Moving to the Midwest…

I won’t actually being moving back to the Midwest so much as moving to Indiana Street. I’ve found myself a cute little two bedroom apartment in a wonderful neighborhood. The place also comes with a roommate and her cat Mona. I am delighted and anxious to get moving. I shall begin moving in my things in the middle of February. The move has made my finances a little more interesting having to pay February’s rent at my current apartment, a security deposit and half of February’s rent at my new place. Not to mention all the other monthly bills and expenses normally incurred. So battle of the not bulging wallet continues but at least Im in good spirits about it.

In the mean time my apartment has half packed boxes are all about the place. I got so excited at the prospect of moving I wasted no time in beginning the packing process. The nice thing about this round of packing up my belongings is that I can causally throw things into boxes without the worry of the box traveling 2,500 miles to my new apartment. Im hoping and half determined, to move as much as my belongings on my own as possible. Once I get rid of the couch it only leaves my two living room chairs, bed and mattress that I will defiantly need assistance with.

With the move to a nicer apartment in a new neighborhood, settling into the job and finally having a group of friends San Diego seems to finally be a nice place to live.

My week…

Last Sunday I was driving home from my second job at the mall when all of a sudden I lost power steering and the ability to accelerate. As I struggled to get the quickly decelerating car over to the shoulder I tried to figure out what the heck had happened. My car seemed to be running, in the sense that the engine was on, which I verified by trying to crank the key and got the cranky engine sound that you get when you crank an already running engine. But I had no indicator of RPM or speed, not good. I did manage to pull the car over to the side of the road, freak out and calm down enough to turn the car off and call the BF for help. After one phone message and two minutes of calming down I was able to start the car up, no problems and drive home. I was shortly after rescued by my personal mechanic who quickly responded to my teary message crying out for help.

The next day the car was looked by a professional mechanic and determined that nothing was wrong with it. I have not had a problem since.

Tuesday night I started noticing my throat was beginning to hurt. Never a good sign. By Wednesday morning I was determinately not feeling well. Thursday I went home sick. Slept most of Thursday afternoon and evening away. Slept in Friday got ready to go into work by about 9:30 am, only to realize I still didn’t feel up for it and crawled back into bed to sleep most of Friday away.

By Saturday I was feeling better but had past on my cold and general icky feeling to my BF. Today we are sitting together ready and typing with a box of quickly emptying tissue box between us.

A strange land indeed…

Southern California is the only place I have been thus far where you can find individuals where capris and winter coats, or flip flops and gloves at the same time. In England it is not uncommon to find women wearing stringy tops and ridiculously undersized dresses in the dead of winter under their parkas but usually only on a weekend night. Here in SoCal it can actually get quite chilly in winter. And please note that I said “chilly” not cold, not freezing because, yes, I know that the rest of the country, more or less, is in the negatives on a warm day. However this does not take away from the fact that I think I am more cold here, more often than I ever was back up north in the Windy City. My apartment for example is 60º. Warm for outside in early January if you are in IL, very cold for someone who is already cold regularly while inside her apartment. My butter that sits on my counter in its new cute butter dish does not melt. It is as if my butter were sitting in the refrigerator chilled to a solid not sitting out on my counter hoping to become melty.

And I kid you not when I say I am much colder here than I was back in Chicago. Here buildings are not insulated. Heat does not stay in. I freeze. I layer but there are only so many layers of blankets one can wrap around themselves before movement just becomes too restricted to be of any use. I now go to bed with a hoody on and I just don’t mean a hooded sweatshirt. I mean I wear a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up to bed!

So now I go to make some tea and add another blanket layer.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. Busy, lazy and forgetful are my excuses for that. So the basics of my life at the moment:

I have two jobs, one at a non-profit working in the immigration department the other working at a retail store in a local ‘fashionable’ mall. One I love, the other I like, both barely pay the bills. When it comes to bills I have more than enough to keep me busy. I have also just learned that two of my three student loans are not yet dealt with when it comes to forbearance requests and economic hardship holds. This brings more stress than needed at the moment and will be a priority for me to deal with on my lunch break tomorrow.

Two weeks ago I was able to fly home to the windy city for four days to visit family and friends for Christmas. I had a great time and was so blessed with generosity and love over the Christmas season. My parents continuously show generosity, are such a blessing and a constant staple of support that I could not wish for more. Without their help I could not have gotten this far, nor would I have been able to continue to stay out here in California. Thank you Mom and Dad.

Now that I am back out here I have been settling into my non-profit job. Learning new things everyday and stepping more into my role bit by bit. It’s a crazy place at times but I like the business. Its hard for me not to function in a strictly administrative role, as I am so used to that from my previous position in a law firm as a legal secretary. I have to learn to step back, ask for help and delegate better.

Im also on the lookout for a new apartment. I was able to scope out a place closer to my bf’s place but do not know the rent yet and am therefore trying not to get my hopes up too much (quite a task for me). Im not thrilled with the neighborhood im living in, the apartment itself or the rent amount. With such a limited income for the next year I need to do everything I can to reduce expenses and rent is my biggest one.

So for the moment that is me. Doing well but nervous about finances, so basically more or less like the rest of Americans at the moment.