So one would think that I, who have never lost a set of keys for more than 15-20 minutes at any time in my life, would manage to not lose her keys in the first 10 days of living in a new apartment. So in one of the more embarrassing moments of my life I went to the gym at my complex. But I get to the gym only to realize that the lobby is closed until 9am and I didn't bring my gym key with me. I go back to my apt to get the key, and when I get to the door I untie the laces on my shoe to get my key out (I had it tied up in my laces). And then, in something akin to what I have seen in cartoons my key flies out of my hand, over the rail of my balcony, and lands in some very tall, overgrown grass that is beside my stairs. I am completely shocked. I have no idea how this could have possibly happened, because I have NO idea how the key left my hand. I then spend the next 5 minutes walking the perimeter of said grass trying to peer into it without having to actually walk into the grass due to my morbid fear of slithering SNAKES...finally I sucked it up and stepped into the grass to search for said key. Now bear in mind that I am looking for your typical housekey; just a solo key less than 2 inches. Needless to say I didn't find it (for all I know a raven...those are the birds that like shiny objects right?...found it and took it to their nest). So I have to walk back to the leasing office (and it's still not 9am!)! Thankfully a groundskeeper saw me standing outside and asked if I was trying to get into the gym. I then have to tell her my embarrassing story of how I lost the infamous key and I'm pretty sure that by the time I was done with my story this woman was barely holding back laughter. She lets me into the office after telling her boss what happened and I get a new key. Probably the most bizarre part of this incident is that the office does not ask me to identify myself in any way...all they ask me is for my apt number. I guess they assume that no one would actually volunteer that they managed to throw their key over the side of their balcony unless they really had done it.
So summary of my moving adventures: I have a new, big girl apartment, I start a new job, I buy a manual car that I must learn to drive, I have to get used to silence and weird noises, AND I lose my house key. Let's hope that means I'm now disaster free...at least once I start actually working on my unit otherwise who knows what I could lose there =P
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Living alone!
There are lots of perks to living alone such as controlling the remote, walking around in my underwear, and no one else making a mess in my space. However, there are downsides that I am discovering along this journey! Unless I have the tv or some form of music on there is utter silence (unless of course I am talking to myself out loud which is slightly more crazy than doing it silently btw) which is pretty hard to get used to. My solution has been to create a 90s pop Pandora station based primarily on NSYNC and the Spice Girls...it's almost, but not quite, embarrassing to admit how happy this station has made me as I get settled into my new apartment. The second major problem lies not in silence, but in noise...I know how can I complain about both silence and noise? Well let me tell you! When I am lying in bed half awake at 6am and it sounds like someone is unsuccessfully trying to break down my door I lay there for 5 min trying to decide if this is normal apartment noise, or if someone is really trying to break down my door (for the record so far no one has actually broken into my apartment, but to prove I'm not crazy at least 3 of the last 7 mornings someone from the leasing office has left notes on my door) and at those moments I would be really happy with silence!
All things considered though, my apartment is pretty awesome...I would post some pictures of it, but I am technologically challenged and am going to have to figure the whole picture thing out later...and I have a huge closet! Oddly enough though, while my own closet is quite large, the storage space in this place is a little lacking particularly in the bathroom. Now don't get me wrong, I am not a total girly girl but I have my fair share of beauty products along with the necessary first aid kit, which currently is comprised of arnica gel and Disney princess band aids (I'm putting my profession just a bit to shame here...will have to work on the whole first aid thing later), so a little more storage space would be appreciated. But other than the storage space and the inability to drink tap water my first solo, big girl apartment is great!
The whole moving in and getting settled process was surprisingly painless due primarily to my awesome dad and uncle Wayne for moving all the heavy objects, and then my dad for using his vacation time to help me get settled and buy all the necessities needed to start out my solo living. My mother also is a genius about moving, and she tucked all the basic cleaning supplies and things such as toilet paper in a laundry basket so when I unpacked all of my stuff I didn't immediately have to run to the store to stock up on necessities (because really I can only go so long without toilet paper!). All in all I'm a pretty blessed girl when it comes to my family coming together to make this transition as smooth as possible!
All things considered though, my apartment is pretty awesome...I would post some pictures of it, but I am technologically challenged and am going to have to figure the whole picture thing out later...and I have a huge closet! Oddly enough though, while my own closet is quite large, the storage space in this place is a little lacking particularly in the bathroom. Now don't get me wrong, I am not a total girly girl but I have my fair share of beauty products along with the necessary first aid kit, which currently is comprised of arnica gel and Disney princess band aids (I'm putting my profession just a bit to shame here...will have to work on the whole first aid thing later), so a little more storage space would be appreciated. But other than the storage space and the inability to drink tap water my first solo, big girl apartment is great!
