Yes, this could be considered as slander, but why do I really care? My name has been slandered all throughout this apartment complex, and for what? Nothing.

   When we first approached The Pines, located on Ivey Road in Graham, North Carolina, it seemed very pleasant, but first glaces are ninety-nine percent deceptive in most cases. The rent seemed fairly cheap considering I just got a new job, but still a little steep compared to where we moved from. The manager just handed us the key and told us where the apartment was so we could look at it, didn't even offer to give us a tour, which I thought was rather odd because it's almost like they have something to hide, or are either too lazy to do their job. We liked the way the apartment looked, considering we were slim on options on where to move that was around my job. The apartment was very small though, a one bedroom, but it seemed very cramped once we moved all of our stuff in.

   Within the first three days, we received a note on our door about a complaint about knocking on doors. First of all, my fiancee sells jewelry, and she was just trying to find potential customers, which led to our first complaint. We didn't knock on any doors after that except for the people we knew were friendly and didn't mind the company. One night, a had a few friends over to have a couple of beers out on the back porch. Some other people showed up that I didn't know, and one of them ended up hitting one of my friends in the face and then ran off, later I found out he lived in this complex. The cops were called by my friend, which led to another complaint, even though it was for our own safety, plus a complaint on top of that for accidentally leaving two beer cans on MY back porch.

   Over the next two weeks, the complaints just kept piling up, even though we remained to ourselves and bothered no one. I worked most of the time. We woke up one morning with a note on our door saying we were being evicted. Accusations included knocking on more doors late at night, loud music late at night, asking to borrow money, and harassment. None of these accusations were true, so we went to the office and told our side of the story. The manager talked to the main office, Smith Reynolds, and they said we could stay but if we got one more complaint we would have to leave. Things were good for about a week.

  One morning I went to ask the manager if there were any maintenance positions available, but before I even spoke, she told me she was glad I walked in so she wouldn't have to send up a letter saying we were being evicted. I asked her why, and she said too many complaints had piled up. I had asked her what complaints were being told, she refused to tell me. That also seemed sketchy. She gave the thirty day notice and I left the office. Two days later, our air conditioning stopped working. I called the office at ten in the morning to have them come fix it. The manager said she would send someone 'right away'. It came to be four in the afternoon, still no sign of maintenance, still no sign of cool air. The thermostat read 115 degrees. We lived in these conditions for two days straight, until we caught a maintenance man and we asked what he could do about it.

   He said he 'thought' he saw a work order for it, but he continued to go and 'fix' this problem. A side note, our air conditioning unit is located on the side of the building, but he went around the back. I stayed outside to see when he came back, and he was back around front within twenty seconds. Now, I don't have my HVAC, but I'm pretty sure if and air conditioning unit has a problem, it's going to take longer than that to fix it. My neighbor Adam later told me that another maintenance man said they had to order parts for it, but no parts were actually ordered to my knowledge. The air conditioning would blow hot air on the inside, but the fan was not blowing outside. This meant someone had to flip the switch outside to make our air stop working, and this was a fact. All the maintenance man did was go flip the switch back on. A side note, when he came back around, he told us not to tell the office what he did so he wouldn't get in trouble. Hmm...

I'm positive the office had something to do with this to try to get us out faster. Then I called the main office to tell the situation, they said they would look into it. A few hours later, some random lady shows up at the pool, threatening me and my fiancee saying if we ever talked bad about the staff again, she was going to physically hurt us.

In conclusion, that was just my own experience of The Pines. Do note that this is not the place you want to live, I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. Way too much drama goes on, the old residence do not like new people moving in. Everyone seems to be a part of a circle, everyone is watching you, everyone talks to each other and rumors get spread. I heard a rumor yesterday that we break into houses and cars. That is just pathetic. We are also considering taking legal action against The Pines due to my fiancee's condition, which the heat only makes worse, and just the fact that they illegally cut off our air conditioning. This is the worst place I have ever lived.

I have found happiness. I didn't think I could so quickly, but I did. I realized I have plenty of people to confide in, and I don't need just one person to rely on to make me happy. I have found my own serenity, my own nirvana. I am talking to this wonderful girl, she is pretty much just like me, and she's super hot! But hey, I'm not looking for anything serious right now, not to say that I couldn't easily fall for her. Life is good, and I have no worries. I am content with the way things are, and I feel so much better than I have in the past four years. Thank you God for allowing me to see that life is beautiful!