January 20, 2005

Stuff I Need for my Apartment

Mood: Happy.
Music: None. I wish I hadn't left my iPod at home.
Game: World of...oh, you know already.
Book: Road Work, Mark Bowden
Muffin: No muffin today!

I'll start by saying that if you're a fan of good journalism, Road Work, the book I'm currently reading, is pretty good. His journalistic style is anecdotal...not unlike Hunter S. Thompson, but without all the drugs and creative interpretation. You probably know Bowden as the guy who wrote "Black Hawk Down." What you may NOT know is that the book was actually written as a several dozen part series for the Philadelphia paper for which he worked at the time. Before and since then, he wrote probably hundreds of stories of much shorter length but no less interesting topics. I find his style to be easily readable, and the topics varied and fun, from following Al Sharpton on the campaign trail to cops on the take in Philadephia. All in all, a good read.

Now, I'm going to regale you with a list of things I think I need for my apartment:

A dish drying rack - I don't have a dishwasher any more...and I'm stunned at how much I miss having one. I cook a lot now, and the dishwashing is definitely a drag. I don't mind it so much when I'm doing it...but if I had a rack, It'd go much faster.

Dishtowels - My last set of dishtowels, purchased when I lived in London, have gone the way of the dodo. They've rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. They are EX-Dish towels. So I need more.

Ice Cube Trays - In spite of the fact that my refrigerator has an ice cube maker built into it, the water was never hooked up by my landlord...so it's now simply a large plastic thingie attached to the wall of my freezer that takes up space. Consequently, I need ice cube trays.

Bath Mat - The bathmat I had at the last apartment was pretty bad. Between the multiple head shavings and various fake blood and white face applications, the white bath mat was looking like someone had murdered a clown on it, and hadn't cleaned up satisfactorily. It's gone now. Obviously, a new one is needed.

Alarm Clock - For some unknown reason, my alarm clock just is NOT waking me up in the morning. I've had the thing since Hong Kong, and I used it while I was travelling all over, as it's portable. But it doesn't work any more. I need a decent one...one that will wake me up. I regularly sleep through the one I have at the moment. Not good.

Picture Frames - I have a mess of photos I'd like to place in frames and put on the wall. My friends are always complaining that I don't hang anything on the wall in any of my apartments. Fundamentally, they're correct. I always hate to put something on the wall...because I always feel like it's in the wrong place or there isn't enough of it. But this time, I'm going to place stuff on the wall. Really.

Some sort of support for the bar in my bedroom closet - The closet is about 6-7 feet wide...but the bar has no support in the middle. Given all my hockey jerseys, it's starting to sag in the middle. I think a piece of wood cut to shape would do it.

Storage Crates - Right now, I have dozens of Lego boxes on the top shelf in my closet. I should probably get big Ziploc bags, bag up all the Legos along with their guides, then throw them all in one large storage container. It would certainly save closet space, which I definitely need.

Rugs - I kind of want to get some sort of natural fiber woven sisal rug for my living room...they're not that expensive, really, and I love the way they feel under bare feet, kinda soft and crunchy and prickly at the same time. Can get them in lots of places, I'm sure.

There's probably more...but these are the things I'm working on getting in the near future.

I really like the apartment, love the neighborhood. Should have moved to Brooklyn years ago.

That'll teach me.

Posted by Glenn at January 20, 2005 03:22 PM