My Austin Apartments Part 2

After a year of living in South Austin and driving to work in North Austin, I decided Austin's rush hours sucked. So I moved closer to our office in Wells Branch. I learned my lesson about upper floor apartments, though. My apartment was on the ground floor.

This was a pretty new complex as well. The Wells Branch area had just opened and there were large open spaces here and there. I drove through it a year or so ago, and was astounded. The place was fully developed from Mopac to I-35.

A couple of my co-workers lived in the complex, so it was nice to have friends around. I had lived in South Austin to be close to my friend Junior, who lived in a different complex on William Cannon. Shortly after I moved, he got transferred to a store in North Austin, so he and his family moved up into Wells Branch.

There were two flaws with my apartment, It was next to the pool, and I had a team of basketball playing elephants above me. During the summer, and especially on weekends, the pool was party central, with music going late into the night. During one particularly wild party, one couple had sex in the hot tub, forcing management to close it for a week.

The basketball team upstairs practiced daily. About 7 pm, while sitting in my chair and watching TV, I'd hear THUMP - THUMp - THUmp - THump - Thump - thump - Thump - THump - THUmp - THUMp - THUMP - THUMp - THUmp - THump - Thump - thump - Thump - THump - THUmp - THUMp - THUMP - THUMp - THUmp - THump - Thump - thump - Thump - THump - THUmp - THUMp - THUMP - THUMp - THUmp - THump - Thump - thump - Thump - THump - THUmp - THUMp. This went on for two freakin' years!

One night, I had invited a girl over for dinner and a movie. One of my co-workers, who played in a band and always knew where to find a good show, stopped by to see if I wanted to go with him. I'll never forget how big his eyes got when he say my date in a loose t-shirt and shorts. He made quick excuses and left.

Later, I started dating The-Bitch-From-Austin-Do-I-Sound-Bitter? And she spent a few nights over.

But, I had begun working as a sales rep and, naturally, my territory was in South Austin. So I had to move again!

This complex was a bit easier to move in and out of. Basically, there were eight apartments on each floor. All the windows raced out, and all the doors were on the inside of the square, in wide hallways. I moved in in January, and toted stuff in through the gate of the pool and into my door. When I moved out it was July. It was too hard to negotiate the revelers at the pool, so I backed my van up to my window, took off the window screens, and moved out through the window. Clever, huh?