Girl Meets North: My First Visitor!
Man. I am so exhausted from working 27 whole hours in one week. This employment thing, I’m not so sure I’m diggin’ it. Oh wait — maybe I’m exhausted from the stomach virus I caught while working 27 hours last week. Yeah, that makes more sense, I suppose. Luckily, it squeaked in (ok, it so didn’t “squeak,” but squeak sounds much more feminine and tolerable than what was actually happening to my body) just after my brother left from a weekend stay in the very inviting Commonwealth of Virginia.
And by weekend stay, I mean Clayton and I drove 3 1/2 hours to fetch him from my cousin’s house in North Carolina, and then drove 3 1/2 hours back to our apartment. That’s what you do when you only have one sibling. Had I been a middle child, or, say, one of six, that boy would be catching a Greyhound.
I was pretty stoked. It had been almost a month since I’ve seen anyone in my family, and that’s teetering on the edge of “Ok, maybe I can do this” and “Will Clayton hear me start my car in the middle of the night if I try to sneak off to Tampa?”
We showed him all the dead trees and questionable neighborhoods he could stand in two days. Newport News really doesn’t have the most booming city life in the winter. Or maybe at all. We have no clue. But we tried, and I think the black bean soup at Cheeseburger in Paradise may have made the whole trip worth it. The little vacay was part catch-up and part celebration; my brother just found out he has been accepted into Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. It sounds really heavy, and that’s because it absolutely is. But T-Dog is ready for it. I can tell. And that makes me so incredibly proud of him and so excited to debate him on all things Southern Baptist. PLUS, he will be less than four hours away from me as early as this summer! So, my vote is yes yes yes.
Did I mention I worked 27 hours last week? And I made dinner like twice. Seriously, I’m a machine. And then, starting Monday night, I got to wash it all down with about 97 ounces of ginger ale. I still don’t like the idea of talking about work in this space, but the general idea is that part of my job is in medical specialty marketing, which means I will still be writing a bit. I’ll also deal with billing and help with a recent company merger. While all that sounds very important, the most exciting part of getting a job is that I am no longer tempted to name the inanimate objects around my apartment, schedule meetings with them throughout the day, and ask them if they would like me to get them a coffee. Trust me, getting out of these 760-sqaure feet couldn’t have come at a better time.
Other Conclusions to Date:
Newport Newsians are mean, snotty drivers. They are as reckless with pedestrians as undergraduates at FSU…even when it’s SNOWING.
Outside of their cars, Newport Newsians are rather delightful.
I have friend crushes on our realtors. They’re twins. And we will be bff’s, even if it means I have to go into [more] debt for that historical fixer-upper to make it happen.
The idea and anticipation of snow is much more manageable than the actual snow. Especially when your idea of “winter clothes” is four tank tops layered underneath a windbreaker.
One month is a really, really long time to not see my mom. And there’s still a whole other month left. I’m wondering if it gets easier. And if I’ll feel guilty if it does.
Small acts of kindness go a very long way when you’re living on the edge of a breakdown at every second.
I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t sincerely and completely trust my husband with my whole heart.
The Winter Olympics are so awesome. Who knew?! (Except that brother and sister ice dancing team. So. Awkward.)
God knows we’re here. And it’s on purpose.