maybe once a week or sometimes not at all, depending on our schedules. The landlords leave the continent for three months out of the year, so there’s no one else in the building except me. When I’m home, I’m basically alone with my own company 98% of the time. No, I don’t have to share my personal living space with anyone. So yes, I do live alone.

  17. Sofie

    My sister recently moved back to our hometown due to finding a better job. So, I’ve been living alone for the past 6 months. I’ve lived alone the first year I moved for college: Parties, sleepovers, making crafts, experimenting, lounging, discovering myself. But that was 5 years ago (eek!) Now, fast forward to the present: I live in a condo and its serene. I don’t really like having people over much (because i can’t leave if i get tired, bored, etc) and I enjoy my space. I don’t get the living-alone-lonelies because I’m usually at my fiance’s house or he’s chilling here. But when I am here in solitude- i can watch,do,sing,wear,eat,cook,feel,create,say whatever the hell i want without ANY explanation. in a world with 6 billion+ people, you can’t help but appreciate the sanity/insanity your OWN space brings. 🙂

  18. Pingback: Moving Home — A P O C A L Y P S T I C K

  19. Pingback: Moving Home - A P O C A L Y P S T I C K — A P O C A L Y P S T I C K

Comments are closed.