Indiana!

I could do a whole long post to explain how, from April 20 to now, Ryan and I made the decision and went through the process of moving from Stafford, Connecticut to South Bend, Indiana. Except the idea of that whole long post is exactly what has been keeping me from posting on this blog. The idea of reliving the process I just finished, and typing it up in a way that is at least mildly entertaining, is exhausting.

Here's the short version:
The only way Ryan and I could afford to move out of his mother's basement was to move to Indiana, where we were all but guaranteed to get full-time jobs as Starbucks baristas, and where our friends BJ & Sammeh had a 2-bedroom apartment waiting for us.

So we jumped.

So far, it's been great. We get along very well with our new roommates and their friends, and have been having a lot of fun. The area is interesting (to us), and has enough trees for me to get by. There have been bouts of homesickness, and attacks of "OMG WHAT DID WE DO HOLY SHIT," but for the most part it's been...well, good!

I would like to try and blog on a daily basis--partly to keep my writing going, partly to keep my friends and family updated. I've attempted at this commitment before, but let's pretend there's a good chance, hm?

So...what is new, here in Indiana, with Ruth and Ryan, as of June 2, 2010.

Yesterday, BJ took us down to the Rental Office to be added to the lease as Occupants. We got parking stickers, cards for the exercise room and pool, and our very own copy of the lease.

We took this copy over to Inova Credit Union, which is BJ's bank. I had asked both BJ and Sammeh about their banks, to see if they'd be good for us to join, and both had agreed that BJ's was best. We sat down with a friend of his, and she set about with setting accounts up.

First she put in our address (which we had proof of, with our pretty new Xerox!).
No go--we don't live close enough to qualify.
She asked if we would be working closer to the bank, or going to church in the area. We must have looked confused, because she then explained:
"Membership is based on where you live, work, or worship."
I can guarantee that all the New Englanders reading this blinked at that statement. We did!

We ended up being grandfathered in under BJ's membership, which had been grandfathered in from when he lived with his parents (who apparently live in a qualifying area). The next hour or so had Ryan and I filling out forms and answering questions, while BJ snarked in the background. We should be getting our checks and cards in the mail any day now, which has me really excited. I almost feel as giddy as when I got my first bank account that wasn't a joint account with my mother. An account! With all my money in it! It's no longer in an envelope in my desk! Huzzah!

From the bank we went to a little organic grocery store called Garden Patch, which carries the Blessed Smoothies.

For those who don't know, I've been all but living off of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt Smoothies for years. They're delicious, there's no High Fructose Corn Syrup, probiotics up the wazoo, and they work well as a snack or part of a breakfast. I've been going through 3 or 4 a day for the longest time, and the week I've gone without them has been devoid of yogurty goodness.

But the Garden Patch had them! Only in Strawberry, but good enough! For some reason I only bought three, and now only have one left, so I may go down today and buy more...and see how much a case would cost.

The Garden Patch was followed by Del Taco and Ritters, two chains Ryan and I had never heard of. The first is pretty self-explanatory: tacos, burritos, and other vaguely Mexican food (plus fries and hash browns), filled with your choice of chicken, steak, or fish. Ritters is a local ice cream chain which we now know makes the most delicious ice cream and ice cream delights this side of the UConn Dairy Bar.

Yesterday was also my first attempt at using the laundry room for our section of apartments. The laundry room is attached to the complex, but only accessibly from an outside door. It's essentially a large hallway, the first half of which is lined with storage lockers for each of the section's apartments, and the second half of which holds two laundromat-sized washers and dryers.

I learned several things:
First, that the laundry room is always locked, and only unlocked by turning the key and knob separately.
Second, that it costs $2.75 per complete load of laundry ($1.50 for wash, $1.25 for dry).
Third, that the washer takes roughly half an hour, and the dryer takes roughly a week.
Fourth, that the size of a washer load is actually just too big for the dryer to completely dry everything in it.

Sadly, I learned that last item as we were heading out to the Rental Office. And I had filled up both dryers, expecting one to be done by the time I finished loading the second. We ended up calling Sammeh from the bank, and she was kind enough to fetch our laundry for us. I now owe her something shiny, not that she'll take it without a fuss.

Looking back over this post so far, it may seem one very packed day. Up to this point in time, I had:
[o] done 40 minutes of exercise
[o] taken out almost all of the cardboard recycling*
[o] done 3 1/2 loads of laundry (one dryer load had to go through twice >.<)
[o] become an official Occupant of the apartment
[o] opened a checking and savings account at a local bank
[o] and sampled even more local cuisine

*Some morons tried to thwart me by leaving a small love seat in the cardboard recycling dumpster, but I was not deterred!

That sounds like enough, right? But no! There's more! Fortunately, the rest is fairly easy to sum up:

Shortly after BJ, Ryan and I returned, BJ's parents visited. They were friendly and funny and all around awesome people. BJ tried to break silence at one point by pointing out that they are pro-marijuana, which they seemed scandalized by until I piped up that I was, too, being raised by the biggest hippies in history.**

**Well, almost. As far as I know, neither of them went into grocery stores wearing only loin cloths. And if they did I don't want to know about it.

After they left, two our other three friends in the area, Alex and Rachel, came by. We ended up staying up until two in the morning playing board games (Things, followed by Apples to Apples, followed by Quelf). I could not have been happier, being a a deprived addict of both board and card games. They're having a rough time right now with money and employment, and seemed to really get a lot out of the night, so we will be harassing them to come over and unwind on a regular basis. :D

All in all, yesterday was a long and positive one. Today I return moldy cheese to the grocery store, buy more smoothies, and hopefully hear back from Starbucks with the results of our final in-person interviews.

I'm hoping to post again tomorrow saying that we'll be starting training in the next week, or we've won the lottery. I'll take either.