Jemison Top Five

Top Five Things I Like About The Building We Live In (excluding features of our specific apartment):

5. The parking garage. I didn't think I would care one way or the other, but it is nice to keep our new-to-us car, not to mention my poor beleaguered Corolla (which withstood eight Chicago winters on the street, bless her heart), out of the elements. Plus, you can see old ads painted on the brick walls. Plus, the windows -- probably my favorite part. (As seen here before.)

4. The elevators. Industrial chic. What can I say; I think they look cool.

3. Maurice, our postman. Smile = easy. Size = large.

2. The fact that Maurice delivers parcels to our door. Whoa.

1. TRASH CHUTE! Both Todd and I are inordinately fond of the trash chute. What a luxury it seems to walk a few hundred feet indoors, open a little metal door in the wall, and blithely toss one's refuse to the dark depths below! For some reason it amuses me that we had to come all the way to Alabama to experience a trash chute (because, certainly, many thousands more people use these things in Chicago than they do here). The funny and slightly not-so-nice thing about the trash chute is that it is right next to our apartment. In fact there's sort of a chunk missing from the corner of the front bedroom where I've set up my office, and behind the walls of that chunk is the chute. (Does that make any sense?) So we get to hear lots of bang-clang-crinkle-smash-clunk-bang-crash-clunk whenever anyone drops their trash. And then, from time to time, an electronic sound rising from below, which must be a compacting device, and which reminds me of the sound you hear at the end (or is it the beginning?) of Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine." The trash chute sounds don't really bother me. I just think of them as our residence's experimental audio installation. Trash chute = art!

----

Yes, I am procrastinating a bit today.