Moving on
Ok, I should probably update the journal. In the past two weeks I have packed up my belongings, moved to a new time zone, and now live in a city six times larger in population than any other I have previously lived in. So yeah... updates all around.
The move itself had two hiccups. The first was arriving late... Despite leaving early enough to give us an hour and a half's leeway. We hit bad traffic twice and it was frustrating. Driving a Uhaul is not fun when you are in bumper to bumper traffic and morons think that little bit of space you left in front of you was for them to dart in and out of, not the extra stopping room you would like to have. Argh! Then the brakes on the Taurus (which Carol was driving) began to not work about 20 minutes from Ann Arbor. My phone was dead so she could not relay this information. When we got there we discovered we have a hole in our brake line. With money being as tight as it is right now, we will have to use public transit for the time being. Not a "bad" thing, but not great either.
With the help of some cousins from Carol's side of the family we got our stuff moved in pretty darn quickly. Those guys are great. There are many things about Ann Arbor that I do enjoy, and having good family like that nearby is definitely a plus. So now our apartment is all nice and neat. Pictures of it can be seen on Facebook for those that care. Now I have to adjust to city life. I have already locked myself out once because I am not used to locking my door. This may seem naive, but I never had to do it in Elsberry nor in Kirksville. And Ann Arbor does not seem to be full of crime, but I guess locking things is expected. Also I have to figure out public transit. We have a little booklet and Google Maps helps, but still I find it all so foreign. Maybe that is what I feel like the most. A tourist. All I need is a Hawaiian shirt and a camera.
There are several things I do enjoy here. The family I have already mentioned. The weather is nice (though maybe in December I will change my mind) and the city as a whole seems like a good place to live. What I am missing right now are friends. I still keep in touch with my friends via the internet and that helps, but I really want human interaction. I know that sounds weird. I have a loving wife, but I am the kind of guy that thinks the more the merrier (but not in some weird in the bedroom sense. My opinions on any number of persons greater than two sharing a bed in any sense other than sleeping is pretty firm.... Don't). I just need a bunch of friends. I have only done one thing with the local SCA group so far, and that was a singing night, so really those are more Carol's kind of people. They did seem nice, and were very welcoming (we were told that no less than three Laurels from Calontir had told them we would be moving here), but I don't speak their lingo. Still I am glad we went. I am sure once I make my way to a gaming store (once again, hard to do when you don't have a car) or an SCA meeting I will find some people to hang out with. Until then, Skype is my connection to the outside world. If you use it and wish to add me, my user name is ermenrich.
And last, but certainly not least, the job hunt. Several resumes are out there. I need to do some more, but that will wait until tomorrow. Today I have my first interview! Ok, so it is at a grocerty store called Meijer so it is not a glamorous job, but I like eating more than I like waiting around for the perfect career to come along. I am going to go to that interview, ace it, and do whatever job I do (it is sort of a blanket interview for several different postings) so well that they will have no choice to promote me. Yeah... that is what will happen. In the meantime, even if I get the job I will look for better jobs along the way.
So yeah... that is my life in Ann Arbor. Questions? Comments? Concerns?