.....And I Have Neighbors, Among Other Issues

I realize that my blogging tends to sound a little on the glass half empty side. All I can say is that I'm trying to not be such a negative person. You know, enjoy the sunrise (which I did this morning) and stop to smell the flowers (before they freeze to death). Like I said, I'm a work in progress. All joking aside life is going pretty well. I'm content with where I am in life right now. I'm thankful for my faith, family, friends and job. Really that's quite a lot to be thankful for. I just don't think many people would enjoy my rants about the rays of sunshine in life or the furry kittens of the world. Kittens....I'll leave that for another day at Dunn Bros Coffee (where I enjoy their free wifi with coffee).

Now, let's move onto my recent living alone stories and adventures.

First, I live in a decent size apartment complex. There are 24 large units in my building with multiple complexes on the block. Most of the time I'm fortunate enough to live in a world where I feel as if I don't have any neighbors. I hardly hear a peep from them, until last night that is. It's around 10:15pm and I'm really hoping to pass out at any moment. I've been really tired lately. Out of nowhere I hear giggles from a highly pitched annoying sounding female. Then from what I can assume to be her boyfriend starts laughing too. I'm not so cynical where I find this impossible to tolerate. The tickle-me-Elmo fest continued for only a few moments. I then hear her say in her still annoying but now sounding like a baby voice, "Nooooo, this is my bed. My bed. My bed." *giggle giggle* Whatever, they shut up. If my two required years in the dorms taught me anything it's that when you suspect "coitous" (thanks for my education The Big Bang Theory) you're probably going to have to put up with the ruckus. I don't want to be too crude here. We are all adults, hopefully. Well, let's just say that by the end of their horizontal jogging I lost sleep, realized I would have something to blog about and suddenly had the urge to pound a nail into the wall at 6:30am when I would wake up. I'm sure I could find something to hang....
No, in case you're wondering I wasn't that rude even though they were. I did the mature thing - I sang a top 40 medley this morning in the shower.

Last story for the day. In order to get our security deposit back we had to mail in the receipt for our last months utility bill. Joy had lingering bills as well that were partly mine. She sent me a total and I wrote her a check. I intended to send it today after work. Traffic was good and I arrived at the post office at 5:35. What kind of post office closes at 5:30?? Ugh. I continue on my way to the next post office downtown. I knew it would be a hassle, but it was a bigger hassle than I expected. I couldn't find a place to park. Sorry Joy. I'll try and send your check tomorrow!

Kat

Welcome to Minneapolis

For those of you who aren't aware I've been living in Minneapolis now for a first week and half. It's been an adventure so far to say the least. In this short time I've already met many new and wonderful people, started attending a great church, and have been trying extra hard to learn street names (refer to previous posts on my need to learn direction). Here's a simple breakdown of the past 11 days of my life.

1) People: It's been hard adjusting to life in the big city. I'm grateful for all of the new people I've met and truely hope to develop all of the relationships I've made so far. Everyone has been a blessing despite the curves life continues to throw my direction.
2) Places: There are an overwhelming amount of beautiful places to see. There's always something to do here and for my reforming hermit self, this is a good thing.
3) Apartment Life: From the get go moving into my apartment was a hassle. Prepare for some complaining. Moving over Labor Day weekend is probably the worst weekend to move. When you are finally able to locate that checkin list burried underneath boxes and piles of stuff, you'll probably learn the office is closed. You'll be left with no working stove, a clogged bathroom sink, no smoke detector (but hey you don't have a stove. You're in the clear), and bedroom blinds that don't work. All of this is quite an overwhelming feeling. Especially considering I picked a 3rd story apartment because I ran out of energy to keep looking. However, I'm thankful I have a relatively nice and roomie place to live. It's comfortable and safe. Now, I just have to adjust to hearing noises all night. Maybe after a month I'll be able to sleep through the night? Lord willing...
4) Work: Work is going well. Having a 40 hour a week working lifestyle also takes some getting used to. I'm very thankful for having a decent paying job as a recent graduate. But I know it's not something I want to do with my life forever.

In a nutshell life is goodish. The journey has been and always will be filled with ups and downs. Each experience is shaping the person I'm becoming through the good and the bad. I try my best to remain strong and trust that God has a plan for me. There's no need to race through it or push our circumstances. Instead, I prefer to enjoy the crazy rollercoaster day by day.

Don't Worry we Survived Moving

We are moved out and on our own!  Now that we are no longer roomies, I guess we'll just have to share our independent living adventures.

Yeah, it's been a while. But really I had nothing new to share.  My life basically consisted of working and job hunting.  For the last week it has been work, moving, and sleeping.  The move only took me about 7 trips in my station wagon in two days (I could have done it in one but I also had plans to go to the State Fair).  I finally was able to get some major unpacking done the last two days (after only living here 4 days).  My place is finally coming together but I still have plenty of work to do.  It sure was nice when I just went away for a weekend last time and came back to the whole place set up.  Where is Kat when I need her?

I finally got my internet set up this morning. Stupid Comcast.  I called to have everything transferred and they told me I would just need to bring the equipment with me and set it up and they would be able to just turn it on from outside.  Well they were wrong when I finally set it up Tuesday evening it didn't work.  So they had to send someone out this morning.

