Dear family, friends, and any randoms who may have stumbled upon this website,
I have officially bitten the bullet. I’ve joined the blogosphere. It’s something that’s been recommended to me for a while, and I’ve been meaning to sit down and actually create one of these things. But you know how it goes: you make this perpetual “To Do” list that just sits there, and you somehow seem to add things to it constantly without ever actually crossing anything off. It just grows and grows, and all of a sudden you look down and you have three years of tasks that you’ve never completed, which only serves to overwhelm you more, and you end up shoving the whole list back in your desk drawer, hoping you won’t discover it again for quite some time. Or maybe never.
Well, the blog has kind of been that way for me. As an English major, I kind of feel like I’m supposed to have a blog. I mean, I majored in writing, for goodness sake…isn’t it like a requirement or something in 2011 for all recent English majors to have one? But alas, I’ve been putting this off, for one reason or another. It just seemed like so much pressure. What should I write about? What do I have to say? What if it’s boring? Oh God, am I going to bore my readers?
And then I thought, Seriously, Lucy. What kind of a blog do you think this is going to be? I mean honestly, how many people do you think are going to read this?
Now, I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer over here or anything, with this self-deprecating thinking. It’s just that I realized that this is just a blog. One of the thousands or millions on the Internet. It’s not like they’re going to publish an article about it on CNN or do a story about it on NPR. It’s just the thoughts and experiences of a 20-something-year-old in America.
And so, with this move to Austin, I’ve realized that the easiest way to keep up with everyone from home is probably going to be through a blog. Instead of trying to call or e-mail everybody I know and update them about my adventures in the capital city of Texas, I can write it all down and share it at once. Much simpler. Much faster. And a whole lot less hassle for me, if I’m being honest.
Ok, now that I’ve given you a history about my reasons for starting this thing, I’ll try to be brief about my stay so far. Now, for those of you who know me, being brief in my writing is not my strong suit. So I make no promises .
Most of my time has been spent job searching. Ugh. I hate it. Cover letters, resumes, job search websites, applications…it’s such a process. And it can take forever. Sometimes you just need a break (I’m actually writing this post as a respite from my job searching).
But it’s all part of the joyous moving process. I’d love for someone to walk up to me on the street and hand me a job, or for something to fall from the sky saying, “Congratulations, Lucy! Your search is over! Here’s the perfect job for you!” Now, so far, that hasn’t happened, but if it does, you can believe that I’ll be blogging about it.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the move so far has been the addition of a fourth roommate. For those of you who don’t know, I moved to Austin with Joanna, one of my best friends from high school, and Caitlin, one of my best friends from college. We found an apartment in a great location, just south of downtown. When we moved in, we thought it would be just the three of us. We soon discovered, though, that our apartment already had an inhabitant. In the shape of a mouse.
Awesome. Less than a week after we moved, we found a box of English muffins partially eaten through. We set out traps, called maintenance, and had a pest control worker come check things out. But our little friend just won’t leave. In the past two and a half weeks, we’ve found chewed up bagels, gnawed up carpet, half-eaten bread, and holes underneath the cabinet in my bathroom with teeth marks.
Delightful. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be sharing my bathroom with a mouse. As the only roommate with her own bedroom, I was missing a bit of companionship. Clearly, the mouse picked up on this.
Maintenance came in yesterday and placed boards over the holes that the mouse had eaten under the cabinets, and they’ve caulked other holes that were found in the apartment. So hopefully, we won’t see him again.
Aside from the mouse, we’ve just been exploring the city a bit. There’s so much to see and do that I know we’ve barely scratched the surface. We did have a great time doing some Austin City Limits people watching last weekend, though. That festival certainly brings a diverse group of people to the city. Nothing beats sitting in a bar, watching hoards of people walk down Sixth Street (affectionately dubbed Dirty Sixth) after they’ve consumed a few drinks. Except maybe participating in a Monty Python quote-along (complete with inflatable swords and coconuts).
So that pretty much sums up our first few weeks. We’ve seen a little, spent way too much time in front of our computers, and dealt with our first unwanted guest.
And so begins our journey in this wonderful new city. What’s next? Watching the bats from the Congress Avenue Bridge? Stopping by the frozen banana stand (there’s always money in the banana stand)? Celebrating Eeyore’s birthday (wait, that’s not until April)? Honestly, I have no idea, but I’ll do my best to keep this updated.
So welcome to my blog, and thanks for making it through to the end. And if by some miracle you enjoy reading my thoughts, I’ll do my best to keep it interesting.
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