Being Adult-y

I live in an apartment now. I pay rent, which for the moment is amusing and novel and makes me feel really important. I've been told this feeling will not last long, but I am relishing it nonetheless. I can play my music as loud as I want, which would be impressive if I wasn't always able to play my music as loud as I want. But this seems to be an independent thing to say, so I thought I should reiterate it. Loud music = freedom.

I live in a room that, had I been given it in college or grown-up in it, I would have whined incessantly until I got a bigger one. But now my little room is MINE, and therefore I love it to infinity. Times they are a'changing. The word spacious is not in the room's vocabulary. It isn't exactly filled with sunlight as I wish it were (as I am part plant). But it faces another window across the street, which is both interesting in the social voyeurism view, and possibly embarrassing in the futurity of my living here. (Dancing? Changing? Having a stranger know that I lie on my bed on the computer for an embarrassing amount of time reading gossip sites? Embarrassing.)

Living here in the city is different. Not bad different but definitely... different. For one, there is so much NOISE. Cars and trucks and people yelling and laughter and air conditioner sounds float up to my little window and the fire escape outside. It reminds me of the musical In the Heights, minus the Cuban flavor. I sometimes sit on my fire escape and listen to music, and it is quickly becoming my new favorite place in the world. It is a little metal haven that almost reaches the sunlight that doesn't quite hit my side of the 3rd floor walk-up. But because I can still see it, I don't feel quite as bad. The power of positive thinking.

There are a lot of people in my neighborhood, but it is not what one would call particularly diverse. Everyone seems to run on the river listening to ipods, and many of them are young women, running alone. I don't know why I was that surprised by it, as I am both young and a woman listening to her ipod while running on the river. My neighborhood seems allure upper middle class largely white people and tourists. There's a Whole Foods ridiculously close by, so maybe that explains a lot of it.

The Whole Foods is a whole (pun) new world- I've never seen so many organic and vegan friendly foods in one place. Granted, I can't actually afford most of it (8 bucks for a jar of peanut butter? Does it do magic tricks?!) but as a vegetarian and general all-around healthy-ish person, I have somehow not managed to set foot in a Whole Foods my entire life. So it's a big week for me.

Now I am listening to music AS LOUD AS I WANT in my apartment as I hang posters and frame photos whilst frolicking around the rooms Mary Poppins-style. Because that's what adults do.