Settled In

. . .

The picture of me by the fridge is to give you an idea of the scale of the apartment. We are definitely grocery shopping in frequent, tiny batches!

I don't know when I've ever fallen in love with a city so quickly. I really adore the green line trains that pick us up and take us all over and the 1/4 size grocery carts at our Trader Joe's and Pino's Pizza down the street and the chocolatier where we went to celebrate my new job (I start Tuesday) and the sound that our radiator makes when the steam comes (umm, I particularly love that sound because it doesn't come quite often enough,) and how the lobby smells like whatever the lady in Apt. #1 is cooking (usually something fruity smelling like blueberry pancakes but sometimes hamburgers which is kind of gross for an apartment building) and how the black and white tiled shower in our apartment feels like my own little slice of the city when I take a steamy shower after being so so cold outside and I can look out of the window and see hundreds of other apartment lights. . . I've also learned a lot pretty quickly, like how, although some things are much easier in the city, Target runs are not one of them. We went last night to get some ice cube trays; three hours and three forms of public transportation later I was craving my own little slice of the city for sure. And I've learned about the extreme importance of washing my hands and or gloves after riding the T. Unless anyone is really curious, I won't go into big details on that one. . .

The move has aged me. . .

Here is me on the plane yesterday-anticipating our new life while listening to my new ipod.

And here is me, a tad overwhelmed by all of the boxes and wires that need connecting after being in our apartment for 12 hours. Can you see the bags under my eyes?!

Time to take down the decorations. . .

So, I think I've finally had a long enough break from reality, and I'm basing that on the fact that this morning I woke up and thought, "When we get back to Boston, I have got to take down our Christmas decorations." Oh, wait. . . not only are there no Christmas decorations up, there are no trash cans to put garbage in nor are there places to sit free of boxes, nor is there anything to eat or drink besides the two bottles remaining in the six pack of gatorade we bought the night of our move. . . Yeah, taking down seasonal decor will not be my top priority when we get back. For now, though, I am taking in the new year in the florida sun while drinking Dancing Goats coffee (a blend from Seattle that has the power to move continents) in my new aqua robe.

A week from tomorrow I have a job interview for an administrative position within the social work department at the school I'll be attending. Last week, Sumanth and my dad helped me shop for my first suit so that I'd have something good to wear. I feel like, for the same price and a lot more comfort, I could have draped myself in cashmere, but now I have a suit to wear. I hope the interviewers don't think there will be more where that came from.

I still haven't decided on a new year's resolution, but Sumanth says I have until the end of the night. . .

Resurfacing

Yes, I'm resurfacing to my little blog after months of wrapping up my job at DREAMS, packing up all of our belongings and moving them to a snowy apartment in Boston where I will start classes in January. Well, I guess the apartment itself isn't snowy! I think we kind of underestimated the efforts it would take to move every fiber we own up four flights of stairs. I mean, I definitely did not anticipate shedding tears over how heavy our mattress was. . .

After throwing the last q-tip box, dining room chair and dishtowel up into the apartment, we fell asleep until it was time to return our 16 foot truck and then drove to Florida, where I sit right now, typing on my new MacBook, drinking coffee with eggnog and admiring my freshly polished toes. Life is easy for a little while.

My mom gave Sumanth an alarm clock with wheels for Christmas. If you don't turn it off after the first ring, it jumps off the nightstand and rolls all over the room. It's name is Clocky and I'm already wondering if I can turn Clocky into one of those robot vaccuums by attaching cleaning pads to it's legs. . . See, how much free time I have?

Here are some pics of the new apartment, taken in October before the snow or our own belongings came. . .





And here is the building at Simmons where my classes will be, as well as the little park across the street.

animal departure

tomorrow we will be releasing our turtle, jasper, into a nearby pond, so that he'll finally be able to play with other animals and swim in a body of water that's more than 1.5 times his circumference and eat unprocessed foods and hopefully grow proportionally larger. it will be very difficult to have to empty out his little corner of the living room, but he's been debilitatingly sad for the past few months, and so we think it's in his best interest. he must feel so restless in our apartment, without anything to do but wait for feeding time and try to understand what it means when we watch television.

i especially like this blurry photograph of him, in which his tiny turtle head looks like some kind of gem, washing up on a grassy riverbank.

