It made me feel very posh.

This week I have been working on hanging pictures and unpacking my treasures (meaning: annoyingly unnecessary collectibles that I love but that the cats are determined to break).
Yes, we moved into base housing at the end of June and I am still getting organized. As such, I'm not ready to bless you with a new Cribs episode just yet. Instead, I'm going to give you a photo tour of my first place in Norfolk, Virginia. I moved there in the summer of 2004. It was a third floor, two bedroom, two bath with its own full-sized washer and dryer. Even though I had to have a roommate to afford it, I loved it. After a year of living there, I was informed that it was being turned into condos and that I could either buy my unit for a few hundred thousand dollars or get the hell out. I was heartbroken, but Jason and I decided that I should move in with him. And so, in October 2005, my days of single living came to an end--but I still miss my sweet bachelorette pad.

Front door, entryway and dining room:




Kitchen:


The appliances were stainless steel and it had a built-in wine cooler. I'm not a wine drinker, so I kept bottles of soda water in there. It made me feel very posh.

Living room:




Do you see Plant? See also: my tiny, pathetic dorm room television. I still have it because it is the only way I can play my VHS tapes. I never used the fireplace, but I loved having it there.

My room, the master suite:


That bed was so tiny--it was my dad's when he was a child, and I got the bedding in elementary school. The bed slats weren't strong enough to hold the weight of two people, so the one time Jason stayed over, they bent enough to send us and the mattress tumbling down onto the floor! Score: parents 1, Heidi 0. They didn't need to worry, though--Jason is the only man who ever made it into my tower. He didn't judge me for having a collapsing, pink flower-bedecked child bed covered with ruffled pillows and stuffed animals, so I knew it was true love.

And finally, the view from my little balcony: The downtown Norfolk skyline! The Harrison Opera House is on the right, and the dome-shaped thing on the left is the Scope Arena (but if I'm being honest, I totally think it looks like a boob).

I couldn't have asked for a better apartment in which to start my adult life.