Maybe this should be under pets instead of humor.........
I was just reading a funny story by our very own hunter of lobster,Link when I was reminded of my first apartment after I got married in college, almost nine years ago......
This was a 200 dollar a month wonder in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. While that's not as bad as it sounds (you could get a fairly nice apartment there at the time for 300/350,) this was not prime real estate. It wasn't in the slums or anything, (this town couldn't have supported a slum) but it was the best we could afford for a few months, and it did have it's disadvantages.......
It looked to have been built in the 20's or 30's, and must have been very nice at the time, hardwood floors, nice stairwells, and you couldn't have asked for nicer neighbors in 5 out of the 7 other apartments. Our apartment had previously been rented to pot dealers, but after a couple of explanations to some tense young men, it became well known that they did not live there anymore.
There was the supe, who was finally fired after he was arrested one drunken night after waving his gun around and pointing it at the cops (he didn't shoot anything, I think he was just drunk and forgot to put it back down), the wife beater downstairs (we helped her move back to her family, far far away......), and the crazy lady in one of the downstairs apartments(she screamed at her kid whenever she was home, and spread flour on the floor around her door inside and out so she would know if anyone went in, not that it made a difference, she was totally mental). Sound like a dream home?
Like I said, it all got straightened out and quieted down.......except for the roaches. Big scary ones, with pointy fangs. They were reduced by extreme cleaning, and by repairing holes in the wall left by the pot heads (where do ya think I learned drywall?), but you could never get them all. The Orkin lady was too scared of roaches to even go in the attic, she'd just toss bombs up there every week or two. Big. Pointy fangs. The best rule was use the buddy system whenever you went in the apartment, and take a weapon........
My favorite though, was the two and a half inch bull roach that got in my VCR and died. Right in front of the display, and you couldn't shake it loose. This was, (I know, hard to believe), before the DVD revolution, and VCR's were still expensive, we were still broke. So every time you wanted to watch a movie, you had to avoid looking at the brilliantly lit-up-in-yellow undercarriage of this male cockroach. We moved out after a few months. We killed the bugs that followed us. But this little booger followed us around for almost three years. Strange what you can live with when you get used to it, huh?
It was a long time ago, almost nine years since it happened, but I sometimes almost miss that guy............almost.