Apartment? Check.

Done and done. I loved the first apartment I saw, and it was one of the cheapest on my list, and so that’s that! I looked at one other place just because I’d already made the appointment, but it was $75 more and not as big. My soon-to-be new place is in Myers Park, right down the street from some ridiculously large mansion sort of houses, so that makes me feel like it’s pretty safe. I can also walk to things! I am still not liking the fact that you have to drive everywhere. I love my little Camry, but the every-day, errand-running, stop-light-waiting, parking-lot-navigating, suburban car-driving lifestyle is not one I’m quite ready to embrace with enthusiasm. But from this apartment I can walk to a movie theatre, a Rite Aid, a Harris Teeter and a library. I have the bottom right half of the building.

Still, what I saw of Charlotte definitely doesn’t feel like a real city to me. It’s too clean and new and landscaped and upscale and shiny. Granted, I spent most of my time yesterday in Dilworth and Myers Park, which are pretty upscale neighborhoods I guess and I’m glad to be living there, given that it’s hard to know where’s always the safest place in a city you’ve never been to before. However. I think I’ll need to get to know this supposedly artsy NoDa area, so I don’t feel like I’m living in a rich-and-preppy wonderland of Starbucks and stores that sell Vera Bradley.

The apartment itself however is old and cool. (I was so distracted by its charm that I failed to take any pictures of the interior.) But…it’s a four-flat built in 1940-something. Original hardwood floors, real wood doors and beautiful trim work. The bathroom has black and white subway tiles like the 1940’s era bathroom I grew up with. The place even has one of those old phone nooks like my parents have in the dining room at home. Two bedrooms, big living room, small-ish galley kitchen with giant pantry and a back porch entrance, separate dining room with a screened-in porch. And it has central air. It’s old, beautifully maintained, way more space than I need, and doesn’t feel like it’s built out of drywall and vinyl. One of the other tenants is 97 and has lived there since the 1970s. I figure if someone chooses to stay there for 30+ years, it can’t be that bad of a place to live.

After I got back to Winston-Salem from Charlotte yesterday, I went to campus to get some extra copies of my transcript to have on hand for next week’s TFA “Induction.” I also took a walk over to Reynolda Village and took a detour into the woods on the way. Last time I was on campus, probably close to two years ago, I remember walking through the woods and looking at the turtles and ducks in the marsh that used to be a lake, and feeling melancholy about living in a big city with no marshes to be found. Ha! No longer. It’s good to be back, North Carolina.