Greetings from the South

They say that Alexandria isn't really a southern city, but it's the closest to the south that I've ever lived, so for the sake of this post, it will do.

We got some special mail today from Matt and Courtney, and that reminded me that I haven't been in touch with a lot of SB people lately, so I figured I'd do my part by broadcasting all about my life to the internet world. If you read this and I haven't heard from you in a while, would you please leave a comment and let me know what's up with you?

I really, really like northern Virginia in the fall. The foliage is not as plentiful or colorful as it is in upstate NY or New Hampshire, but it's not bad. The air is crisp and it feels like fall, but it's warm enough that on most days a long-sleeved shirt suffices for outdoor coverage. There is a beautiful drive from Washington D.C. to Alexandria right along the Potomac that I was lucky enough to stumble upon a few weekends ago, and for the ten minutes of that drive, I was sure that I had moved to the prettiest place in the world. The leaves have mostly fallen since then, but it's still not so bad!

Also, we love our new apartment. It has a teensy-tiny guest room with a futon, a big living room, and probably three times as much storage space as our SB apartment had. And we have a dishwasher. And a washer and dryer in our apartment. I can't describe how much I enjoy those amenities, particularly the washer and dryer. We don't save quarters anymore. We spend them. We throw them willy-nilly into parking meters. We are reckless with quarters, and we love it. Oh, and it's hard to believe that there's anybody in the world who hasn't heard, but on a clear day, you can see the Washington Monument from our balcony. The real Washington Monument. Not that scary Masonic temple thing in Alexandria, though you can see that too, and a lot better.

On the job front, well, there's not much for me to report on. I received word during our cross-country drive that my hiring paperwork was completed on my boss' end, but the federal government was in a hiring freeze, so they couldn't proceed until that was over. I was disappointed to hear that news, but not long after that our new landlady called to let us know that some pipes had burst behind one of the walls in our apartment, and they would need an extra week to repair the damage. Well, we had set our original move-in date to complement my work start date, so it was no problem for us to push it back a week. We spent an extra day in Pittsburgh, a few with my parents and a couple more with Matt's, which was nice. As of today, I still haven't heard back from them, and I'm a bit disappointed. I don't want to look for another job. Matt has started his, though, and likes it reasonably well. It's hard to be the new kid, of course, but it sounds like the job will work out in the long run.

Since I've been unemployed, I've had a good time. We have had many guests already including Megan, my parents, Debbie and Eric for a very short while, Megan's parents also for a short while, and Jess. I also see my sister Meagan quite a lot, which is nice. Most days I'm by myself, though, and I've decided that since I'm not making any income, I might as well make myself extremely fit and extremely learned. To that end, I go to the fitness room in our apartment building almost every day and I read Amish romance novels that I borrowed from Jess. I think I'm well on my way to realizing both of these goals.