Lobster for Lunch and a Signed Lease!

Yesterday I woke up at 5am and got on a plane to join Sumanth in Boston where he has been apartment and job hunting all week. Within about twenty minutes of landing I'd already ordered an $11 lobster with lemon and butter for my lunch and within about forty-five minutes we were already taking my first ride on Boston's Subway, the T, to see an apartment that Sumanth had scoped out earlier in the week. About half an hour later, I was putting my initials under Sumanth's on the "Lead Paint Acknowledgement," that went with our apartment, (probably not too smart seeing as my current skin condition has yet to disappear, but. . . ). The apartment is adorable, and I will post some pictures soon. There are carefully maintained pink roses outside of the building and the wood floors absolutely gleam. It will be smaller than our current, spacey 2br, but from the front door we can take steps to a Thai restaurant, the subway and a very modern Dunkin'Donuts. Right now, we're planning on painting the walls in varying shades of purple.

Today has been a complete whirl of touring the city; maybe it is my medicine, but all I could think was this city sparkles. Between the adrenaline of everything and my still high dose of Prednisone my head is kind of thrumming, but in the most positive kind of way.

An Important Update. . .

Well, I am under the care of a very good doctor (finally) who isn't particularly baffled by my lil' rash. . . he said that it originated from contact with some chemical (we're thinking it was our landlord's homemade pesticides) and that the weak treatments I had actually made the rash come back stronger. Now I am on a heavy 12 day course of steroids, which Sumanth is waiting to see the results of before he tries (his rash has stayed pretty contained). . . I'm really hoping this is my last prescription for awhile, because when I went to pick this one up the pharmacist said, 'hey,' and didn't even ask if I had questions about the medicine.

In the meantime, the steroid that I'm on has resulted in me sleeping only in small snatches from about 2:30am-5:30am, reacting with extreme poignancy to life's smallest details, and moving faster than rocket fuel. For instance, I was just washing my hair and thinking to myself, 'how can I make this process more productive, more quick?' Last night, during a 6am episode of Gilmore Girls, the Gilmore Girls got termites under their porch and I found myself gasping, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!' and getting a lump in my throat just thinking about how they could never afford the repairs. . . At work, I've been writing down everything that everyone says just so that I have something extra to do with my hands. . . Does anyone need anything cleaned? I can travel.

The Sad Truth. . .

Well. . . two sad truths to be be exact. 1) My rash is back in full color and 2) Sumanth has it now too. Last night we vacated our apartment for the Days Inn in case we were allergic to something inside, but that didn't seem to change much. Hopefully the doctor will have a good idea tomorrow; if not I may have to invest in an above ground pool of Calamine Clear Lotion. . .

The Effects of Steroids

. . . Well, it's 6:30 am now, and I've been up for a couple of hours tending to my poor, under-the-skin itching, but at least the steroids I'm taking have let me sleep some this week (Tuesday morning definitely found me at Dunkin' Donuts at opening time (4:30am here,) writing a check for vanilla chai tea and a sesame bagel. They have also deflated my rash in a big way, although the itching is still extreme. I am quite hopeful that I'll get to post my smooth belly picture soon, although the Dr's have warned me that it might all come back when I go off the medicine on Sunday. Iyy Yii Yii. . .

A very drugged yet hopeful report. . .

I went to three doctors today and the verdict is that I am having some sort of internal reaction to something. I am on four heavy medicines and am eating a lot of Breyer's triple chocolate ice cream (one of the side effects of one of the medicines is overeating-yikes!). . . I can't tell too much yet, but I think that the rash may be starting to deflate. Hopefully, I'll post a real smooth picture soon.