The whole moving in and getting settled process was surprisingly painless due primarily to my awesome dad and uncle Wayne for moving all the heavy objects, and then my dad for using his vacation time to help me get settled and buy all the necessities needed to start out my solo living. My mother also is a genius about moving, and she tucked all the basic cleaning supplies and things such as toilet paper in a laundry basket so when I unpacked all of my stuff I didn't immediately have to run to the store to stock up on necessities (because really I can only go so long without toilet paper!). All in all I'm a pretty blessed girl when it comes to my family coming together to make this transition as smooth as possible!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Moving, mayhem, and Tinkerbell
Twelve days ago I flew overnight across the country to Tallahassee, FL to start a new life far far far away from everything familiar. Having graduated from nursing school in early August, I quickly discovered the life of the unemployed was not for me. This prompted me to spread my wings and take my dream job on a cardiac progressive care unit in a 722 bed hospital...only problem? This dream job was 3000 miles away from the city I'd called home for over 4 years: Portland, OR.
Thankfully, my dad decided it was a good time to schedule a family reunion (almost all of his family resides in Alabama) and helped me with the monumental task of settling into my new apartment and life. I wish I could say this process went smoothly...but it really didn't. I had decided to ship all of my stuff (BEST decision I made in the whole moving process) and fly down to Tallahassee; of course the only flight we could get that allowed for the use of the coveted airline miles was a redeye with a 5 hour layover in Atlanta. Needless to say Dad and I arrived in Tallahassee sleep deprived and cranky with the monumental task of finding me a new car as quickly as possible.
In relatively short order we found ourselves at a Toyota dealership test driving a 2013 Toyota Corolla. In a surprisingly short period of time I found myself signing paperwork that made me the owner of a beautiful, white, manual transmission (quite an upgrade from the 20 year old Suburu I had been driving fro 8 years). Yes I said manual transmission. Learning to drive a manual transmission has been on my bucket list for several years. However, I overlooked one very important consideration when I bought this car: I had not driven a stick shift in several years, I had less than 8 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours (in fact sleep had been in short supply for the last 5.5 weeks since I found myself agreeing to take this job), and I had to drive this car at least as far as the airport by myself while dad drove back our rental car. Dad decided it was in my new car's best interest that we practice a bit before I undertook solo driving so we set off down the highway in what I can only describe in retrospect as a very comical experience. Several failed starts, jerky driving, and one crying session later I found myself alone in my brand new car following my dad to the airport and hoping I didn't lose him in traffic. In what I can only call a miracle due to the constant refrain of "Dear God please don't let me hit someone" I arrived at the airport without any mishap. Needless to say I was done driving at that point.
Sometime over the course of dinner I managed to stop hyperventilating and convinced myself that buying a manual car was not the worst idea I'd ever had (it was pretty high up there, or at least it seemed to be in my sleep deprived state), and decided to name my car Tinkerbell. Following that rather calming decision we ate dinner and headed to our hotel where I slept almost 12 hours in preparation for moving day...an adventure for another post!
Thankfully, my dad decided it was a good time to schedule a family reunion (almost all of his family resides in Alabama) and helped me with the monumental task of settling into my new apartment and life. I wish I could say this process went smoothly...but it really didn't. I had decided to ship all of my stuff (BEST decision I made in the whole moving process) and fly down to Tallahassee; of course the only flight we could get that allowed for the use of the coveted airline miles was a redeye with a 5 hour layover in Atlanta. Needless to say Dad and I arrived in Tallahassee sleep deprived and cranky with the monumental task of finding me a new car as quickly as possible.
In relatively short order we found ourselves at a Toyota dealership test driving a 2013 Toyota Corolla. In a surprisingly short period of time I found myself signing paperwork that made me the owner of a beautiful, white, manual transmission (quite an upgrade from the 20 year old Suburu I had been driving fro 8 years). Yes I said manual transmission. Learning to drive a manual transmission has been on my bucket list for several years. However, I overlooked one very important consideration when I bought this car: I had not driven a stick shift in several years, I had less than 8 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours (in fact sleep had been in short supply for the last 5.5 weeks since I found myself agreeing to take this job), and I had to drive this car at least as far as the airport by myself while dad drove back our rental car. Dad decided it was in my new car's best interest that we practice a bit before I undertook solo driving so we set off down the highway in what I can only describe in retrospect as a very comical experience. Several failed starts, jerky driving, and one crying session later I found myself alone in my brand new car following my dad to the airport and hoping I didn't lose him in traffic. In what I can only call a miracle due to the constant refrain of "Dear God please don't let me hit someone" I arrived at the airport without any mishap. Needless to say I was done driving at that point.
Sometime over the course of dinner I managed to stop hyperventilating and convinced myself that buying a manual car was not the worst idea I'd ever had (it was pretty high up there, or at least it seemed to be in my sleep deprived state), and decided to name my car Tinkerbell. Following that rather calming decision we ate dinner and headed to our hotel where I slept almost 12 hours in preparation for moving day...an adventure for another post!
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