Reflections on Apartment Living (and other first world problems)

So this morning, I awoke to the sound of what I thought may have been someone knocking on our door... no, window? ... nope..... oh, perhaps our neighbor is hanging things on her wall... at 8am?!?! Really??? Nope.... Now there is drilling... What the heck?!

After further exploration (via getting my hiny out of bed and walking to the front of our apartment) I realized that actually, it was MAJOR construction happening on our staircase which is approximately 3 feet from our front door. The same staircase that, for the first 4 months of living here, swayed from side to side as we climbed to the second floor because it was that poorly attached to the building, and the same staircase that causes our entire side of the building to shake like an earthquake should anyone decide to conquer the steps with any sort of tenacity (ie: walking quickly, trotting, stomping, storming, running...etc.).

Speaking of earthquake, we had one! In March of this year. Alex and I were not home (thank God!) because I had enough of a scary "the world is going to end, and we're all going to die" moment just 32 miles away from the epicenter, which was less than a mile from our apartment. Actually, based on the damage to our apartment (and the complex), I'm convinced (because I'm an expert in tectonic ridges and all the things) that the ridge actually ran down the center of our apartment. I think that, not because I have studied seismic activity (as you might assume), but because all of our stuff (technical term) on one side of the apartment was thrown one way, and one the other side was thrown another way. This is scientific observation at its finest, really. Wanna see pictures? I know you're dying to.

 

Okay, okay, while it was pretty traumatic to walk into our apartment that looked like it had been ransacked, and have to part with 2 of our coffee presses, the fact remains that we were safe, and really, we still had 2 coffee presses remaining. (I mean we had 4 of them! In different sizes, that my husband had collected in his bachelor days- not complaining :) 

So, our staircase, as you may imagine, was WORSE, after being twisted from the earthquake. And about 4 weeks later, they re-stabilized the beams the stairs were attached to (which had been all rotted out... And today, on this glorious morning of wonderful deep sleep, months ( 5 months to be exact, but who's counting???) after the stairs practically fell off the second floor of our building, the stairs were (loudly) finished being repaired. 

The joys of apartment living. 

Also, can we talk about not having a washer and dryer IN our unit? I'm the worst at laundry, and hauling my chones across the lawn to the laundry facility is not my cup of tea. 

Can you believe how inconvenient all of these first world conveniences are???

Me neither. 

 

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Radio Silence

I know you have been sitting at home wondering to yourself.. "Where has Maegan been? Why hasn't she written a blog recently? Whatever will I do without her blog in my life?" You have, right? I knew it!

It has been over 2 months since my last post (I had to go back and look.. I wasn't counting, I swear), and even those posts from 2 months ago are kind of cheater posts because they weren't for my personal blog, they were a blog project for my parish. Side note: what was I thinking committing to write a blog for a parish 30-Day prayer challenge, when I hadn't succeeded recently at posting blogs for more than 2 or 3 days in a row on my own blog?? I am crazy. But I did learn a ton from that experience! Mostly, that I CAN make myself blog more consistently, and that I am more likely to force myself to write for other people, than because it's something I want to do. That's a frightening thought, isn't it? Anyway...thoughts for a separate blog. :)

I have been ruminating in the silence... although I know that doesn't help you, dear reader, because you only hear the silent part... but I will share some of my thoughts and concerns, and I hope you will chime in as well!

One thing that I found to be very difficult in the Prayer Challenge project (you can go back in my previous posts to access those if you're curious) was the lack of interaction by the readers. I am very troubled by this! I want to blog, and I want to share about life and thoughts and beautiful/hard/messy things, but I don't want to be a window display where people walk by, stare, take it all in, maybe even think some thoughts to themselves, and then move along to the next window. I want to be a part of an online community of sharing, supporting, challenging, participating in each other's lives/blogs.

And this has had me thinking for the last two months...

How do I contribute to this culture?

I do it, you guys! So much! And I hate that I do it, but still, it continues.

The biggest culprit for me: the Face Books.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit my routine, but in the interest of full disclosure (and self-mortification, apparently):
I wake up, grab phone, scroll through Instagram (my fave) until I catch up to where I left off last time I scrolled through, and when I have exhausted that... I move onto FB. And for some reason, I get really stuck there. I don't know why, I don't even like it, and often feel "bored" there, but I just scroll and scroll and scroll. And you know what I have discovered? I don't even really read anything. I read the headings of articles people post, and occasionally I'll actually click on them and read them, but I mostly just scroll, and "like" and move on. To what end?

And this is what has kept me away from blogging..
I just scroll away my time, and my inspiration, and my thoughts... and I turn into a Zombie...and I typically leave a little depressed.

That. is. madness.
And I don't want to feed that monster anymore.
I want to say the things that are whirling around in my head.
And have actual interaction with other bloggers.
And contribute something beautiful and meaningful to my corner of the internet.

So, I'm going to try to replace that FB time slot with blogging. Reading blogs, commenting on blogs, posting blogs, thinking about blogging.

So please, dear readers, help me.
I want to hear your thoughts, reactions, comments, complaints.
Don't fall into the trap of the "casual observer" - be a participant... and I will be fighting for it right alongside you.

Blog re-re-(re?) Launch!

One of the blogs I follow has the most clever title and I giggle inside every time I see her posts in my Face Book newsfeed: A Blog for My Mom Isn't that fun?

Well, as much as I love my mom (and I do... A LOT), the more appropriate title for my blog would be:
A Blog for My Bestie

Let's be real- she's the one that I owe 0285782721 blogs to.
She is the one that texts me and begs me to post.
She is currently my only official follower (although I have over 600 views, so either clicking on my blog is her favorite past-time, or there are some other lurkers out there in the interwebs).
She is also the blog re-designer extraordinare who is responsible for this beautiful new page!
I mean, she is THE Mexican Domestic Goddess, after all.

Here's the thing... since I created this blog, I just didn't feel like it was designed quite right. But I don't have all the skills, and I'm stubborn and wanted to do it on my own (please tell me someone in blog-land hears me on that!). And, although I have many excuses for not blogging, one of the most common was that I just didn't feel proud of the aesthetic of my little corner of the sky. It just wasn't really me. It was too dark, and heavy, and although it did have polka dots (which I LURVE!) it didn't feel airy and free like I wanted it to.

So I asked Jacqui if she would be willing to play with it and make it more... "ME"
Because... who knows what's "you" more than your best girl friend, right?

My requests: 1.POLKA. DOTS. 2.Lighter/more airy 3. clean/stream-lined 4. more "ME"

Well, she pretty much nailed it, first time. Don't you think?

So, that's once excuse not to blog, down...

87 more to go! ;)