Thou Shall Not Covet

For the past 7 months I have been content living in this stairwell.

We had fabulous neighbors who I enjoyed running into in the laundry room, stairwell, and as either of us would come and go. Our stairwell was clean, the shared laundry room ran smoothly, and I trusted everyone who came and went. The quarters are definitely tight and having one toilet in our apartment is a challenge, but for the most part I was content.

That changed today.

I was cleaning up someone else's mess in one of our common areas and I lost my mind. Reality of living in this apartment for the next 2 years sunk in and I wanted to vomit. For the most part, our new neighbors are rather tidy and respectful of us and our property. There are definitely worse situations out there and we are quite blessed to have an empty stairwell with good neighbors. But all things collided today at just the right time and created a perfect storm.

I was cleaning the mess in the common area with steam coming out of my ears. I hate cleaning up my own kids' bathroom messes, so cleaning up some other random persons' is close to torture. As I was cleaning a strange kid popped in to see what I was doing. He was a friend of our neighbors. Now I was really ticked. I had someone else's bodily fluid on my foot, and now I am face to face with some kid who has no right to be in my basement. Things were bad enough, but when I ran into my neighbor kid rough-housing with a friend right in front of my door I snapped. Where else do neighbors hang out in front of your door? Over the past few weeks the frequency of new kids turning up on my doorstep has increased and my patience with these living conditions has diminished. Argh! Stairwell living.

I came into the house and looked around and that is when I become possessed by the green eyed monster - I'm coveting. Outside my door I face the issues of common areas, inside I face the reality of one toilet.

I'm coveting people with two toilets. I'm coveting people with their own washer and dryer. I'm coveting people who can tell strangers who turn up on their porch to "get lost". I'm coveting people who can put their bikes in the garage instead of hoisting them up 2 flights of stairs each time they want to use them. I'm coveting people with a gas grill.

I want my old house back. The one with 2500 square feet of space, 3 toilets, a 600 square foot master suite with a master bath that had a separate room for the toilet. I want my garage that housed all the bikes our own private patio with a gas grill, dining area, and 6ft brick wall covered with ivy that provided privacy and a beautiful place to spend time on a summer evening.

So, here I am coveting.....and praying that my heart will return to contentment with the blessing of a free place to live instead of mourning the loss of what I had and being jealous of what I don't.