Quick story: Sharayah and I were on our way home from Starbucks a few days ago.  I had been there since 7am (it was roughly 4pm at this point) and Sharayah had come in around two hours before the end of my shift so she could read and get some things done.  After I clock off, we hang around for a little bit, then head home.  Do you know what the first thing I notice is?  The intense smell of weed.

Our beautiful door...hidden behind stairs.

This is my first time living in an apartment.  I don't count the fraternity house cause it was more like low-income housing.  Nor do I count the dorms, I guess since it was so expensive and pretty well taken care of. But I count this place.  And so does Sharayah, but this is like her fourth or fifth apartment.  I'm not really sure.

I admit that I feel rather silly for not expecting our apartment to cause problems.  Here I was blissfully assuming all of our difficulties would come from each other, or lack of money, or my job.  Once we had moved all of our stuff into the living room on Move-In Day, I scoured the apartment in search of every crack, discoloration, hole, smudge, tear, and every other sign of irresponsibility from past tenants.  The form I was given to document these marks of negligence could barely contain my inspection.  But as thorough as I thought I was, as prepared as I thought I had been, any confidence I had in a neat and well maintained apartment was literally washed away in an invisible cloud of weed...which I'm pretty sure gave me a contact high.

I went to the management office to inform them (or complain) of the problem, and they said the only thing they could do is call the surrounding units and remind that there is to be no smoking in the building.  Pretty lame.

Despite the very air in our apartment being a poisonous fume, weed-stink is fairly tolerable.  For around the first hour (and every time I left and came back into the apartment) my head was swimming and my eyes were burning, but we overcame it.  Our biggest worry is that it may show up on drug tests.  Since Sharayah is job hunting right now, that's the very last thing we want.  Actually it doesn't show up on our List of Wanted Things at all.

Any rate, enough of the weed story.  The point of bringing that up was to preface the fact that apartments are a gamble.  No matter how prepared you think you may be to move into an apartment, you're not.  There will always be something that you aren't going to expect.  Like weed.  On Monday or Tuesday, Sharayah and I finally built up the motivation to work out in the complex's fitness center.  When we got there, however, we found out that our keys didn't work on the lock.  It was confusing.  Are we supposed to have another key for that room?  Is my apartment key supposed to work on the weight room door?  I just don't know.  But I do know that I was pretty annoyed.  Like, isn't our key supposed to open this door?  Did I misunderstand something?

Another problem that happens every so often deals with parking spaces.  I know it's trivial, but it is pretty aggravating when I come home to find someone in my parking spot.  We're assigned spots and given a window sticker with the parking spot number,  so, for example, when you see my car in a spot, you can easily find out if my car is supposed to be there.  Every now and again, however, some inconsiderate person parks in my spot.

To make a long story short, you never know what you're going to get when you live in an apartment.

I think it's a natural phenomenon for a man to suddenly have the urge to assemble things once he's married.  I guess if he already has that desire, then there's no change.  But lately I've been putting together anything and everything we've been getting for our apartment.  Assembly required?  Bring it on.

Yesterday we did some shopping using the multitude of Target and BedBathandBeyond gift cards that we acquired over the last month.  Now, our apartment is far from done, but I was getting a little tired of storing our belongings on the floor along the walls.  So naturally, many of the things we bought were to help with storage.  Guess what?  They all required assembly!  Needless to say, I was in my happy place for rest of the night.  Plus, we were able to get a lot of things off the floor.  Win win win win win.

The first item that I put together was a shelf thingy for the bathroom.  We chose a sturdier, better looking, more expensive unit...and it turned out pretty well.  Our place doesn't have much storage to begin with, so extra shelves (especially in the bathroom) is great.
I've quickly learned of the mediocre quality of much of BedBathandBeyond's merchandise, and as good as the shelf has turned out, it wasn't much of an exception.  It was difficult to read the instructions due to the small, low detailed drawings of all the included pieces.  The illustrated pieces were lettered to differentiate from one another, but the actual pieces were not.  This would not have been a big deal, except that the instructions made it clear that it was imperative to use the correct pieces on the correct sides.  So I had to closely inspect pieces to make sure they would fit where I put them.  Once I figured out the differences (if there actually were any) between the parts, assembly was a snap, thanks to my inherent assembling abilities.  And I think it turned out pretty darn well.

