Update Since Moving Across the Country

Hello! So, I've been pretty bad at keeping this thing updated. I was really hoping that this would be something I could stick to, on a regular basis, but so far that has not been the case. I promise I'm trying to get better at this! (for you three readers out there actually reading my rambles...ha)

Since my last post, we moved across the country from a 950 sq ft apartment with a garage to a 624 sq ft apartment with a parking spot. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but seriously...it's been a real eye-opener to have to get rid of THIS MUCH STUFF. Five (I think) trips with a full car to Goodwill before we even left our old place, a couple trips since we've been back, and selling/giving away about half of our furniture. Wow, we had a lot of stuff - and the thing is, we literally don't miss anything that's gone. It's pretty nice to start minimizing.

One thing I am having a hard time with, though, is cutting down on my artsy fartsy supplies. I have so many projects I want to do and I actually do use a lot of my supplies fairly often (I don't buy greeting cards, I make them all; I use ribbons and rubber stamps to dress up gifts wrapped in brown craft paper; etc.) that I just can't bear to part with the majority of it. I did go through before we moved and got rid of a couple boxes worth of craft stuff that I had held onto for years and never used - you know, that stuff you look at and think, "oh this would be great for this particular project," and then one day you realize, "I'm never going to do THAT specific project, and if I did, I would want to get rid of it anyway."

So, a month later we're almost organized...there are a few more boxes of artsy fartsy things that won't fit into the hall closet and at this time I don't have a place for them...so they're sitting under the windows in the main room. I have to say it is driving me nuts that things still aren't all the way put away, but we are waiting on a storage unit inside our building to open up - right now we have things like camping gear and a few boxes of artsy fartsy stuff and some other randoms in a 4x4 cage in a room that's off the underground parking garage. Not easy access, and not organized well enough to be very functional. Also, Husband has some random stuff laying about that will go to his work, and I have a box and a couple cases of items that will go to my office someday...hopefully someday soon...anyway, that's that.

Despite the few straggling boxes, I do LOVE where we live now; we face west on the fifth floor of our building, one of the tallest in our neighborhood. We look at the peninsula, Puget Sound, and some small islands in the Sound. We can watch amazing sunsets with a water view. I'm pretty sure apartment living in our neighborhood could only be better if we were on the top floor, the seventh, but seeing as how we're only two floors below that, it's still really freaking awesome. The rooftop garden and fire pit is awesome, 360 degree views of the best Western Washington has to offer: Puget Sound, both mountain ranges, Mt. Rainier, and downtown. So, my mantra lately has pretty much been: "I win." Because this is really freaking amazing.

In addition, we are a block away from great public transportation, walking distance to Trader Joe's, the ongoing neighborhood produce stand, and the weekly farmer's market. Oh, and a bunch of great restaurants and bars, a couple of parks, the hardware store, SIX (maybe more...) coffee shops that AREN'T Starbucks (!!!), great little gift boutiques, our family jeweler, and pretty much everything else we could need or want. Did I mention life is pretty amazing right now?

Except for the fact that I have yet to find a job. It's kind of depressing, actually. And getting worse. However, I do have a lead for an Air Force Medical Dental Group recruiter, I'm going on a ride along with a supply rep to his client offices tomorrow and then with another rep next week, I've been offered a part time hygiene opportunity in a family friend's office (not terrible but definitely not ideal - hey, at least it would be a paycheck! If my license ever arrives, that is). So ya, I did mention my license hasn't arrive yet, right? I won't even go into how I feel about THAT (although I think it's quite obvious). So...trying SO hard to stay positive and keep on chugging!!

We have found some great places and things to do on a regular basis, so I'm excited to start getting more involved in the community! We visited a gym yesterday that we're going to start going to - my initial assessment/consult is in an hour and a half actually. They have a couple different practices of martial arts, boxing, and a thing called Warrior Woman which I'm going to do. I guess it's basically circuit and strength training bootcamp, so I'm really excited to try it out. I'm kind of intimidated that other women are going to have way more of a head start in this than me, but I'm super excited to get back to a community gym where is small enough to be personalized but not nearly as expensive as personal training, and provides a good community of fellow athletes.

Also, yesterday I went to a book group at the local library. I've been wanting to join one for a while, and wasn't really sure how to start my own - making sure everyone gets the book in time to have it finished by the next meeting was what I was having trouble figuring out...oh, and the fact that NO ONE in my building responded to my post in our online portal about wanting to start a book club! RUDE. Haha. Anyway, I went to the one at the library yesterday and it seems like a really good group of ladies. Of course they're all older than me, by at least 8 or 10 years, and some could be my grandmas, but it was a good time! I'm pretty sure they're all bleeding hearts, too, which is kind of unfortunate but at least one seems at least open to the fact that someone might think differently and that what makes the world go round is all kinds of kinds, not just one kind of thinking...at any rate, the only reason that all came up anyway was because the book they had just finished reading was Mornings on Horseback, the David McCullough biography of Theodore Roosevelt, so there was some political banter but mostly in good fun anyway. The book apparently didn't go into a lot of political detail, mostly his upbringing and career, and how he got into political service - not so much his actual presidency or what he did during it. The general consensus was that the ladies didn't particularly enjoy David McCullough's writing as a historian, wouldn't recommend other biographies written by him, and most of the ladies didn't even read the whole book because they didn't like it. It's hard to tell yet if the reason they didn't like the historian's book was because he actually writes in a manner that's hard for most people to read, or if it's because they might be reading at a much younger level - which is actually really common, unfortunately. Apparently most adults in the US read at about an 8th-9th grade level, so that definitely wouldn't cut it to read a book by an extremely popular PhD historian and political biographer. I mean, the man has written several biographies and has sold tons of copies of all of them...so I may just need to read one for myself and decide.

Anyway, I think that should be about all for now. Sorry I rambled a bit in that last paragraph, I'm super excited to have found a book club that seems great so far! Now we're reading East of the Mountains, by David Guterson. So far it's pretty good.

Okay seriously now, I'm done. Thanks for reading, as always, if you got this far :) Until next time, friends!