Lessons learned so far...

Lessons I've learned from my first week living in Tampa:
1)I married a pack-rat that not only hates to throw things away, but is compelled to collect new toys. There is nothing I can do about this. I must try to focus on anything else while I am spending a third day in a row carrying/arranging/tripping over HIS stuff. (Repeat in my head, "he is a good man, he is a good man, he is a good man, etc...)

2)Life is different without your own washer and dryer. I never had to worry before about someone stealing my underwear, or SOMEONE ELSES underwear ending up in my laundry. (We left the mystery boxers on the floor). I look at clothes differently now. Instead of just throwing it in the hamper, I think about how soon I'm going to have to trek it to the other side of the apartment complex to spend 1 1/2 hours waiting for a load of laundry to be completely finished. As a result, I have been rewearing my clothes. A lot. Also, I don't like paying $3 a load to wash my own clothes. If I am paying for laundry, I want someone to come pick it up and do it for me. So there.

3)DO NOT take the interstate in the Tampa area unless you absolutely have to!! We got stuck on it today at 4:30 and it was stop and go for miles. Every exit the traffic stops because there are so many cars, they have to stop to let merging traffic on. It is a nightmare.

4)GPS is the devil. It is programmed to be confused and recalculate at the exact moment you need to know where to turn and when it isn't doing that, it is telling you to turn left and then immediately right when REALLY, you just need to keep going straight. Also, if you decide to go a different way because of aforementioned traffic it flips out and tells you to take a left turn three times in a row. Then it pouts and keeps telling you to turn around at the next street when it is obvious that you want to go a different way.

5)You need AAA or the correct tools for changing a tire. Always. In the past week, we got a flat tire on my car and then didn't have the right sized tool for taking the lugnuts (?) off the tire. Luckily, my brother has AAA and called them for us so we got didn't have to pay for towing. Later that week we were driving my mom's minivan back from Tampa and we got a flat tire going over a bridge on the interstate. Luckily we had the right tools for changing it. Unfortunately we might have broken the cage that holds the spare tire underneath the car. (Oops) We had to tie it up with a red rope so that it didn't drag on the ground while we were driving. Can you say Ghetto?

6)You can fufill a check cashing or money order urge immediately at any time of the day. I have never seen so many of these money order places in my life! They are literally on every corner, even in the nicer neighborhoods. When I called to set-up our electricity, the customer service rep told me I could pay my deposit online for a $5 fee, or go to one of these places with cash and it will only cost me $1 to pay my bill. She then went on to tell me that these places are addictive because you can pay your bills and get free money orders! What? What do I need money orders for, and are there that many Tampa businesses that use them instead of letting you pay your bill online? Maybe after a year I will be changing my tune and telling YOU how wonderful check cashing places are and that you should be using them more often :)

7) There are a serious amount of people in this town. I don't know if I've blogged about this before, but I don't do well in crowds. I get all uncomfortable and irritable and snappish because of everyone being in my personal bubble. We actually did an exercise in class once about individual differences in the amount of space people need between them and another person in order to feel comfortable. Everyone in the class was surprised and had a little laugh at how much space I needed to be comfortable, even with friends (probably around 3 feet or more). Soo, it is not cool when the local grocery store has people bumping into me and standing real close to look at that piece of meat. With traffic and everything, sometimes I crave to be alone in my bedroom so that I can breathe my own air.

So there you have it. We are learned the ropes of living in a big city and even though it can be frustrating at times, it still is fun having new experiences and thinking about things I never thought of before. As for job updates, Ant got a job with a nursing agency here in town so they will be sending him around to different places as needed. He gets to pick his schedule and he will be making more money than with just a regular job in a hospital, so that is a good thing. I am starting my new job with student disability services as USF on Monday and I am really excited about it. The director emailed me to apologize that they are moving things out of the office I will be using so it might be messy. I was thinking "I have an office??!!". I am sincerely hoping that this placement ends up as where I want to be. All of the others haven't felt like the right place career-wise, and if this feels right then I will probably be set for a job after graduation, which can I say is in 4 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!! :)