My apartment complex and the polar bear.
Colleen has requested I post the picture of the polar bear driving my car. So here it is:

Can you see him? He is doing the gangster lean over the center console.

Well I have received many questions about my apartment complex. It is an exciting place, most of the time. I have some very different characters there, which make it fun. I will start the description right inside my own apartment.

Four Betas live there, Ramon (UoM) and I are both alums, and Hermen and Ramiro attend GVSU. Our landlord is crossed eyed and did a terrible job of painting out apartment. Everything is off a little, and pretty much all the trim has some paint on it. Our kitchen counter tops are orange, and the corners are held together with yellow tape. Very classy. We painted the basement floor purple (we are Betas!) and we tried our best to make the place look presentable. I think we did a good job. And no, do not use the towels in the bathroom, they are for looks only. Towels are in the closet.

Our complex is a bunch of duplexes. The partners in our duplex are girls, five of them. Over the summer we made friend with Joy, Casey and Libby. The other two moved in late and we never see them anyways. Libby drives the Mitsubishi 3000GT, well I wouldn't say she drives it... Really she cleans it, washes it, loves it, and tries to drive it. Her skills with a stick shift are very limited, she is getting much better then before! Joy plays rugby, and I promised I would watch a game. I guess buying from the bake sale was not enough support for the team, I need to sit in the stands and watch a game I don't understand. Casey about drove Parking Lot Performance crazy this summer when Hermen and I racked our brains trying to hook up a cool sound system in a Cavalier. We made that job much harder then it needed to be. These were the neighbors who struggled over the weekend on how and where to hang their rainbow flag. Such a funny site, you had to be there.

What was more comical with the neighbors was when I met Joy's mom. She is a sorority advisor so I met her at an advisor dinner. When I told her I lived next door to her daughter she seemed very surprised and said, "I thought from their description of neighbors they lived next door to girls!" I was not sure if I should be offended, or flattered. Was it my dashing fashion sense with the curtains and matching towels? Hum.

Now the real adventure is with the guys down around the circle drive. These guys can party, the fact that most of them are in the mid 20s, and mostly high school girls hangout there... I won't hold that against them too much. I have never seen such responsible partiers. Seriously. When they party they stand out in the parking lot and make sure people do not take our parking spots. Then they get up at 10-11 AM and hose down the parking lots and clean up all the bottles. How nice is that? Then promptly at noon, once the place is clean, they pull out the ping pong table and start playing Beer Pong. Never too early to drink according to them, my favorite quote I often hear early in the morning, "Wake up and Drink!"

Now across the way... pugs. Yes pugs, and lots of them. You know, those dogs with way too much skin for their little bodies. I want to call it a Pug farm, but that does not sound right. There are about maybe 20-25 pugs over there. They yelp all day, but are normally quite at night which is good. One time the gate broke, and we had pugs all over. It was funny helping Casey chase a bunch of pugs around the complex. Ah good times...

The other best highlight of the new place, we are one block away from Tolman Auto, and Tolman Auto Supply. Oh yeah, very convenient. I got new wipers and turn signals bulbs on Saturday. Took 15 seconds to drive there. Nice, very nice.

End of story. Tonight I am playing catch up. Fun.