There Goes the Neighborhood

There are many reasons I like my apartment, including the tree-shaded front porch, the skylighted studio space, the businesses within walking distance (e.g. locally-owned pizza, hot dog, sandwich, booze, and ice cream shops), its proximity to my job, etc. But I'd be lying if I denied that one of the unexpected bonuses of moving here is that - being a couple blocks from one of the colleges in town - a fair number of attractive college-age guys live around me.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that I'm some perverted stalker or sicko peeping tom who spies on his neighbors with binoculars. For one thing, quite a few of them live close enough that I can see them just fine without binoculars. {grin} The house I live in and the one next door each have a few apartments, and share a driveway and parking area in back, so I see the neighbors without even trying. They're an everyday part of the scenery.

But the bad news about college boys is that they never stick around. And I discovered today that two especially hot guys next door are moving. They were clearing out the garage and the basement (and the apartment itself, it seemed), putting the junk at the curb for people to take if they wanted, and the furniture and such to sell on the lawn. And doing it - as they often are in warm weather - shirtless.

{sigh}

Being the pathologically shy person that I am, I never got to know them beyond exchanging greetings on the way into or out of the house. And besides, even if they were gay (and other than their body-building and -showing, I never got any hint of that) I can't see any reason they'd be socially (or sexually) interested in me, someone nearly their parents' age. I've just been the Gay Man Next Door to them, and they've been the Hot Dudes Next Door to me. I suspect I'll miss them more than they'll miss me. (Hence the snapshots I've just taken to remember them by.)

Meanwhile, another set of roommates have moved into another apartment on the lot. I'm even more sure they're not gay, because they're a mixed couple; the white one's a guy, and the black one's a girl. They're cute in a different way: I'm pretty sure they're just setting up housekeeping together, for the first time. The way he introduced himself when I bumped into him on moving day, explaining that he was moving in to the apartment with his girlfriend instead of just saying "we", was my first clue. They've got new plastic lawn furniture and new tiki torches that they've set up on the little patch of grass by their door, and they've been "eating out" there and inviting friends over for drinks, and so on.

I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous, because I never got to do that; I shared a house with a friend after college, but that was purely platonic, and my one attempt at cohabitating with a boyfriend lacked any of that charm or romance, in part because I was already in my 30's when I finally did it. But it's nice to see them making a go of it. They may not added as much to the "scenery", but at least the neighborhood isn't going to heck in a handbasket.