a purple apartment remembered.

my best friend and her wonderful husband recently purchased their first home. this three-bedroom dwelling boasts a two car garage, lovely backyard, and exposed toilet in the basement. (seriously, it's right there against the wall by the washer and dryer, installed by a father with a wife and three daughters who was tired of waiting in line to pee.)

as happy as i am for these crazy cats, i can't help but feel a twinge of sadness that they'll be leaving their apartment. as crowded and damp as it was, it holds many, many memories of long conversations in "alternate states". if its purple, sponge-painted walls could talk, well, they would probably call the police. but they would also tell a tale of nearly three years of drinking, smoking, and laughter.

this is where we sat for three hours deciding where to go on "lore's birthday roadtrip". we eventually decided on ocean city, n.j. we arrived at ten p.m., fought the entire time, and i broke their laptop (i have since been reprieved of responsibility) but there were a few fun moments sprinkled throughout this very, very long weekend.

this is where we spent two new year's eves. the first was one of the last times the entire cracker barrel crew was together. tom, t.j., rose, lore, nate, me--i have a long history of crappy new years, and this is the night that broke the curse. well, i did spill an ashtray on their couch. there are hilarious pictures of me trying to clean it up, wasted out of my skull.

this is where i spent every weekend after charlie and i split, drinking bottle after bottle of jack daniels and mooching bong hits while bathing in nostalgia and nursing my broken heart. a few months of this proved to be extraneous, and we started to make each other's skin crawl, but these people, and this place, helped me through one of the hardest times of my life.

and what can i say about the smoke room? before nate and lore succumbed to convenience, we were all required to smoke in a 5x5' closet next to the bathroom. there was a tiny desk which held a laptop for entertainment, a poster of dave matthews, a blacklight, a small oval rug, and a few pillows. we fit eleven people in that room once.

the furniture was worn, it smelled like weed and cigarettes, there were computer cords and random dissected machines strewn throughout the living room, and the bathroom door didn't close completely, but for nearly three years, it was my home away from home. goodbye, purple walls. goodbye gravity bong. goodbye to each and every stain i made. it is the end of an era.