My new place is pretty nice. I could use more storage, like a coat closet maybe, but otherwise it is suiting me just fine.  The key to my apartment is a little tricky though.  I struggle with normally, so I was a little weary of how it would go after being downtown.  Well Monday night I went out and came back and unlocked the door on the first try, no struggle at all. But just about every time since then I struggle.  And last night I'm pretty sure I heard someone snoring, talk about thin walls! But really that's it, no more complaints, it's a nice apartment.

Side story: Last week my friend Tiffany and I went to the Minnesota state fair after a long hard day of moving.  We decided to sit down for some ice cream and people watching.  While we were sitting there Tiffany spots a little girl (I'd guess about 3) and says I hope she is wearing something under her shirt or dress whichever that is. It was short for a dress but a long shirt. So I'm watching this little girl (and yes she had shorts on) and see she is holding herself so I says to Tiffany, "she needs to pee" and Tiffany looks and says "oh yeah she does, she's gunna end up going right there" about 4-5 minutes later we look over to see a puddle under her and her mom trying to clean off her shoe.  Poor little girl.  Moral of the story parents: pay attention when your child needs to pee.

Otherwise no real exciting stories to share. I'll try to lead a more exciting life so I have more to share.
~ Joy

Things Are Looking Up!

Well folks, I'm no longer unemployed. Thank God!!! After almost 3 months of unemployment I can finally say that I have a job. I signed up with a job agency around the cities and scored an interview with a medical company. They called me back and offered me the job. Today was my second day and so far I love it! I'll just keep praying the new company that bought them over decides to make my position permanent.

I've also been apartment hunting for places in Minneapolis. One of the reasons being my job is in Minnetonka and I'm hoping to go to grad/law school in the cities. I found a place I was satisfied with and plan on signing the lease ASAP.


Here's the sad news - Joy won't be my roommate anymore. :'( Saying I'm sad to infinity won't begin to put how I feel into perspective. She's kinda cool and all and even puts up with my antics. She doesn't want to move anywhere near the cities unfortunately. We'll soon have to figure out what to do with our blog. *sigh*

Boring Updates on My Life

Lately I've been continuing my never ending job hunting process. I've literally applied to around 100 jobs or more and that's not exaggerating. I wish it were. Out of those jobs I've had 1 interview. I'm playing the waiting game to find out if I move on to the next round or not. Job hunting should not feeling like a game show, but it does. This morning I got a call from an agency staffing around the Twin Cities. She has to call me back now. I pray something leads somewhere soon. Everyone tells me the economy is tough. No kidding. Sadly it's' the current state of my generation to have spent a small fortune on getting a degree and we're stuck accepting low-paying jobs that we could have gotten without a degree only a couple of years ago. It's ever so frustrating. However, I have faith things will look up. I mean they better. I had to buy dress clothes and I have no where to wear them otherwise. That would be a waste.

Harry Potter and River Adventures

Well, it certainly has been a while since I've written on here.  My life has mostly been consumed with working and in my spare time I have been rereading the Harry Potter series so as to prepare for the final movie coming out in 22 short days! I am uber excited, I hope it is as good as part one was. Last night I finished book five (possibly my favorite book, or maybe seven is) so I only have one and a half to go.  I'm only reading to where the first movie left off in the seventh book because I found out that if the book is fresh in my mind it makes the movie less enjoyable (or maybe that was because the sixth movie just wasn't done very well). So 22 days and 52 chapters to go! Plus I'll prolly try to find time to watch the movies too, just maybe not the first three, they get boring after seeing them too much.
Other than that I went for a walk on my day off Monday and decided to venture down by the river in the park.  Well I kind of always wanted to venture beyond the first little water fall that I normally visited last summer when my dog lived with me.  I took my opportunity to walk further up the river beyond it.  I came to another water fall and decided to climb it and continue my river walk.  So I climbed up this 5 foot water fall (cell phone in hand, I guess I was feeling pretty gutsy) well once on top I knew there would be no turning back as I didn't think I could climb back down. So I walked up the river to campus until there was a nice clearing by the path just behind campus.  It was a nice little afternoon adventure.
Other than that there isn't much to report.  The job search has slowed some, I should really put down  the books a little more and look harder, but I can't help but get caught up in my reading. 

Since it's been about a month

Too bad the A-Z challenge is over because we have very little to keep us inspired to write anything. Since it's been nearly a month without any updates I'll give a quick summary.

1. Congrats to Melissa who is all settled into her new place and job. She was a great 3rd roommate and we had tons of fun with her. I guess some people have to grow up. We are proud of you!!!
2. Advice to anyone with a roommate: Never let your drunk friends into your house after bars while your roommate is sleeping - no matter what they threaten to do to your car. We'll leave it at that.
3. Joy is working hard at applying for jobs and trying to figure out what she wants to do with life.
4. I am thinking of buying a magic 8 ball to decide what to do with my life.
5. We have roughly a month to let our landlord know if we are going to renew our lease or not.
6. Major problems: a) We aren't 100% sure we'll be staying in River Falls and b) even if we are, Joy might be too scarred to want to live with me for another year. Maybe she can borrow my magic 8 ball. Just a thought.