Next in line was a bookcase from Target.  Probably my favorite item so far, it took much more work than anything I've assembled to date (starting from move-in day of course, 8/13/2011).  This was because there were "freestyle" areas in the assembly, apart from the predrilled holes and no-power-tools-needed attitude.  After putting the outline together, I had to attach the back of the bookshelf.  Rather than more screws, I was given a handful of nails and generally specific instructions on where to hammer them.  This was especially difficult because the back of the case is a very hard cardboard, or somewhat soft wood, that was folded into thirds.  Since this was the case, it wouldn't fold out over the ends of the case completely flat.  So I nailed down a corner and smoothed it out from there.  It took a little time, but Sharayah and I think it turned out ok.  Just don't stare at it too closely.
Now we have a way to stack books in an organized and decorative manner.  Hurray for extra storage space.

The Whitehouse Apartment is slowly coming together and looking more like a home than an apartment unit.  It calms life down (or just reduces my stress) to come home to an organized place.  No doubt that'll earn me a now-you-know-how-I-feel from my parents.  Nevertheless, it makes Fresno a more bearable place.  Now we just need to get our AC fixed.

Just for funsies, here's an Ikea table I also put together.

Our first meal at our first place.  It was spiral pasta in marinara sauce. :)

After less than a week in Graeagle, Sharayah and I were ready to get back into the world and move into our apartment.  Unfortunately, we couldn't until August 13th.  So we waited...

The day finally came, and after spending a few days prior emptying out my storage unit, we were ready to move to Fresno.  We got there with the help of my parents and a moving van, and of course, it couldn't have been hotter.  Thanks goodness we were on the first floor because I could not have imagined carrying all my stuff upstairs.  My things were very big or cumbersome, they were just plentiful.  And these were just my things, and wedding gifts. We were still planning on getting Sharayah's things out of her storage unit. 

After finally moving everything into our apartment, we said our goodbyes and thank yous and I love yous to my parents.  When they left we went inside, found whatever space we could fit in, and laid down.  The first thing I decided to do after our short break (and attempt at cooling down) was to put together our bed.  Sharayah had been very vocal about not wanting to sleep on the floor.  It took me a little time to figure out how everything fit together, but I eventually got it.  Even though the bed was all assembled and ready to sleep in, I was still in an assembling mood.  Luckily for me, we had a few items from the awesome Ikea that helped me fulfill the cravings of a handyman. :)

I want to start off by explaining the meaning behind the name of my blog.  The moment Sharayah and I committed ourselves to each other before God, we started writing our own story.  Before, we were merely supporting characters in stories other people were telling.  Now, we are the title characters.  We are the reason to read the story.

And now Sharayah and I are in Fresno.  We have a lease for one year.  Neither of us have any idea what will happen after that lease is up.  We don't know if we'll renew it or if we'll move on to another place.  For that reason, I feel like our time in Fresno is the first chapter of the Story of Kevin and Sharayah.  Everything (worth mentioning) that happens while we're here will be written in this blog: the Fresno Chapter.

:)

I'm married now.  That's an important fact to remember.  A couple of significant changes have taken place in my life because of that single event.  And for those curious for details, this is my attempt at keeping you informed.

Surprisingly enough, it's already been almost four weeks since it happened.  Sharayah and I were married on July 30th of 2011.  We spent two weeks on a honeymoon partially out of necessity, since we were unable to move into our apartment until the 13th of August.  It was relaxing, but we couldn't help feeling anxious as we awaited the day we could move into our own place.

I mentioned significant changes in my life as a result of my being newly married.  The first was moving back to Fresno.  The second is related to the first in that I now have an apartment, which shouldn't be all that surprising (expected, really), except that I share it with a girl.  Third, I transferred to a new store.  It's easily the most difficult store I've had to adapt to.

I'm happy though.  I feel as though I can start living my life.  Or that my life has a more meaningful purpose.  Whatever the case may be, I've got an adventure ahead of me.

:)